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JS Paint – A web-based MS Paint remake

906 points| hjek | 8 years ago |jspaint.ml | reply

248 comments

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[+] barbs|8 years ago|reply
I haven't used Windows as a primary OS for years. I miss having MSPaint around for small edits, and have yet to find a suitable replacement. Other apps either have too few features (e.g. Preview) or too many (GIMP), or the interface doesn't feel right. It might just be because I'm used to it after using it for years when I was younger, but MSPaint's interface just makes sense, and it hits the sweet spot of features for quick, simple edits.

This feels very similar to the original, and after a quick playthrough seems feature-complete. Well done! I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based but I guess in this day and age it just makes it more accessible.

I see there's a Chrome app, but the link is broken (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dgfedgcofbjmeohonb...)

[+] badsectoracula|8 years ago|reply
> and have yet to find a suitable replacement

There are a few, Kolourpaint is pretty much an MSPaint clone for KDE [1] and Paintbrush is the macOS equivalent [2]. There is also Gnome Paint [3], but hasn't seen any update in years. I suppose the closest would be Pinta [4], although that is slightly above MS Paint on the complexity level (probably more comparable to Paint.NET than MS Paint).

> I'm not sure how I feel about it being web-based

Personally i find it amusing and impressive that this implements a Win95-like GUI (i love Win95's GUI :-P) but at the same time the actual editing feels very slow - painting something takes almost a second to update with the brush being very jumpy, reminding me using ZSoft's PhotoFinish on Windows 3.1 on my 4MB 386:-P.

It is also nice that it has implemented the select+shift+drag brush feature that is ignored by almost every other clone i've seen over the years.

[1] https://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/kolourpaint/

[2] https://paintbrush.sourceforge.io/screenshots/

[3] https://launchpad.net/gnome-paint

[4] https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/

[+] rplnt|8 years ago|reply
On Windows I've been using Paint.NET for years now. It's absolutely brilliant. Lightweight editing with quite a bit of extra features like properly working undo. Free, lots of updates, good UX. I use it at least few times a week.

Recently I've been on OS X a lot, and I wasn't able to find a suitable replacement. Like, nothing even remotely close. Quite a shame. Same story for Linux.

[+] qalmakka|8 years ago|reply
I've been an almost Linux/BSD user for more than a decade now, and I've always used 32-bit MSPaint from XP without any issue through Wine. Salvage the .exe from a Windows XP install and the necessary MFC .dll, and you're ready to roll.
[+] eropple|8 years ago|reply
I mostly use Pixelmator for that sort of thing on OS X. It's like $20, but I also bought it about five years ago, so it's a sunk cost!
[+] itaysk|8 years ago|reply
IMO the best painting/lightweight editing tool is paint.net. Since I moved to mac I moved to Gimp and it’s ‘fine’.. but paint.net is really the only tool I’m missing fron windows
[+] trqx|8 years ago|reply
Although it's probably illegal, I've been waiting for a port for years. I'm sad the one that finally did it chose js.
[+] lucb1e|8 years ago|reply
I was in the same spot. A while ago I took an evening to try and learn doing basic edits in Gimp, and since then I have no trouble with it anymore. Not as bad as Vim, but there's indeed a learning curve to it. Now that I've learned it, though, I would never want Paint again.
[+] worble|8 years ago|reply
I've been using an old version of Macromedia Fireworks for years now, and while maybe not totally 'lightweight' (you gotta wait for it to boot up), I've always found it intuitive to use for quick edits, while also having lots of other features if I feel like doing something more elabourate.
[+] Pamar|8 years ago|reply
Can anyone suggest a small, OSX graphical editor? I really just need one specific thing: "making a negative image".

I have it on IrfanView, but I could not find a simple equivalent on MacOSX.

[+] yots|8 years ago|reply
Were you (or anyone) able to change the brush size? (I'm pretty sure it used to be + on Windows, but it's been a while)
[+] bedros|8 years ago|reply
after years of searching for a low cost editor I can use on either mac or Linux I found these two. Pixelmator has tons of tutorials

pixelmator for OS X ($60)

pixeluvo for Linux ($35 only) but worth 10X that.

my first go to is pixeluvo since I use linux as my daily machine.

[+] RogueIMP|8 years ago|reply
Pinta is a good alt for Linux.
[+] matude|8 years ago|reply
> (e.g. Preview

View > Show Markup Toolbar

[+] colordrops|8 years ago|reply
It doesn't take very long at all to get familiar with basic Gimp features. The investment in time is minimal and worth it. You could probably figure how to do everything you can do in MSPaint in Gimp in 20-30 minutes.
[+] NicoJuicy|8 years ago|reply
Does paint dotnet work on Linux through Wine?
[+] blt|8 years ago|reply
The UI and behavior is amazingly close to the real thing. But I cannot help but sigh when the brush tool lags more than Paint lagged on a 233 MHz Celeron.

