15 ms·

JS Paint – A web-based MS Paint remake

906 points by hjek 9y ago

tarr11 9y ago
Github Repo: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint https://github.com/1j01/jspaint
reustle 9y ago
You have no idea how much this means to me <3
em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
1. Instantaneous startup. 2. Simple, familiar GUI. 3. Automatically saves file locally, files can by loaded by url. I wish more webapps were like this.
barbs 9y ago
I haven't used Windows as a primary OS for years. I miss having MSPaint around for small edits, and have yet to find a suitable replacement. Other apps either have too few features (e.g. Preview) or too many (GIMP), or the interface doesn't feel right. It might just be because I'm used to it after using it for years when I was younger, but MSPaint's interface just makes sense, and it hits the sweet spot of features for quick, simple edits. This feels very similar to the original, and after a quick playthrough seems feature-complete. Well done! I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based but I guess in this day and age it just makes it more accessible. I see there's a Chrome app, but the link is broken (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonbpcoagiabgnddjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonb...)
- alanbernstein 9y ago
  I'm in the same boat. I often use http://kolourpaint.org/ http://kolourpaint.org/ in linux, and https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/ https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/ in OSX.
- ekianjo 9y ago
  Have you tried mtpaint? http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/ http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/
  - chungy 9y ago
    mtPaint has pretty poor usability compared to MS Paint. ReactOS has its own Paint, I wonder... it may be simple to compile it through winelib, or just run it directly via Wine. That'd be a pretty quick and legal way to get a functionally-identical clone.
    - Klonoar 9y ago
      Mmmm this works fine in MacOS (I did it years ago with the MS Paint binary). Screenshot: https://rymc.io/mspaintosx.png https://rymc.io/mspaintosx.png
    - hjek 9y ago
      I think the non-web app that comes closest to MS Paint in functionality is GrafX2. Only other paint program I've seen that has selection-as-a-brush. http://pulkomandy.tk/projects/GrafX2 http://pulkomandy.tk/projects/GrafX2 The interface is a bit different than MS Paint but it has these absolutely wild features, like colour cycling, where the colours can change while you're painting, which can be fairly psychedelic. GrafX2 is more of a clone of DeluxePaint for Amiga. I'm no fan of mtPaint either.
    - duozerk 9y ago
      The MS version at least can be wined without issue. However, there are tons of lightweight image editors that run as fast as MS paint and offer more features; have you tried Pinta ? or gnome-paint ?
    - edflsafoiewq 9y ago
      I disagree about usability. Probably most people just used MS Paint first. MS Paint has different tools and different brush-tip (widths) for pencil/brush/spray-can/eraser that all do essentially the same thing (okay, the eraser's right click mode is different, but hardly anyone knows about it), and then the line/curve/box tools all have _their_ own width. This is all unified into one global brush/pattern option in mtPaint that everything uses. The zoom levels are better too. I think the only thing that's not obvious in mtPaint is the eyedropper. The one thing I like in MS Paint is the controls to resize the canvas near its edges. Most other programs make you go through a dialog or select and then trim to selection.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  > I see there's a Chrome app, but the link is broken (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonbpcoagiabgnddjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonb...) I think Chrome apps were deprecated a few weeks/months ago.
  - notatoad 9y ago
    Chrome apps are still a thing, chrome packaged apps were deprecated (unless you're on Chrome OS), so the type of chrome app that remains is essentially just a bookmark distributed through an app store. You're not missing out on anything by that link being broken.
- eropple 9y ago
  I mostly use Pixelmator for that sort of thing on OS X. It's like $20, but I also bought it about five years ago, so it's a sunk cost!
  - Yaggo 9y ago
    Pixelmator is crazy cheap for its features and polishness. Edit: seems to be $60 now for "Pro" version, whatever that means, but still cheap. My only wish is svg export¹. [1] http://www.pixelmator.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7663&sid=88081726825de95bb341dafe5d68e7af&start=100 http://www.pixelmator.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7663...
    - Joeri 9y ago
      The regular pixelmator is also available for half the price.
- iandanforth 9y ago
  I regularly use http://www.pixlr.com/editor/ http://www.pixlr.com/editor/
  - madmax108 9y ago
    I used pixlr a lot for a lot of minor editing, but with a new system on which I avoid flash like the plague, it turned out to be (arguably) the only webapp without a flash-free alternative. Now I simply use Adobe Photoshop even for minor edits (Yes, it's bloated, but can't bring myself to install Flash just for one webapp)
- badsectoracula 9y ago
  > and have yet to find a suitable replacement There are a few, Kolourpaint is pretty much an MSPaint clone for KDE [1] and Paintbrush is the macOS equivalent [2]. There is also Gnome Paint [3], but hasn't seen any update in years. I suppose the closest would be Pinta [4], although that is slightly above MS Paint on the complexity level (probably more comparable to Paint.NET than MS Paint). > I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based Personally i find it amusing and impressive that this implements a Win95-like GUI (i love Win95's GUI :-P) but at the same time the actual editing feels very slow - painting something takes almost a second to update with the brush being very jumpy, reminding me using ZSoft's PhotoFinish on Windows 3.1 on my 4MB 386:-P. It is also nice that it has implemented the select+shift+drag brush feature that is ignored by almost every other clone i've seen over the years. [1] https://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/ https://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/ [2] https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/screenshots/ https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/screenshots/ [3] https://launchpad.net/gnome-paint https://launchpad.net/gnome-paint [4] https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/ https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/
  - dingo_bat 9y ago
    > actual editing feels very slow - painting something takes almost a second to update with the brush being very jumpy, reminding me using ZSoft's PhotoFinish on Windows 3.1 on my 4MB 386:-P. Works as fast as native paint on my laptop. What browser are you using?
    - pluma 9y ago
      Same here: no noticeable lag in Firefox on Ubuntu. I'm guessing Safari on macOS?
      - rangibaby 9y ago
        no problem with Safari+Macos here
    - badsectoracula 9y ago
      Firefox on Linux
- colordrops 9y ago
  It doesn't take very long at all to get familiar with basic Gimp features. The investment in time is minimal and worth it. You could probably figure how to do everything you can do in MSPaint in Gimp in 20-30 minutes.
  - avhon1 9y ago
    Yes, but it can take as much as a minute to open GIMP, which is a lot to ask when you can be working on the same task in MSPaint in a second or two.
    - lucb1e 9y ago
      Protip: get an SSD. It improves your life in many ways. Three examples I notice between my girlfriend's HDD-based laptop and my SSD-based one: - A game, Factorio, takes literally 5 minutes for her to get to the main menu. For me it takes about 30 seconds. - Using `time gimp` and hitting alt+F4 immediately, I get about 2.14 seconds. For my girlfriend this indeed takes a little bit, though not a minute. - Booting up (from cold) is maybe 20 seconds for me. For her, this takes more than a minute on Ubuntu and more like 2-3 minutes on Windows (it boots in the same time as Ubuntu, but then programs need to load which make it slow for another 1-2 minutes). Not everything benefits from it, like web browsing or email is not I/O-bound, but lots of things go a lot faster for the investment. Especially for laptops, it's also quieter, supposedly uses a little less power, and won't die as fast from dropping it. I'd highly recommend it. I'm not putting off your computer as being the blame for GIMP being slow - indeed, it's kinda silly that it takes so long to start, especially the first time - but I just figured you had an HDD and think the vast majority of people will benefit from an SSD. Even my grandma got one a few weeks ago and is super happy with it.
      - jmiserez 9y ago
        I have SSDs, and GIMP for Windows starts up slower than Eclipse (!). In my experience the Linux version starts up faster than the Windows one.
        9y ago
- qalmakka 9y ago
  I've been an almost Linux/BSD user for more than a decade now, and I've always used 32-bit MSPaint from XP without any issue through Wine. Salvage the .exe from a Windows XP install and the necessary MFC .dll, and you're ready to roll.
  - zekrioca 9y ago
    I think with Wine you can only save in BMP and PNG? Last time I used Wine to emulate MSPaint, these were the only two formats for saving the files.
- itaysk 9y ago
  IMO the best painting/lightweight editing tool is paint.net. Since I moved to mac I moved to Gimp and it’s ‘fine’.. but paint.net is really the only tool I’m missing fron windows
  - Joeri 9y ago
    Spend a little bit of money on pixelmator, you’ll be glad you did. If you can afford a mac you’ll find that buying pixelmator to replace gimp is worth it.
