Windows 7 Paint online: the 7Paint help guide

Draw with the Windows 7 Paint tools

Choose a tool from the Home tab and draw on the canvas. The pencil draws a sharp line; the Brushes menu offers nine brush styles, including calligraphy, airbrush, crayon, marker, and watercolor. Use Size to change the stroke width.

Color 1 is the foreground color used by the pencil, brushes, and shape outlines. Color 2 is the background color used by the eraser and shape fills. Right-click while drawing to use Color 2. The color picker samples a color from your picture, and Fill with color fills a connected area.

Choose from 23 shapes, including lines, curves, rectangles, circles, arrows, stars, and callouts. A new shape stays editable until you click away: move it, drag its handles, or change the outline, fill, and colors. Hold Shift for squares, circles, or lines at 45-degree angles. Double-click to finish a polygon.

Choose Text, click the canvas, and type. The Text Tools tab lets you choose a font, size, formatting, and a transparent or opaque text background. Click outside the text box to finish.

Open, crop, resize, and rotate an image

Use Paint menu → Open to open a picture from your computer, or drag an image onto the workspace. Use rectangular or free-form selection to isolate part of the picture. Drag a selection to move it, use its handles to resize it, or copy and paste it.

Crop keeps the selected area. Resize and Skew changes the picture or selection by percentage or pixels. Rotate turns or flips it. Use Undo and Redo to step through your edits.

The View tab provides zoom, rulers, gridlines, full screen, and a thumbnail window. Pictures are limited to 4096 pixels per side.

Make a transparent background

Click Transparency on the Home tab to enable a see-through background. The eraser, Delete, Cut, and moving a selection then leave transparent pixels instead of the background color. The checkerboard indicates transparent areas.

The arrow below Transparency offers Make Color 2 transparent, Remove background, and Fill transparent areas with Color 2. Remove background clears an area of similar color connected to the picture edges; it works best with simple, solid backgrounds.

Save as PNG to keep full-color transparency. GIF also supports transparency, with the color limits of the GIF format. JPEG and BMP flatten transparency onto white.

Save or download your picture

Use Paint menu → Save or Save as. PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and WebP export are available. PNG is useful for drawings and transparent images; JPEG is useful for photographs.

In browsers that support it, Save opens a native file dialog and can write back to the same file. Other browsers download the picture. Clipboard access and printing also depend on your browser's capabilities.

The current picture is automatically backed up in this browser and restored when you return. Browser storage can be cleared or unavailable, so download important pictures to keep your own copy.

Keyboard shortcuts

Common questions

Is 7Paint free?

Yes. You can draw, edit images, and save pictures without paying or signing up.

Do I need Windows 7?

No. 7Paint runs in a modern browser with JavaScript and Canvas support, rather than requiring Windows 7 or a desktop installation.

Is this the original Microsoft Paint?

No. 7Paint is an independently built recreation of the Windows 7 Paint experience, with additions such as transparent backgrounds. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

Are my pictures uploaded?

Drawing and image editing happen in your browser. The app saves a backup of the current picture in this browser's storage. Download a copy to keep it outside that browser.