the magpie's ramblings

Having recently been revisiting old Warriors MAPs and animation memes from my childhood, I was pleasantly surprised to find Windows 11's version of MS Paint finally has keyboard shortcuts!

...and was promptly disappointed when I couldn't find them listed anywhere. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Here are the more helpful shortcuts you may not be aware of, coming from older versions of Paint or more modern art programs:

Tools

• P – Pencil
• E – Eraser
• B – Fill Bucket
• I – Color Grabber (press again to return to previously selected tool!)
• T – Text
• Z – Zoom
• S – Select (and switch between square and lasso)

Tool Settings

• Ctrl + Plus(+) – Increase the size of a brush by 1 px
• Ctrl + Minus(-) – Decrease the size of a brush by 1 px

Canvas

• Ctrl + Scrollwheel – Zoom
• Ctrl + PageUp – Zoom in
• Ctrl + PageDown – Zoom out
• Ctrl + E – Open canvas properties (or, more accurately, canvas size, since that's the only property at the moment)
• Ctrl + W – Open “Resize & Skew” window
• Ctrl + R – Toggle ruler
• F12 – Save as new file

This is not a full list, just the most common, useful ones. You can find some other, more obscure key combinations on the Microsoft site, though – seeing as, as of 13.02.2022, the list doesn't yet contain some of the new shortcuts I'd listed here – that list may not be fully exhaustive, either.

Good luck on your old school dA-related escapades! Have fun!