  - adrianoconnor 9y ago
    There are a few really good low-ish cost options on Mac. You should take a look at Pixelmator, Acorn and Affinity Photo. I think all have free trials. Out of those, Affinity is the one I use most, but that's because I also really like Affinity Designer (an Illustrator type application).
- NicoJuicy 9y ago
  Does paint dotnet work on Linux through Wine?
  - ygra 9y ago
    I'd be surprised. Very old versions did work on Mono, but by now it has accumulated quite a bit of code that uses not only Windows Forms, but also WPF, Direct2D and possibly a number of other newer Windows frameworks which I'm not sure Wine provides.
- trqx 9y ago
  Although it's probably illegal, I've been waiting for a port for years. I'm sad the one that finally did it chose js.
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    Shouldn't be hard to turn it into an "application" using Electron or something runs
  - scandox 9y ago
    Maybe there's some sort of connection? Like maybe the port happened because there was some sort of universal platform where a dedicated developer would be sure to get a large readymade, appreciative audience as opposed to a small group of highly vocal micro-critics. And maybe that was more important to them than whether the language adhered to some paradigm that's really important if you look at things always from a single point of view? I dunno where these thoughts come from...
  - always_good 9y ago
    > I'm sad the one that finally did it chose js. Look how easy it is to shed tears for free stuff you don't personally have the energy to do yourself: You didn't have to lift a finger but to write an internet comment. Just wondering what you think it adds to the discourse.
- rplnt 9y ago
  On Windows I've been using Paint.NET for years now. It's absolutely brilliant. Lightweight editing with quite a bit of extra features like properly working undo. Free, lots of updates, good UX. I use it at least few times a week. Recently I've been on OS X a lot, and I wasn't able to find a suitable replacement. Like, nothing even remotely close. Quite a shame. Same story for Linux.
  - hadrien01 9y ago
    On OS X I really liked using Acorn a few years back.
  - Ruphin 9y ago
    There is a Paint.NET remake on Linux called Pinta. Not quite as stable (it struggles with large images), but it has the exact same interface.
    - rplnt 9y ago
      I've tried that, it was maybe 3~5 years ago, and it was quite bad in comparison. Not sure if there was a significant progress since.
    - mwexler 9y ago
      Sadly, I find it struggles with small and medium images as well. But with some tlc, it could become the paint.net we are all hoping for...
  - wernsey 9y ago
    I've also switched to Paint.NET. One thing that convinced me to switch was when MS Paint switched to the ribbon interface.
  - azeirah 9y ago
    I used to use GIMP, but could never figure out how to use it. Downloaded Paint.NET, it worked _exactly_ as expected. I was able to get running and perform the edits I needed to perform in seconds. I've never had such a positive introduction to a piece of Software, it works _so well_!
- lucb1e 9y ago
  I was in the same spot. A while ago I took an evening to try and learn doing basic edits in Gimp, and since then I have no trouble with it anymore. Not as bad as Vim, but there's indeed a learning curve to it. Now that I've learned it, though, I would never want Paint again.
- matude 9y ago
  > (e.g. Preview View > Show Markup Toolbar
  - tomsmeding 9y ago
    Then it still is _very_ limited in what it can do, in my opinion. It's nice for very simple things, but it hasn't become a Paint replacement all of a sudden.
- Pamar 9y ago
  Can anyone suggest a small, OSX graphical editor? I really just need one specific thing: "making a negative image". I have it on IrfanView, but I could not find a simple equivalent on MacOSX.
  - placebo 9y ago
    I have IrfanView on Mac (via Wine project) and it works flawlessly. However, if you don't want to install Wine on your OSX, there are other alternatives, some mentioned here already. Personally, I like xnview - its free and probably includes everything you'd want (and supports making a negative image)
    - Pamar 9y ago
      I solved my needs with https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ and http://projects.apricus.be/en/xnconvert/ http://projects.apricus.be/en/xnconvert/ (looks like "negative" is not available in xnview, or I was unable to find it at least). Thanks!
      - placebo 9y ago
        When you double click one of the images displayed in xnviewmp the image opens in a window and then under the 'Image' menu item, there is a submenu named 'Map'. Selecting the Map submenu opens a list of functions that can be performed on the image, and one of them is 'Negative'.
        Pamar 9y ago
        I only spent like five minutes with it and then I tried donwloading xconvert. (I am part of the "read the docs only too late if ever" crew). Thanks a lot!
  - neilh23 9y ago
    If all you need to do is create a negative version of pre-existing image, you can use ImageMagick on the command line: $ converge in.png -negate out.png
- worble 9y ago
  I've been using an old version of Macromedia Fireworks for years now, and while maybe not totally 'lightweight' (you gotta wait for it to boot up), I've always found it intuitive to use for quick edits, while also having lots of other features if I feel like doing something more elabourate.
- sfwwolvw 9y ago
  shutter comes to my mind, I'm using it to annotate images and screenshots, it comes with a paint like edit modus (http://shutter-project.org/wp-content/uploads/key_feature_062.png http://shutter-project.org/wp-content/uploads/key_feature_06...)
- RogueIMP 9y ago
  Pinta is a good alt for Linux.
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    Too bad it is built on mono. I'd have to install ~200MB of dependencies for a 2.5MB application.
    - oblio 9y ago
      I don't get this complaint. Do you have a 400MB HDD or something? 220MB of HDD or SSD probably cost less than a roll of toilet paper.
      - craftyguy 9y ago
        You're assuming that I have an infinite amount of disk space to dedicate to arbitrarily large frameworks that are 'required' by simple applications. If every app you used required 200MB of baggage to run, you'd quickly run out of disk space. I'd rather use my disks to store more valuable things, and, on another note, most definitely do not want to encourage the proliferation of .NET/mono.
      - DanBC 9y ago
        Plenty of people have sub 200GB hard drives. Visit your favourite website and have a look. Here's a bunch of new products under 249 GB: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740%20601296060%20601296065%204814 https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&I... note that some of these only have 64 GB. For these people every bit of storage is useful.
- yots 9y ago
  Were you (or anyone) able to change the brush size? (I'm pretty sure it used to be + on Windows, but it's been a while)
  - 1j01 9y ago
    It's Ctrl+NumpadPlus/Minus on mspaint, or just NumpadPlus/Minus on jspaint; no way to do it beyond the preset sizes without a numpad, so far, I'm afraid
- estima 9y ago
  Best feature of this app I feel is live sharing like: http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc sessions are shared in real time
  - magic_beans 9y ago
    How do you do it?
  - gkfasdfasdf 9y ago
    Careful: http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc not really work safe when I clicked on it
  - usernam 9y ago
    Interestingly, it seems to lose 1/3 of the inputs I'm trying to send...
    - 1j01 9y ago
      Yeah, it's super half baked. I can tell you that as the developer. I plan to focus on collaboration in the successor to this project, Mopaint: https://github.com/1j01/mopaint https://github.com/1j01/mopaint (Rather than adding it after the fact.)
  - lanius 9y ago
    Spiritual successor to /r/place?
- bedros 9y ago
  after years of searching for a low cost editor I can use on either mac or Linux I found these two. Pixelmator has tons of tutorials pixelmator for OS X ($60) pixeluvo for Linux ($35 only) but worth 10X that. my first go to is pixeluvo since I use linux as my daily machine.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Sammi 9y ago
  Yeah try Lazpaint: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazpaint/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazpaint/
redleggedfrog 9y ago
Breaks the back button in Firefox.
gao8a 9y ago
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing this
- jackaroe78 9y ago
  +1
vortico 9y ago
I love how the filesystem stuff is handled! Very smooth, with Open/Save acting like a native application.
- computerex 9y ago
  It's not acting like a native application, the open file dialog is the native open file dialog that'll display differently depending on the OS/platform you're on.
  - vortico 9y ago
    Right, but many websites have a "Browse for file..." or Import/Export popup which then launches the native file dialog, or the Save function opens the image in a new tab or something. They're making it as close as technically possible to MSPaint's behavior.
notaboutdave 9y ago
Be careful if you're browsing fullscreen. Here I am casually clicking HN posts when suddenly my brain thinks it's the 90s.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I wasted 15 minutes drawing random shapes too.
aj7 9y ago
Where is crop? To me, the most valuable tool in MS Paint. What? Did you think I used it for “drawing with a bar of soap?”
- darkstar999 9y ago
  You can select a section, copy it, create a new image, and paste it.
- Liquid_Fire 9y ago
  I don't think Paint (at least the version this is replicating) had a crop feature. I always used to do: - Ctrl-A (Select All) - Ctrl-X (Cut) - Ctrl-E, 1, Tab, 1, Enter (Resize image to 1x1 pixel) - Ctrl-V (Paste)
