With Microsoft Paint in the news over the possibility of being phased out, graphic artists speak of their first experience of using the programme
Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
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Ruchita Madhok
32, graphic designer
I think Paint is as old as I am! [laughs] I was eight when I first used it on my mother's computer. We didn't even have a colour monitor. So, I painted in all shades of grey. It was the only drawing software I had access to before design school. My brother and I used it for school projects and study charts. My mother would take printouts of our creations and put them up on the soft board. The reason why people connected with Paint is because it was simple but capable of so much. It was the first brush for many aspiring designers. I never mastered it, but knew of someone who rendered such incredible car designs in Paint for his admission at NID [National Institute of Design]. They looked Photoshopped!
Abhijeet Kini
34, illustrator, animation artist
[The first time I used Paint] I drew a tree! Although it looked like cr*p, I could finally see my work on screen and it was amazing. Nothing can replace that experience. I first used it in high school or early college years. The simplicity of it, and the fact that it was the first fun app on a boring looking operating system, is what makes it special.
Sanket Avlani
30, graphic designer
I was probably part of the first generation to own a personal computer and even then, most households didn't have one. Graphic artists have moved on to Apple now but back then, a Mac was a luxury. I must have been in the fourth or fifth standard when I first used Paint. In the life of a designer, it was the first illustrating programme. I used to draw on Paint, export the file and create animations on Powerpoint slides. For me, it's the best programme Microsoft has made. The initial tools had a distinct identity and set a benchmark for future software.
Sameer Kulavoor
33, illustrator, visual artist
A 'computer period' in school meant 10 students on 10 machines. The teacher would teach DOS, which I was never inclined towards. I would always cover up for it by making a flower or something on Paint and show off. Even the teacher seemed okay with it. Everyone between Generation X and the millennials would have some experience of using Paint; especially an artist, for whom, it was the first introduction to digital art.
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