The Tools

Microsoft Paint has an assortment of painting Tools that you can use for drawing shapes and applying color to areas of your image in various ways. You switch between tools by clicking on the appropriate Icon on the Toolbar, which is located on the left side of the Paint window. The Toolbar looks like this:

The top row of Icons are the Selection Tools.

The next row has the Eraser tool and the Fill tool Icons.

The third row has the Eye Dropper tool and the Magnifying Glass tool Icons.

The fourth row has the Pencil tool and the Paint Brush tool Icons.

The fifth row has the Airbrush tool and the Text tool Icons.

The sixth row has the Line tool and the Curve tool Icons.

The seventh row has the Rectangle Drawing tool and the Polygon Drawing tool Icons.

The Eighth row has the Oval Drawing Tool and the Rounded Rectangle Drawing Tool. Icons.

The bottom portion of the Toolbar changes when you select a tool to reveal additional options or settings for that tool.

Most of the Tools are used to apply color in some way to a portion of the image. In order to use these tools, you'll first want to make sure that you have selected the correct color in the Color Palette.

If this is your first time visiting this page, I suggest that you start out with learning about the Pencil Tool, and then following the links in order from there.

In addition to the various Tools that Paint places at your disposal, you’ll also have a number of useful commands that can be accessed through the Menus.