- 1j01 9y ago
  jspaint has a special shortcut, you can hold Ctrl while making a selection
wybiral 9y ago
Neat, there's a multi-user mode: http://jspaint.ml/#session:test http://jspaint.ml/#session:test
- exikyut 9y ago
  It's currently being destroyed. It's AWESOME
  - mitchellst 9y ago
    Come for the 90's nostalgia. Stay for the websocket fight in a phonebooth.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      That was chaos...
      - alain_gilbert 9y ago
        I immortalized HN creativity :) https://imgur.com/a/YJFdW https://imgur.com/a/YJFdW
        chrisper 9y ago
        That is quite NSFW...
        dang 9y ago
        Please don't.
- AldousHaxley 9y ago
  Cool! I built something similar a while back. A bit more structured (creating accounts and such), but with a bigger variety of drawing tools, and some social features like following, project collaboration, upvotes/downvotes, and chat. https://www.formgraph.com https://www.formgraph.com
- 9y ago
aj7 9y ago
The most valuable thing to me about MS Paint is the ability to print screen, CROP the largely extraneous material, and post, embed, or transmit the result. Where is crop? I am not interested in the drawing with a bar of soap aspect. At all.
- LocutusOfBorges 9y ago
  For what it's worth, Irfanview's generally a better solution for quick cropping: http://www.irfanview.com http://www.irfanview.com
- yzmtf2008 9y ago
  Try monosnap: http://monosnap.com http://monosnap.com
- taspeotis 9y ago
  This does a lot: https://getsharex.com/ https://getsharex.com/ The workflow is based around print screen, crop, and then add any optional processing you want.
- maccard 9y ago
  Something like lightscreen or snipping tool might be what you’re looking for.
- chrismorgan 9y ago
  Paint didn’t have the ability to crop to a selection until the Windows 7 redesign of the app with its ribbon UI (not sure about the Vista version of Paint, which is halfway between the XP and the 7 versions); JS Paint has copied the XP and earlier design, not the newer. You can still crop, but only from the bottom or right, because you’re using the canvas resize handles instead. Concerning your specific task: I’d say the Snipping Tool (built-in from at least Windows 7 onwards) is generally superior for that sort of thing anyway. Its biggest problem is slow start-up.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    You could do cropping in Paint since at least the Win95 version. The method was the same I use with Paint to this very day: a combination of canvas resize handles and moving the image contents. Basically, after pasting the picture, I would use the selection that is automatically activated (if you lose it, CTRL+A to select all) to crop out top and left parts of the image, by positioning the top-left corner of what I care about at the top-left corner of the canvas. I would then use the bottom-right "resize canvas" handle to crop out the rest. "That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far."
xeeeeeeeeeeenu 9y ago
I'm amazed. This webapp even supports opening files via dragging them from the desktop or Windows Explorer. This fact alone makes it more "native" than most (all?) UWP applications.
qwerty456127 9y ago
Funny but I would really appreciate a good Paint.Net remake (usable on Mac, Linux and OpenBSD) more.
- hjek 9y ago
  Pinta comes close to that, and is free software, unlike Paint.NET. https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/ https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/
  - GordonS 9y ago
    I thought Paint.NET was free, just not OSS? I installed it on a machine a few weeks ago, no payment changed hands..
    - qwerty456127 9y ago
      It's free but still Windows-only. I use it on Windows machines but miss it heavily on Mac and Linux. Perhaps somebody would actually port it to Mono if it was truly free.
      - ygra 9y ago
        It has too many dependencies beyond .NET and Windows Forms by now. Text rendering is DirectWrite, for example, other parts use Direct2D, the UI partially uses WPF as well if I remember correctly.
        qwerty456127 9y ago
        I see... I used to think it's just WPF to be replaced with the old UI that was there until some version.
    - mcintyre1994 9y ago
      They probably meant "free software", per the FSF definition: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
hjek 9y ago
Today the author added support for transparency, and thereby also shift+left-click brushes from current selection. My most favourite MS Paint feature. https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/23#issuecomment-358516049 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/23#issuecomment-35851...
- zekrioca 9y ago
  Thanks for update. I was wondering about that too.
sillysaurus3 9y ago
Aww. I selected an area then tried to use the arrow keys to translate one pixel at a time. Didn't work :( Then I tried to cut and paste. No go. Still, very promising!
dluan 9y ago
What is really neat is that I guess this is what's implemented in the Windows 98 remake too :) http://98desktop.ml/ http://98desktop.ml/ I wish computers looked like this again.
- hjek 9y ago
  It's actually the same implementation used there. (See Help -> About Paint)
blt 9y ago
The UI and behavior is amazingly close to the real thing. But I cannot help but sigh when the brush tool lags more than Paint lagged on a 233 MHz Celeron. I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them. edit: hopefully it is an inefficient implementation and not the inherent slowness of web apps.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  One thing I noticed is that it doesn't draw zoomed-in images correctly - pixels are blurry. Didn't check if this is Canvas or WebGL, but something in the code begs being changed from LINEAR to NEAREST. (EDIT: turns out to be a Firefox issue; Chrome shows the sweet pretty pixels correctly.) > I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them. Same here (I'm 29). I'm getting tired of complaining, this literally feels like trying to turn back the tide of a river. We're doomed to use slow and shitty software until the present web fads go away and the ecosystem stabilizes.
  - danbolt 9y ago
    The canvas tag has `image-rendering: pixelated;` set, but Firefox currently doesn't support the setting right now. [0] Are you able to try it in Chromium? I set the property on the canvas to `-moz-crisp-edges` in Nightly and that fixed it. [0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rendering https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rende...
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Oh. Didn't even occur to me that it could be a browser issue (after all, I would think that not antialiasing things in an API meant for per-pixel operations would be the default). Alas, you're right and guessed correctly - I tested it on Firefox. I just tried it on Chrome, and there the pixels show correctly.
      - 9y ago
saleztalk 9y ago
What a superb effort to port MS-Paint on web. The UI - UX is simply amazing and almost similar to the real MS-Paint.
arketyp 9y ago
MSPaint had some hidden treasures. The first thing I tried was the right-click-while-drawing-cancel feature. Alas. Love seeing the old graphics however.
- tomsmeding 9y ago
  That's an actual issue in the repository. It's supposed to have worked before, but apparently broke in a recent Chrome update, sparking a re-implementation that broke in all browsers.
adamwi 9y ago
Really brings you back to the good old days =) Even got the help topics exactly as in the original
piyush_soni 9y ago
Does it work for everyone in Firefox? For me it doesn't draw anything, nor does it open any of the menus (just clicks work). In Chrome everything works perfectly for me.
- chungy 9y ago
  Works fine for me, Firefox 57.0.4 on Linux.
  - piyush_soni 9y ago
    Thanks for confirming. I need to investigate what's wrong with my FF then.
slampig 9y ago
It's missing the zoom bug, which lets you zoom all the way to 10x by clicking just under the 8x button. Personally I was very fond of that.
- ygra 9y ago
  There's an issue for that: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/35 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/35
SubiculumCode 9y ago
I never got people's love of MS Paint. There is so little it could do, and it didn't always want.to play nice with modern image formats.
- kabes 9y ago
  Nostalgia. Many of us spend hours making drawings as a kid, since it was basically the only thing to do next to mine sweeper. Just like we all miss clippy, useless as he was.
  - jhbadger 9y ago
    But even then, MS Paint was pretty much a copy of 1984's MacPaint, which pioneered that type of program.
    - gvx 9y ago
      Nostalgia doesn't cite sources. I've never used MacPaint. I've used MS Paint, though, pretty extensively, all through the 2000s.
  - gvx 9y ago
    I was the only kid in high school allowed to use a laptop in class, because my motor system doesn't really "do" writing but it does typing well enough. I'd spend entire lectures drawing gigantic mazes in MS Paint instead of making notes. To be fair, I would have been drawing mazes if I had to use pen and paper anyway.
- 1j01 9y ago
  this version plays well with modern image formats :)
m3andros 9y ago
I love this! Genius! I personally use Figma (http://figma.com http://figma.com) - which is an incredible vector drawing tool!
- 2III7 9y ago
  Been using Figma for a while now for prototyping, drawing etc. It's really easy to learn and use and has great features. e.g. multiplayer mode.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
trungdq88 9y ago
That's interesting, I guess the author have that same feeling with me when I tried to create the same thing with Windows 7 on my personal website https://dinhquangtrung.net https://dinhquangtrung.net, just that my Windows 7 is not ready feature complete because I was too lazy, haha.