I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them.

edit: hopefully it is an inefficient implementation and not the inherent slowness of web apps.

[+] TeMPOraL|8 years ago|reply
One thing I noticed is that it doesn't draw zoomed-in images correctly - pixels are blurry. Didn't check if this is Canvas or WebGL, but something in the code begs being changed from LINEAR to NEAREST.

(EDIT: turns out to be a Firefox issue; Chrome shows the sweet pretty pixels correctly.)

> I really think this is an awesome project, but I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them.

Same here (I'm 29). I'm getting tired of complaining, this literally feels like trying to turn back the tide of a river. We're doomed to use slow and shitty software until the present web fads go away and the ecosystem stabilizes.

[+] dahart|8 years ago|reply
> I am old enough (30) to remember fast performing GUI apps and I don't know if I'll ever "get over" losing them.

I'm in my early 40s and feel like there are more fast performing GUI apps now than there ever were before. Windows 3 was not fast.

Incidentally, I'm on a beefy machine so JSPaint isn't lagging for me, but it does have a frame rate that makes the paint splatters far apart if you move fast. Is that what's happening to you, or is it actually lagging as in stalling longer than 30ms between splats?

[+] cessor|8 years ago|reply
The site works nicely in my browser (Chrome).

I feel like this mockumentary is not getting enough credit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L03GycSZw

- "We worked for eight months in a facility in California to figure out what were the best twelve colors to include in Paint"

- Can we make this line thinner? - No. - Ok.

I have not used Paint for any real work in the past, other than saving screenshots. Ever since MS started shipping the snipping tool, I hardly use this function.

[+] notaboutdave|8 years ago|reply
Be careful if you're browsing fullscreen.

Here I am casually clicking HN posts when suddenly my brain thinks it's the 90s.

[+] pi-squared|8 years ago|reply
Oh My, so many memories, so many hours spent on this program. Such a fan of MSPaint, thank you for doing this, absolute hero!

Few nitpicks and more of showing off how much I care and love what you've done:

* polygon is antialiasing - it shouldn't * rubber cursor is wrong * circle and rounded rectangle tools are filling their insides when they shouldn't * Text works in zoom mode - it didn't used to (not sure if bug or feature) * Color picker is way too modern :D

But man, even stretch/skew are implemented, awesome job!

[+] Raphmedia|8 years ago|reply
The attention to detail is amazing. Almost every feature is there and responds as it would on a real windows computer. There's even the help screen.
[+] cjlm|8 years ago|reply
Shame that it uses the native colour picker...
[+] vortico|8 years ago|reply
I love how the filesystem stuff is handled! Very smooth, with Open/Save acting like a native application.
[+] computerex|8 years ago|reply
It's not acting like a native application, the open file dialog is the native open file dialog that'll display differently depending on the OS/platform you're on.
[+] em3rgent0rdr|8 years ago|reply
1. Instantaneous startup. 2. Simple, familiar GUI. 3. Automatically saves file locally, files can by loaded by url.

I wish more webapps were like this.

[+] air7|8 years ago|reply
I love labors of love like this. It seems that beyond the goal of being useful, there's a strong nostalgic theme to the project which is apparent in the attention to the detail in recreating the old interface as exact as possible. Check out the Help Topics...
[+] dluan|8 years ago|reply
What is really neat is that I guess this is what's implemented in the Windows 98 remake too :)

http://98desktop.ml/

I wish computers looked like this again.

[+] hjek|8 years ago|reply
It's actually the same implementation used there. (See Help -> About Paint)
[+] reustle|8 years ago|reply
You have no idea how much this means to me <3
[+] xeeeeeeeeeeenu|8 years ago|reply
I'm amazed. This webapp even supports opening files via dragging them from the desktop or Windows Explorer. This fact alone makes it more "native" than most (all?) UWP applications.
[+] Lio|8 years ago|reply
I wonder if “Jim’ll Paint It” has seen this?

He’s got to be the highest profile MS Paint user in the world by now.

https://jimll.co.uk/

Edit: For those who don’t know Jim, from the website:-

“Jim'll Paint It is an ongoing collaboration between Jim and the thousands of complete strangers who send him their weird and wonderful ideas. Using Microsoft Paint, Jim has painted hundreds of suggestions ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous - each free of charge.”