Microsoft Paint can now make AI coloring books

Microsoft is giving its Paint and Notepad apps 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 feel oddly niche or advanced for such simplified apps, such as AI text improvements in Notepad and the ability to instantly generate coloring book pages in Paint.

The latter feature is aptly called “Coloring book,” and lets you make blank coloring templates in version 11.2512.191.0 of Paint based on a text prompt. Users can access this feature by selecting the Coloring book option from the Copilot menu in Paint, and then describing what the design should be, such as “a 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 presumably 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 stressed-out millennials) actually use Paint for. The Coloring book feature is notably only available on Copilot Plus PCs, so it’s more likely that Microsoft is exploring novel ways to make its AI-infused Windows 11 devices more marketable. Paint is also getting a fill tolerance slider (which isn’t just restricted to Copilot hardware) that provides more control over how the Fill tool applies color.

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