fokker 9y ago
Has the help menu and all hahaha
rmrfrmrf 9y ago
I've been waiting for this my entire life.
opvasger 9y ago
YES - thank you!
omegote 9y ago
And built with jQuery. Yeah, I can feel the burn of those edgy react and angular devs...
- peterburkimsher 9y ago
  I like JS Paint, because everyone is already familiar with the GUI and it should "just work" on any platform thanks to being a web app. The problem with JS Paint for me is that it doesn't run in my somewhat old version of Safari; I had to open Chrome/Firefox just to test it. For something to really be universal, it needs to work on every platform, including non-jailbroken old iPhones and Macs with their default browser (yes, I'm making an analogy between Safari and Internet Explorer).
pi-squared 9y ago
Oh My, so many memories, so many hours spent on this program. Such a fan of MSPaint, thank you for doing this, absolute hero! Few nitpicks and more of showing off how much I care and love what you've done: * polygon is antialiasing - it shouldn't * rubber cursor is wrong * circle and rounded rectangle tools are filling their insides when they shouldn't * Text works in zoom mode - it didn't used to (not sure if bug or feature) * Color picker is way too modern :D But man, even stretch/skew are implemented, awesome job!
qntl 9y ago
Patina is a good MS Paint-like, on the Mac App Store for two dollars or so.
ttflee 9y ago
#Offtopic TIL, MacPaint 2.0 was sold for US$125. And that MacPaint 1.3's source code was provided to Computer History Museum due to support of Steve Jobs. Maybe it's time to email Bill Gates? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint#Release_and_version_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint#Release_and_version_h...
Lio 9y ago
I wonder if “Jim’ll Paint It” has seen this? He’s got to be the highest profile MS Paint user in the world by now. https://jimll.co.uk/ https://jimll.co.uk/ Edit: For those who don’t know Jim, from the website:- “Jim'll Paint It is an ongoing collaboration between Jim and the thousands of complete strangers who send him their weird and wonderful ideas. Using Microsoft Paint, Jim has painted hundreds of suggestions ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous - each free of charge.”
gbraad 9y ago
It is not that useful as MS Paint. Several people use it for pixel-precise artwork, just like Deluxe Paint was used on DOS and the Amiga. However, this editor draws single OR double pixels on lines that are freehand.
- Doxin 9y ago
  > this editor draws single OR double pixels on lines that are freehand. So does MS paint.
bn-usd-mistake 9y ago
This is awesome! Please consider adding a license so we can self host it [2] Github has a helpful website [1] on choosing a license, I personally like MIT but it's your choice and there are plenty of options :) [1] https://choosealicense.com/ https://choosealicense.com/ [2] https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/18 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/18
jiujieti 9y ago
Have seen a Dutch artist using MS Paint to create his/her work in Hermitage museum. Quite impressive. It's a shame I cannot remember the artist's name any more.
air7 9y ago
I love labors of love like this. It seems that beyond the goal of being useful, there's a strong nostalgic theme to the project which is apparent in the attention to the detail in recreating the old interface as exact as possible. Check out the Help Topics...
tim-- 9y ago
There is a hidden 'Extras' menu which provides additional functionality, like shared whiteboard screens :) http://jspaint.ml/#session:tim http://jspaint.ml/#session:tim
zingmars 9y ago
On Firefox there's noticeable lag, and non-straight lines look kind of weird (feels like it's trying to make non-straight lines out of bunch of straight lines). On chrome there's no lag, but every time I draw something, all other elements I drew before change colour. At first to bright green, then they just fade to white as I draw more lines or whatever. As it is right now, it's definitely not a good 'replacement'.
ewi_ 9y ago
Great work! it brings back so many memories =) I was trying it in Chrome on iOS and it seems that it considers each color square as a text entry, kinda annoying
- blablabli 9y ago
  I have the exact same feeling, this feels so nostalgic
kroltan 9y ago
The author forgot that one could further increase or decrease the size of the eraser and brush tools by pressing Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-. Other than that, really nice!
z3t4 9y ago
Would be nice if it could output SVG!
- ygra 9y ago
  I'm not sure <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"> <image xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="data:..." width='800' height='600'/> </svg> is a particularly interesting SVG image that has any benefits over the equivalent PNG.
  - z3t4 9y ago
    I mean that the image should be saved in vector format! Not bitmap.
    - ygra 9y ago
      Paint is a bitmap image editor. What would you like the result to be? A <rect> for every pixel placed by the pencil tool?
      - z3t4 9y ago
        The pencil tool could create a svg path.
mschuetz 9y ago
Now make a desktop app out of this using electron!
- ygra 9y ago
  There's an issue for that: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/2 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/2
cessor 9y ago
The site works nicely in my browser (Chrome). I feel like this mockumentary is not getting enough credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L03GycSZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L03GycSZw - "We worked for eight months in a facility in California to figure out what were the best twelve colors to include in Paint" - Can we make this line thinner? - No. - Ok. I have not used Paint for any real work in the past, other than saving screenshots. Ever since MS started shipping the snipping tool, I hardly use this function.
Kip9000 9y ago
Killer App
charbz 9y ago
This is amazing , really brings me back to those sweet old days. Just curious, is this built with any JS framework ? the code looks like its vanilla JS !! which is fantastic .. and is it open source / Github project ?
Hendrikto 9y ago
Shapes are always filled with an outline, no matter which option I choose. Apart from that it looks really good, and I don‘t have performance problems that some people report.
nvr219 9y ago
INSANE
popnroll 9y ago
https://imgur.com/I66J4Ys https://imgur.com/I66J4Ys
g105b 9y ago
Please turn off anti aliasing and it will be perfect!
sethammons 9y ago
Seriously cool. Love the old school UI. It immediately put a smile on my face. It works great on mobile. I did find a bug though. If I switch to red, I can't switch back to black. Android, chrome.
asnee 9y ago
Here's another session for my mates http://jspaint.ml/#session:asnee http://jspaint.ml/#session:asnee
rsnickell 9y ago
Atwood's Law in full effect here! https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-principle-of-least-power/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-principle-of-least-power/
mxuribe 9y ago
I still on occasion use MS Paint. I know there have been other tools introduced since MS Paint with more features and such...but much like a trusty *nix command line tool that's always there and always trusty...I hold a special fondness for this classic program. Kudos to the author for this project!
bobajeff 9y ago
Props for them for getting all the features work smoothly on a phone as well.
evolveyourmind 9y ago
Amazing. It looks identical. However, can’t save images on iPhone.
evolveyourmind 9y ago
Amazing. It looks identical. Unfortunately, can’t save images from safari on iPhone.
Raphmedia 9y ago
The attention to detail is amazing. Almost every feature is there and responds as it would on a real windows computer. There's even the help screen.
- cjlm 9y ago
  Shame that it uses the native colour picker...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
O_H_E 9y ago
Really works well with touch screen, kudos
danschumann 9y ago
The oval tool doesn't respect the fill setting. It is always opaque! Otherwise, fun project! Now, make a js version of photoshop! (I've done several js painting programs, some with pretty unique brushes and weird "helpers".. they're pretty much all in my private repo doing nothing lol)
tlog333 9y ago
Love the keyboard shortcut support!
ashwinaj 9y ago
Oh...those lovely childhood memories using MS Paint on Windows 3.1 (although this looks like the Win 98 vesion)..thanks this is awesome!!
glemmaPaul 9y ago
Gives back so many feels of bored painting projects I've done before
needz 9y ago
I don't understand why it needs to hijack the back button.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 1j01 9y ago
  It changes the URL to store the image in a specific session, so if you close the tab by accident you can reopen it from history (or ctrl+shift+t in some browsers) I've opened an issue for it now here: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/49 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/49
candiodari 9y ago
Upon opening the page it allocates 12 times the amount of memory I had in the computer I first used MS Paint on. God only knows how much processing power it's using. Also, I get the distinct impression it's less responsive than that computer used to be.
whatyoucantsay 9y ago
Imagine an Electron app of this! Then JS paint could be run right from the desktop.
KennyCason 9y ago
This is amazing! Superb remake. :) I’m happy and sad. Happy because MS Paint is amazing and now having it in web form is great. Sad because I was just talking about doing this this week for hackathon. I ultimately did something else, and probably wouldn’t have turned out this great.
frylock 9y ago
Can someone explain to me how the live sessions feature was built? I was looking through the projects github, and saw something about firebase, but I'm not too sure how it works.

