Employee: Sir, another popular graphic editing application is gonna integrate layers, for free.
Excecutive: So what? Those half-assed mobile apps will never catch up with us, and if they do, we'll sue them.
Employee: I-it's actually a desktop program, sir.
Executive: Oh, another community-driven project, that is gonna replicate our features for free! Nobody is gonna pay attention to that garbage, because people now are too stupid & lazy now to even type a web address.
I guess they announced that in 2017 but there was so much backlash they backed out. That was around the time they introduced 3D Paint. Now I'm wondering if they're going to silently remove the og Paint and call 3D Paint just Paint with all the new features.
Well, Photopea is pretty close to being a 1:1 clone of Photoshop, it's a top of the line non-destructive photo editing web app, way better and easier to use than GIMP. The only good thing about GIMP is that it's open source.
Microsoft is on a slow-burn path to making Paint a useful tool for actual creators by finally implementing one of Photoshop’s core features: layers.
As part of an update rolling out for testing by Windows Insiders (version 11.2308.18.0, available to some people in the Canary or Dev channels), Microsoft Paint is introducing support for both layers and transparency.
These features have long been table stakes for general editing in Adobe Photoshop, but they are key to doing proper image manipulation and digital art.
I know a lot of this may seem super basic if you’ve been using powerful tools like Photoshop for as long as many of us have, but this looks like a win for Windows users who just want easy image manipulation without the pricey subscriptions attached to software that’s really designed for working pros.
As Adobe’s prices rise and other services like Canva put these tools behind a paywall, I welcome the day when I can tell family members it’s okay to use Paint for basic family photo collages instead of having them open up Pandora’s box by starting a free trial to Photoshop.
If you’re looking to try the new Paint tools yourself, you can sign up for the Windows Insider Canary or Dev Channels and wait for the update to come your way; however, it may not be immediately available to everyone.
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