Microsoft Paint can now create coloring books with AI

Microsoft gives Paint and notepad applications On Windows’ new AI capabilities for editing text and making digital illustrations. The updates are currently rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Windows 11 Canary and Dev channels, and include features that seem oddly niche or advanced for such streamlined apps, like AI text improvements in Notepad and the ability to instantly create coloring book pages in Paint.

The last feature is called “Coloring Book,” and it lets you create blank coloring templates in Paint 11.2512.191.0 based on a text prompt. Users can access this feature by selecting the Coloring Book option from the Copilot menu in Paint, then describing what the design should look like, such as “cute fluffy cat on a donut.” Paint will then generate four results that Paint users can click to add to their canvas. From there, you can use Paint itself to color the image, or print it out to use traditional art materials.

It’s such an oddly specific tool that I have to wonder if this is something that coloring book consumers (parents and harried millennials) actually do is used paint for. The coloring book feature is noticeably only available on Copilot Plus PCs, so Microsoft will likely explore new ways to make its AI-powered Windows 11 devices more marketable. Paint also gets a fill tolerance slider (which isn’t limited to Copilot devices) that provides more control over how the fill tool applies color.

Notepad 11.2512.10.0 update includes the ability to broadcast AI-generated results Writing, rewriting, and summarizing Features, allowing a preview of text results to appear quickly without waiting for a full response. Notepad also has a new welcome experience that provides a quick overview of what’s available in the application, and now supports additional Markdown syntax features, including strikethrough formatting and nested lists.