906 points by hjek 9y ago

tarr11 9y ago

Github Repo: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint https://github.com/1j01/jspaint

reustle 9y ago

You have no idea how much this means to me <3

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago

1. Instantaneous startup. 2. Simple, familiar GUI. 3. Automatically saves file locally, files can by loaded by url. I wish more webapps were like this.

barbs 9y ago

I haven't used Windows as a primary OS for years. I miss having MSPaint around for small edits, and have yet to find a suitable replacement. Other apps either have too few features (e.g. Preview) or too many (GIMP), or the interface doesn't feel right. It might just be because I'm used to it after using it for years when I was younger, but MSPaint's interface just makes sense, and it hits the sweet spot of features for quick, simple edits. This feels very similar to the original, and after a quick playthrough seems feature-complete. Well done! I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based but I guess in this day and age it just makes it more accessible. I see there's a Chrome app, but the link is broken (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonbpcoagiabgnddjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonb...)

alanbernstein 9y ago
I'm in the same boat. I often use http://kolourpaint.org/ http://kolourpaint.org/ in linux, and https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/ https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/ in OSX.
ekianjo 9y ago
Have you tried mtpaint? http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/ http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/
- chungy 9y ago
  mtPaint has pretty poor usability compared to MS Paint. ReactOS has its own Paint, I wonder... it may be simple to compile it through winelib, or just run it directly via Wine. That'd be a pretty quick and legal way to get a functionally-identical clone.
  - Klonoar 9y ago
    Mmmm this works fine in MacOS (I did it years ago with the MS Paint binary). Screenshot: https://rymc.io/mspaintosx.png https://rymc.io/mspaintosx.png
  - hjek 9y ago
    I think the non-web app that comes closest to MS Paint in functionality is GrafX2. Only other paint program I've seen that has selection-as-a-brush. http://pulkomandy.tk/projects/GrafX2 http://pulkomandy.tk/projects/GrafX2 The interface is a bit different than MS Paint but it has these absolutely wild features, like colour cycling, where the colours can change while you're painting, which can be fairly psychedelic. GrafX2 is more of a clone of DeluxePaint for Amiga. I'm no fan of mtPaint either.
  - duozerk 9y ago
    The MS version at least can be wined without issue. However, there are tons of lightweight image editors that run as fast as MS paint and offer more features; have you tried Pinta ? or gnome-paint ?
  - edflsafoiewq 9y ago
    I disagree about usability. Probably most people just used MS Paint first. MS Paint has different tools and different brush-tip (widths) for pencil/brush/spray-can/eraser that all do essentially the same thing (okay, the eraser's right click mode is different, but hardly anyone knows about it), and then the line/curve/box tools all have _their_ own width. This is all unified into one global brush/pattern option in mtPaint that everything uses. The zoom levels are better too. I think the only thing that's not obvious in mtPaint is the eyedropper. The one thing I like in MS Paint is the controls to resize the canvas near its edges. Most other programs make you go through a dialog or select and then trim to selection.
mehrdadn 9y ago
> I see there's a Chrome app, but the link is broken (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonbpcoagiabgnddjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonb...) I think Chrome apps were deprecated a few weeks/months ago.
- notatoad 9y ago
  Chrome apps are still a thing, chrome packaged apps were deprecated (unless you're on Chrome OS), so the type of chrome app that remains is essentially just a bookmark distributed through an app store. You're not missing out on anything by that link being broken.
eropple 9y ago
I mostly use Pixelmator for that sort of thing on OS X. It's like $20, but I also bought it about five years ago, so it's a sunk cost!
- Yaggo 9y ago
  Pixelmator is crazy cheap for its features and polishness. Edit: seems to be $60 now for "Pro" version, whatever that means, but still cheap. My only wish is svg export¹. [1] http://www.pixelmator.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7663&sid=88081726825de95bb341dafe5d68e7af&start=100 http://www.pixelmator.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7663...
  - Joeri 9y ago
    The regular pixelmator is also available for half the price.
iandanforth 9y ago
I regularly use http://www.pixlr.com/editor/ http://www.pixlr.com/editor/
- madmax108 9y ago
  I used pixlr a lot for a lot of minor editing, but with a new system on which I avoid flash like the plague, it turned out to be (arguably) the only webapp without a flash-free alternative. Now I simply use Adobe Photoshop even for minor edits (Yes, it's bloated, but can't bring myself to install Flash just for one webapp)
badsectoracula 9y ago
> and have yet to find a suitable replacement There are a few, Kolourpaint is pretty much an MSPaint clone for KDE [1] and Paintbrush is the macOS equivalent [2]. There is also Gnome Paint [3], but hasn't seen any update in years. I suppose the closest would be Pinta [4], although that is slightly above MS Paint on the complexity level (probably more comparable to Paint.NET than MS Paint). > I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based Personally i find it amusing and impressive that this implements a Win95-like GUI (i love Win95's GUI :-P) but at the same time the actual editing feels very slow - painting something takes almost a second to update with the brush being very jumpy, reminding me using ZSoft's PhotoFinish on Windows 3.1 on my 4MB 386:-P. It is also nice that it has implemented the select+shift+drag brush feature that is ignored by almost every other clone i've seen over the years. [1] https://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/ https://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/ [2] https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/screenshots/ https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/screenshots/ [3] https://launchpad.net/gnome-paint https://launchpad.net/gnome-paint [4] https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/ https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  > actual editing feels very slow - painting something takes almost a second to update with the brush being very jumpy, reminding me using ZSoft's PhotoFinish on Windows 3.1 on my 4MB 386:-P. Works as fast as native paint on my laptop. What browser are you using?
  - pluma 9y ago
    Same here: no noticeable lag in Firefox on Ubuntu. I'm guessing Safari on macOS?
    - rangibaby 9y ago
      no problem with Safari+Macos here
  - badsectoracula 9y ago
    Firefox on Linux
colordrops 9y ago
It doesn't take very long at all to get familiar with basic Gimp features. The investment in time is minimal and worth it. You could probably figure how to do everything you can do in MSPaint in Gimp in 20-30 minutes.
- avhon1 9y ago
  Yes, but it can take as much as a minute to open GIMP, which is a lot to ask when you can be working on the same task in MSPaint in a second or two.
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    Protip: get an SSD. It improves your life in many ways. Three examples I notice between my girlfriend's HDD-based laptop and my SSD-based one: - A game, Factorio, takes literally 5 minutes for her to get to the main menu. For me it takes about 30 seconds. - Using `time gimp` and hitting alt+F4 immediately, I get about 2.14 seconds. For my girlfriend this indeed takes a little bit, though not a minute. - Booting up (from cold) is maybe 20 seconds for me. For her, this takes more than a minute on Ubuntu and more like 2-3 minutes on Windows (it boots in the same time as Ubuntu, but then programs need to load which make it slow for another 1-2 minutes). Not everything benefits from it, like web browsing or email is not I/O-bound, but lots of things go a lot faster for the investment. Especially for laptops, it's also quieter, supposedly uses a little less power, and won't die as fast from dropping it. I'd highly recommend it. I'm not putting off your computer as being the blame for GIMP being slow - indeed, it's kinda silly that it takes so long to start, especially the first time - but I just figured you had an HDD and think the vast majority of people will benefit from an SSD. Even my grandma got one a few weeks ago and is super happy with it.
    - jmiserez 9y ago
      I have SSDs, and GIMP for Windows starts up slower than Eclipse (!). In my experience the Linux version starts up faster than the Windows one.
      - 9y ago
qalmakka 9y ago
