MS Paint is one of the oldest apps on Windows. It has been a part of Windows since Windows 1.0 and has stayed unchanged since then. It was just in Windows 10 that a 3D version of it was included. The first Original Paint app still exists however and it’s different from the Paint 3D app. Paint isn’t the most advanced drawing app in the world but many people still manage to make stunning work of art with it. Well, of course, that is more down to skill. MS Paint is by all standards a basic app. It has a couple of choice brushes but no way to include or make custom brushes unless you make use of a hack. In fact, the application seems to limit the brush tool to only four sizes. In truth, you can get custom brush sizes in MS Paint. You’re not actually limited to just the four sizes the UI has given to you.
This also applies to all the available tools in MS Paint that have variable size/weight. It applies to the pencil tool, the brush tool, and the eraser tool.
Custom Brush Sizes In MS Paint
Select the tool which you want to use. Open the Size drop-down and you’ll see there are just four fixed sizes that are available. This hack basically gives you a chance to select sizes between or above the ones shown in the Size drop-down.
Ensure you’ve selected one of the three tools this hack is for. Your cursor point changes size to indicate to you the present size/weight of the tool.
To increase the size of the selected tool, hold down the Ctrl button and tap the Numpad Plus Button. Each tap will increase the size of the brush tool. To decrease the size, hold down the Ctrl button and tap the Numpad minus Button. The screenshot beneath shows the brush tool’s stroke in the default highest size (left) alongside a stroke in a larger custom size (right).
No Size Point Reference
The issue with MS Paint’s brush tool and other types of tools is that the tool sizes don’t give you a numerical value for their size. The standard is the Point i.e., pt unit which is actually what we use to measure the size of brushes and text. In MS Paint you can see the Point size for text but not for brushes. This little trick will give you a chance to set a custom brush size in MS Paint but you will still be guessing what the actual size is.
To reset or go back to one of the default sizes for any of the tools, open the Size drop-down and select one of the four sizes.
