After taking a few Graphic Design classes you learn to use Adobe programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. Soon you become aware of how much power these programs have. I learned on Adobe CS 2, which was when dinosaurs roamed the earth…  It feels as though you need to use the best, and that you need the programs that can give you the most flexibility. You begin to forget about a little app called Paint. It’s come with PCs for decades and seems kind of dated and amateur now that you can use Photoshop. Sure about that?

There are so many tricks that I use on the Paint app. And for a program that’s so simple, it really can handle so much. There are pros and cons to everything. Let me break it down for you.

One of the things you’ll realize with photography is that your beautiful, high resolution images don’t take too friendly to being uploaded. Or try uploading them at a speed that you can tolerate. Enter the Paint app!

You may know exactly what percentage you’d like to enlarge or reduce the photo. In this case I increased the image by 100% (I’m sure you’ve already learned that increasing isn’t always the best idea but stay with me). Using percentages is a good way to change the size of the image.

When you’re trying to upload an image to the web, you may get a warning that tells you the image needs to be a minimum amount of pixels. Or that the image has too many pixels. Using the same resize tool, resize the image based on pixels instead of percentage. Don’t worry about the proportions, as Paint does the work for you. It’s that simple. I know what you’re thinking now.

Every program or app has its cons as well. The biggest con for me would have to be copying and pasting an image over another image. There is no way to make layers. So all the images combine and cropping means cutting pieces out of one of the images. Like I said, everything has its cons. The solution is simple.

Learn your way around Paint. It’s a simple program that is great for quick fixes when you’re in a hurry.