I've been an almost Linux/BSD user for more than a decade now, and I've always used 32-bit MSPaint from XP without any issue through Wine. Salvage the .exe from a Windows XP install and the necessary MFC .dll, and you're ready to roll.
- zekrioca 9y ago
  I think with Wine you can only save in BMP and PNG? Last time I used Wine to emulate MSPaint, these were the only two formats for saving the files.
itaysk 9y ago
IMO the best painting/lightweight editing tool is paint.net. Since I moved to mac I moved to Gimp and it’s ‘fine’.. but paint.net is really the only tool I’m missing fron windows
- Joeri 9y ago
  Spend a little bit of money on pixelmator, you’ll be glad you did. If you can afford a mac you’ll find that buying pixelmator to replace gimp is worth it.
- adrianoconnor 9y ago
  There are a few really good low-ish cost options on Mac. You should take a look at Pixelmator, Acorn and Affinity Photo. I think all have free trials. Out of those, Affinity is the one I use most, but that's because I also really like Affinity Designer (an Illustrator type application).
NicoJuicy 9y ago
Does paint dotnet work on Linux through Wine?
- ygra 9y ago
  I'd be surprised. Very old versions did work on Mono, but by now it has accumulated quite a bit of code that uses not only Windows Forms, but also WPF, Direct2D and possibly a number of other newer Windows frameworks which I'm not sure Wine provides.
trqx 9y ago
Although it's probably illegal, I've been waiting for a port for years. I'm sad the one that finally did it chose js.
- lucb1e 9y ago
  Shouldn't be hard to turn it into an "application" using Electron or something runs
- scandox 9y ago
  Maybe there's some sort of connection? Like maybe the port happened because there was some sort of universal platform where a dedicated developer would be sure to get a large readymade, appreciative audience as opposed to a small group of highly vocal micro-critics. And maybe that was more important to them than whether the language adhered to some paradigm that's really important if you look at things always from a single point of view? I dunno where these thoughts come from...
- always_good 9y ago
  > I'm sad the one that finally did it chose js. Look how easy it is to shed tears for free stuff you don't personally have the energy to do yourself: You didn't have to lift a finger but to write an internet comment. Just wondering what you think it adds to the discourse.
rplnt 9y ago
On Windows I've been using Paint.NET for years now. It's absolutely brilliant. Lightweight editing with quite a bit of extra features like properly working undo. Free, lots of updates, good UX. I use it at least few times a week. Recently I've been on OS X a lot, and I wasn't able to find a suitable replacement. Like, nothing even remotely close. Quite a shame. Same story for Linux.
- hadrien01 9y ago
  On OS X I really liked using Acorn a few years back.
- Ruphin 9y ago
  There is a Paint.NET remake on Linux called Pinta. Not quite as stable (it struggles with large images), but it has the exact same interface.
  - rplnt 9y ago
    I've tried that, it was maybe 3~5 years ago, and it was quite bad in comparison. Not sure if there was a significant progress since.
  - mwexler 9y ago
    Sadly, I find it struggles with small and medium images as well. But with some tlc, it could become the paint.net we are all hoping for...
- wernsey 9y ago
  I've also switched to Paint.NET. One thing that convinced me to switch was when MS Paint switched to the ribbon interface.
- azeirah 9y ago
  I used to use GIMP, but could never figure out how to use it. Downloaded Paint.NET, it worked _exactly_ as expected. I was able to get running and perform the edits I needed to perform in seconds. I've never had such a positive introduction to a piece of Software, it works _so well_!
lucb1e 9y ago
I was in the same spot. A while ago I took an evening to try and learn doing basic edits in Gimp, and since then I have no trouble with it anymore. Not as bad as Vim, but there's indeed a learning curve to it. Now that I've learned it, though, I would never want Paint again.
matude 9y ago
> (e.g. Preview View > Show Markup Toolbar
- tomsmeding 9y ago
  Then it still is _very_ limited in what it can do, in my opinion. It's nice for very simple things, but it hasn't become a Paint replacement all of a sudden.
Pamar 9y ago
Can anyone suggest a small, OSX graphical editor? I really just need one specific thing: "making a negative image". I have it on IrfanView, but I could not find a simple equivalent on MacOSX.
- placebo 9y ago
  I have IrfanView on Mac (via Wine project) and it works flawlessly. However, if you don't want to install Wine on your OSX, there are other alternatives, some mentioned here already. Personally, I like xnview - its free and probably includes everything you'd want (and supports making a negative image)
  - Pamar 9y ago
    I solved my needs with https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/ and http://projects.apricus.be/en/xnconvert/ http://projects.apricus.be/en/xnconvert/ (looks like "negative" is not available in xnview, or I was unable to find it at least). Thanks!
    - placebo 9y ago
      When you double click one of the images displayed in xnviewmp the image opens in a window and then under the 'Image' menu item, there is a submenu named 'Map'. Selecting the Map submenu opens a list of functions that can be performed on the image, and one of them is 'Negative'.
      - Pamar 9y ago
        I only spent like five minutes with it and then I tried donwloading xconvert. (I am part of the "read the docs only too late if ever" crew). Thanks a lot!
- neilh23 9y ago
  If all you need to do is create a negative version of pre-existing image, you can use ImageMagick on the command line: $ converge in.png -negate out.png
worble 9y ago
I've been using an old version of Macromedia Fireworks for years now, and while maybe not totally 'lightweight' (you gotta wait for it to boot up), I've always found it intuitive to use for quick edits, while also having lots of other features if I feel like doing something more elabourate.
sfwwolvw 9y ago
shutter comes to my mind, I'm using it to annotate images and screenshots, it comes with a paint like edit modus (http://shutter-project.org/wp-content/uploads/key_feature_062.png http://shutter-project.org/wp-content/uploads/key_feature_06...)
RogueIMP 9y ago
Pinta is a good alt for Linux.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  Too bad it is built on mono. I'd have to install ~200MB of dependencies for a 2.5MB application.
  - oblio 9y ago
    I don't get this complaint. Do you have a 400MB HDD or something? 220MB of HDD or SSD probably cost less than a roll of toilet paper.
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      You're assuming that I have an infinite amount of disk space to dedicate to arbitrarily large frameworks that are 'required' by simple applications. If every app you used required 200MB of baggage to run, you'd quickly run out of disk space. I'd rather use my disks to store more valuable things, and, on another note, most definitely do not want to encourage the proliferation of .NET/mono.
    - DanBC 9y ago
      Plenty of people have sub 200GB hard drives. Visit your favourite website and have a look. Here's a bunch of new products under 249 GB: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740%20601296060%20601296065%204814 https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&I... note that some of these only have 64 GB. For these people every bit of storage is useful.
yots 9y ago
Were you (or anyone) able to change the brush size? (I'm pretty sure it used to be + on Windows, but it's been a while)
- 1j01 9y ago
  It's Ctrl+NumpadPlus/Minus on mspaint, or just NumpadPlus/Minus on jspaint; no way to do it beyond the preset sizes without a numpad, so far, I'm afraid
estima 9y ago
Best feature of this app I feel is live sharing like: http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc sessions are shared in real time
- magic_beans 9y ago
  How do you do it?
- gkfasdfasdf 9y ago
  Careful: http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc http://jspaint.ml/#session:abc not really work safe when I clicked on it
- usernam 9y ago
  Interestingly, it seems to lose 1/3 of the inputs I'm trying to send...
  - 1j01 9y ago
    Yeah, it's super half baked. I can tell you that as the developer. I plan to focus on collaboration in the successor to this project, Mopaint: https://github.com/1j01/mopaint https://github.com/1j01/mopaint (Rather than adding it after the fact.)
- lanius 9y ago
  Spiritual successor to /r/place?
bedros 9y ago
after years of searching for a low cost editor I can use on either mac or Linux I found these two. Pixelmator has tons of tutorials pixelmator for OS X ($60) pixeluvo for Linux ($35 only) but worth 10X that. my first go to is pixeluvo since I use linux as my daily machine.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Sammi 9y ago
Yeah try Lazpaint: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazpaint/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazpaint/

redleggedfrog 9y ago

Breaks the back button in Firefox.

gao8a 9y ago

This is amazing! Thank you for sharing this

jackaroe78 9y ago
+1

vortico 9y ago

I love how the filesystem stuff is handled! Very smooth, with Open/Save acting like a native application.

computerex 9y ago
It's not acting like a native application, the open file dialog is the native open file dialog that'll display differently depending on the OS/platform you're on.
- vortico 9y ago
  Right, but many websites have a "Browse for file..." or Import/Export popup which then launches the native file dialog, or the Save function opens the image in a new tab or something. They're making it as close as technically possible to MSPaint's behavior.

notaboutdave 9y ago

Be careful if you're browsing fullscreen. Here I am casually clicking HN posts when suddenly my brain thinks it's the 90s.

dingo_bat 9y ago
I wasted 15 minutes drawing random shapes too.

aj7 9y ago

Where is crop? To me, the most valuable tool in MS Paint. What? Did you think I used it for “drawing with a bar of soap?”

darkstar999 9y ago
You can select a section, copy it, create a new image, and paste it.
Liquid_Fire 9y ago
I don't think Paint (at least the version this is replicating) had a crop feature. I always used to do: - Ctrl-A (Select All) - Ctrl-X (Cut) - Ctrl-E, 1, Tab, 1, Enter (Resize image to 1x1 pixel) - Ctrl-V (Paste)
1j01 9y ago
jspaint has a special shortcut, you can hold Ctrl while making a selection

wybiral 9y ago

Neat, there's a multi-user mode: http://jspaint.ml/#session:test http://jspaint.ml/#session:test

exikyut 9y ago
It's currently being destroyed. It's AWESOME
- mitchellst 9y ago
  Come for the 90's nostalgia. Stay for the websocket fight in a phonebooth.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    That was chaos...
    - alain_gilbert 9y ago
      I immortalized HN creativity :) https://imgur.com/a/YJFdW https://imgur.com/a/YJFdW
      - chrisper 9y ago
        That is quite NSFW...
      - dang 9y ago
        Please don't.
AldousHaxley 9y ago
Cool! I built something similar a while back. A bit more structured (creating accounts and such), but with a bigger variety of drawing tools, and some social features like following, project collaboration, upvotes/downvotes, and chat. https://www.formgraph.com https://www.formgraph.com
9y ago

aj7 9y ago

The most valuable thing to me about MS Paint is the ability to print screen, CROP the largely extraneous material, and post, embed, or transmit the result. Where is crop? I am not interested in the drawing with a bar of soap aspect. At all.

LocutusOfBorges 9y ago
For what it's worth, Irfanview's generally a better solution for quick cropping: http://www.irfanview.com http://www.irfanview.com
yzmtf2008 9y ago
Try monosnap: http://monosnap.com http://monosnap.com
taspeotis 9y ago
This does a lot: https://getsharex.com/ https://getsharex.com/ The workflow is based around print screen, crop, and then add any optional processing you want.
maccard 9y ago
Something like lightscreen or snipping tool might be what you’re looking for.
chrismorgan 9y ago
Paint didn’t have the ability to crop to a selection until the Windows 7 redesign of the app with its ribbon UI (not sure about the Vista version of Paint, which is halfway between the XP and the 7 versions); JS Paint has copied the XP and earlier design, not the newer. You can still crop, but only from the bottom or right, because you’re using the canvas resize handles instead. Concerning your specific task: I’d say the Snipping Tool (built-in from at least Windows 7 onwards) is generally superior for that sort of thing anyway. Its biggest problem is slow start-up.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  You could do cropping in Paint since at least the Win95 version. The method was the same I use with Paint to this very day: a combination of canvas resize handles and moving the image contents. Basically, after pasting the picture, I would use the selection that is automatically activated (if you lose it, CTRL+A to select all) to crop out top and left parts of the image, by positioning the top-left corner of what I care about at the top-left corner of the canvas. I would then use the bottom-right "resize canvas" handle to crop out the rest. "That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far."

xeeeeeeeeeeenu 9y ago

I'm amazed. This webapp even supports opening files via dragging them from the desktop or Windows Explorer. This fact alone makes it more "native" than most (all?) UWP applications.

qwerty456127 9y ago

Funny but I would really appreciate a good Paint.Net remake (usable on Mac, Linux and OpenBSD) more.

hjek 9y ago
Pinta comes close to that, and is free software, unlike Paint.NET. https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/ https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/
- GordonS 9y ago
  I thought Paint.NET was free, just not OSS? I installed it on a machine a few weeks ago, no payment changed hands..
  - qwerty456127 9y ago
    It's free but still Windows-only. I use it on Windows machines but miss it heavily on Mac and Linux. Perhaps somebody would actually port it to Mono if it was truly free.
    - ygra 9y ago
      It has too many dependencies beyond .NET and Windows Forms by now. Text rendering is DirectWrite, for example, other parts use Direct2D, the UI partially uses WPF as well if I remember correctly.
      - qwerty456127 9y ago
        I see... I used to think it's just WPF to be replaced with the old UI that was there until some version.
  - mcintyre1994 9y ago
    They probably meant "free software", per the FSF definition: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

hjek 9y ago

Today the author added support for transparency, and thereby also shift+left-click brushes from current selection. My most favourite MS Paint feature. https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/23#issuecomment-358516049 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/23#issuecomment-35851...

zekrioca 9y ago
Thanks for update. I was wondering about that too.

sillysaurus3 9y ago

Aww. I selected an area then tried to use the arrow keys to translate one pixel at a time. Didn't work :( Then I tried to cut and paste. No go. Still, very promising!

dluan 9y ago

What is really neat is that I guess this is what's implemented in the Windows 98 remake too :) http://98desktop.ml/ http://98desktop.ml/ I wish computers looked like this again.

hjek 9y ago
It's actually the same implementation used there. (See Help -> About Paint)

blt 9y ago

The UI and behavior is amazingly close to the real thing. But I cannot help but sigh when the brush tool lags more than Paint lagged on a 233 MHz Celeron. I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them. edit: hopefully it is an inefficient implementation and not the inherent slowness of web apps.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
One thing I noticed is that it doesn't draw zoomed-in images correctly - pixels are blurry. Didn't check if this is Canvas or WebGL, but something in the code begs being changed from LINEAR to NEAREST. (EDIT: turns out to be a Firefox issue; Chrome shows the sweet pretty pixels correctly.) > I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them. Same here (I'm 29). I'm getting tired of complaining, this literally feels like trying to turn back the tide of a river. We're doomed to use slow and shitty software until the present web fads go away and the ecosystem stabilizes.
- danbolt 9y ago
  The canvas tag has `image-rendering: pixelated;` set, but Firefox currently doesn't support the setting right now. [0] Are you able to try it in Chromium? I set the property on the canvas to `-moz-crisp-edges` in Nightly and that fixed it. [0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rendering https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rende...
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Oh. Didn't even occur to me that it could be a browser issue (after all, I would think that not antialiasing things in an API meant for per-pixel operations would be the default). Alas, you're right and guessed correctly - I tested it on Firefox. I just tried it on Chrome, and there the pixels show correctly.
    - 9y ago

saleztalk 9y ago

What a superb effort to port MS-Paint on web. The UI - UX is simply amazing and almost similar to the real MS-Paint.

arketyp 9y ago

MSPaint had some hidden treasures. The first thing I tried was the right-click-while-drawing-cancel feature. Alas. Love seeing the old graphics however.

tomsmeding 9y ago
That's an actual issue in the repository. It's supposed to have worked before, but apparently broke in a recent Chrome update, sparking a re-implementation that broke in all browsers.

adamwi 9y ago

Really brings you back to the good old days =) Even got the help topics exactly as in the original

piyush_soni 9y ago

Does it work for everyone in Firefox? For me it doesn't draw anything, nor does it open any of the menus (just clicks work). In Chrome everything works perfectly for me.

chungy 9y ago
Works fine for me, Firefox 57.0.4 on Linux.
- piyush_soni 9y ago
  Thanks for confirming. I need to investigate what's wrong with my FF then.

slampig 9y ago

It's missing the zoom bug, which lets you zoom all the way to 10x by clicking just under the 8x button. Personally I was very fond of that.

ygra 9y ago
There's an issue for that: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/35 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/35

SubiculumCode 9y ago

I never got people's love of MS Paint. There is so little it could do, and it didn't always want.to play nice with modern image formats.

kabes 9y ago
Nostalgia. Many of us spend hours making drawings as a kid, since it was basically the only thing to do next to mine sweeper. Just like we all miss clippy, useless as he was.
- jhbadger 9y ago
  But even then, MS Paint was pretty much a copy of 1984's MacPaint, which pioneered that type of program.
  - gvx 9y ago
    Nostalgia doesn't cite sources. I've never used MacPaint. I've used MS Paint, though, pretty extensively, all through the 2000s.
- gvx 9y ago
  I was the only kid in high school allowed to use a laptop in class, because my motor system doesn't really "do" writing but it does typing well enough. I'd spend entire lectures drawing gigantic mazes in MS Paint instead of making notes. To be fair, I would have been drawing mazes if I had to use pen and paper anyway.
1j01 9y ago
this version plays well with modern image formats :)

m3andros 9y ago

I love this! Genius! I personally use Figma (http://figma.com http://figma.com) - which is an incredible vector drawing tool!

2III7 9y ago
Been using Figma for a while now for prototyping, drawing etc. It's really easy to learn and use and has great features. e.g. multiplayer mode.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

trungdq88 9y ago

That's interesting, I guess the author have that same feeling with me when I tried to create the same thing with Windows 7 on my personal website https://dinhquangtrung.net https://dinhquangtrung.net, just that my Windows 7 is not ready feature complete because I was too lazy, haha.

fokker 9y ago

Has the help menu and all hahaha

rmrfrmrf 9y ago

I've been waiting for this my entire life.

opvasger 9y ago

YES - thank you!

omegote 9y ago

And built with jQuery. Yeah, I can feel the burn of those edgy react and angular devs...

peterburkimsher 9y ago
I like JS Paint, because everyone is already familiar with the GUI and it should "just work" on any platform thanks to being a web app. The problem with JS Paint for me is that it doesn't run in my somewhat old version of Safari; I had to open Chrome/Firefox just to test it. For something to really be universal, it needs to work on every platform, including non-jailbroken old iPhones and Macs with their default browser (yes, I'm making an analogy between Safari and Internet Explorer).

pi-squared 9y ago

Oh My, so many memories, so many hours spent on this program. Such a fan of MSPaint, thank you for doing this, absolute hero! Few nitpicks and more of showing off how much I care and love what you've done: * polygon is antialiasing - it shouldn't * rubber cursor is wrong * circle and rounded rectangle tools are filling their insides when they shouldn't * Text works in zoom mode - it didn't used to (not sure if bug or feature) * Color picker is way too modern :D But man, even stretch/skew are implemented, awesome job!

qntl 9y ago

Patina is a good MS Paint-like, on the Mac App Store for two dollars or so.

ttflee 9y ago

#Offtopic TIL, MacPaint 2.0 was sold for US$125. And that MacPaint 1.3's source code was provided to Computer History Museum due to support of Steve Jobs. Maybe it's time to email Bill Gates? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint#Release_and_version_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPaint#Release_and_version_h...

Lio 9y ago

I wonder if “Jim’ll Paint It” has seen this? He’s got to be the highest profile MS Paint user in the world by now. https://jimll.co.uk/ https://jimll.co.uk/ Edit: For those who don’t know Jim, from the website:- “Jim'll Paint It is an ongoing collaboration between Jim and the thousands of complete strangers who send him their weird and wonderful ideas. Using Microsoft Paint, Jim has painted hundreds of suggestions ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous - each free of charge.”

gbraad 9y ago

It is not that useful as MS Paint. Several people use it for pixel-precise artwork, just like Deluxe Paint was used on DOS and the Amiga. However, this editor draws single OR double pixels on lines that are freehand.

Doxin 9y ago
> this editor draws single OR double pixels on lines that are freehand. So does MS paint.

bn-usd-mistake 9y ago

This is awesome! Please consider adding a license so we can self host it [2] Github has a helpful website [1] on choosing a license, I personally like MIT but it's your choice and there are plenty of options :) [1] https://choosealicense.com/ https://choosealicense.com/ [2] https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/18 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/18

jiujieti 9y ago

Have seen a Dutch artist using MS Paint to create his/her work in Hermitage museum. Quite impressive. It's a shame I cannot remember the artist's name any more.

air7 9y ago

I love labors of love like this. It seems that beyond the goal of being useful, there's a strong nostalgic theme to the project which is apparent in the attention to the detail in recreating the old interface as exact as possible. Check out the Help Topics...

tim-- 9y ago

There is a hidden 'Extras' menu which provides additional functionality, like shared whiteboard screens :) http://jspaint.ml/#session:tim http://jspaint.ml/#session:tim

zingmars 9y ago

On Firefox there's noticeable lag, and non-straight lines look kind of weird (feels like it's trying to make non-straight lines out of bunch of straight lines). On chrome there's no lag, but every time I draw something, all other elements I drew before change colour. At first to bright green, then they just fade to white as I draw more lines or whatever. As it is right now, it's definitely not a good 'replacement'.

ewi_ 9y ago

Great work! it brings back so many memories =) I was trying it in Chrome on iOS and it seems that it considers each color square as a text entry, kinda annoying

blablabli 9y ago
I have the exact same feeling, this feels so nostalgic

kroltan 9y ago

The author forgot that one could further increase or decrease the size of the eraser and brush tools by pressing Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-. Other than that, really nice!

z3t4 9y ago

Would be nice if it could output SVG!

ygra 9y ago
I'm not sure <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"> <image xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="data:..." width='800' height='600'/> </svg> is a particularly interesting SVG image that has any benefits over the equivalent PNG.
- z3t4 9y ago
  I mean that the image should be saved in vector format! Not bitmap.
  - ygra 9y ago
    Paint is a bitmap image editor. What would you like the result to be? A <rect> for every pixel placed by the pencil tool?
    - z3t4 9y ago
      The pencil tool could create a svg path.

mschuetz 9y ago

Now make a desktop app out of this using electron!

ygra 9y ago
There's an issue for that: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/2 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/2

cessor 9y ago

The site works nicely in my browser (Chrome). I feel like this mockumentary is not getting enough credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L03GycSZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L03GycSZw - "We worked for eight months in a facility in California to figure out what were the best twelve colors to include in Paint" - Can we make this line thinner? - No. - Ok. I have not used Paint for any real work in the past, other than saving screenshots. Ever since MS started shipping the snipping tool, I hardly use this function.

Kip9000 9y ago

Killer App

charbz 9y ago

This is amazing , really brings me back to those sweet old days. Just curious, is this built with any JS framework ? the code looks like its vanilla JS !! which is fantastic .. and is it open source / Github project ?

Hendrikto 9y ago

Shapes are always filled with an outline, no matter which option I choose. Apart from that it looks really good, and I don‘t have performance problems that some people report.

nvr219 9y ago

INSANE

popnroll 9y ago

https://imgur.com/I66J4Ys https://imgur.com/I66J4Ys

g105b 9y ago

Please turn off anti aliasing and it will be perfect!

sethammons 9y ago

Seriously cool. Love the old school UI. It immediately put a smile on my face. It works great on mobile. I did find a bug though. If I switch to red, I can't switch back to black. Android, chrome.

asnee 9y ago

Here's another session for my mates http://jspaint.ml/#session:asnee http://jspaint.ml/#session:asnee

rsnickell 9y ago

Atwood's Law in full effect here! https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-principle-of-least-power/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-principle-of-least-power/

mxuribe 9y ago

I still on occasion use MS Paint. I know there have been other tools introduced since MS Paint with more features and such...but much like a trusty *nix command line tool that's always there and always trusty...I hold a special fondness for this classic program. Kudos to the author for this project!

bobajeff 9y ago

Props for them for getting all the features work smoothly on a phone as well.

evolveyourmind 9y ago

Amazing. It looks identical. However, can’t save images on iPhone.

evolveyourmind 9y ago

Amazing. It looks identical. Unfortunately, can’t save images from safari on iPhone.

Raphmedia 9y ago

The attention to detail is amazing. Almost every feature is there and responds as it would on a real windows computer. There's even the help screen.

cjlm 9y ago
Shame that it uses the native colour picker...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

O_H_E 9y ago

Really works well with touch screen, kudos

danschumann 9y ago

The oval tool doesn't respect the fill setting. It is always opaque! Otherwise, fun project! Now, make a js version of photoshop! (I've done several js painting programs, some with pretty unique brushes and weird "helpers".. they're pretty much all in my private repo doing nothing lol)

tlog333 9y ago

Love the keyboard shortcut support!

ashwinaj 9y ago

Oh...those lovely childhood memories using MS Paint on Windows 3.1 (although this looks like the Win 98 vesion)..thanks this is awesome!!

glemmaPaul 9y ago

Gives back so many feels of bored painting projects I've done before

needz 9y ago

I don't understand why it needs to hijack the back button.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
1j01 9y ago
It changes the URL to store the image in a specific session, so if you close the tab by accident you can reopen it from history (or ctrl+shift+t in some browsers) I've opened an issue for it now here: https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/49 https://github.com/1j01/jspaint/issues/49

candiodari 9y ago

Upon opening the page it allocates 12 times the amount of memory I had in the computer I first used MS Paint on. God only knows how much processing power it's using. Also, I get the distinct impression it's less responsive than that computer used to be.

whatyoucantsay 9y ago

Imagine an Electron app of this! Then JS paint could be run right from the desktop.

KennyCason 9y ago

This is amazing! Superb remake. :) I’m happy and sad. Happy because MS Paint is amazing and now having it in web form is great. Sad because I was just talking about doing this this week for hackathon. I ultimately did something else, and probably wouldn’t have turned out this great.

frylock 9y ago

Can someone explain to me how the live sessions feature was built? I was looking through the projects github, and saw something about firebase, but I'm not too sure how it works.