Microsoft’s super cool, must-have app Fresh Paint, now available for Windows Phone 8

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

If you want to “unleash your inner artist” then you will want to grab the amazing Fresh Paint app for Windows Phone 8. The popular app was released awhile back for Windows 8 and it brings the ability to basically paint and create original artwork right from your phone or tablet.

The app itself is relatively easy to use and straightforward, making it a simple choice for those of you want to paint on-the-go. Likewise, with the phone version you can take advantage of your phone’s camera to snap a pic and then hand color it in. Paint your cat, paint a statue, paint your boss...whichever floats your boat, we suppose.

From the app description:

"Unleash your inner creative with Fresh Paint – the ultimate canvas for your big ideas.  Fresh Paint is a fun and easy to use painting app. Create original artwork or turn photos into beautiful paintings automatically. From whimsical pictures of your friends to amazing landscapes, Fresh Paint enables you to create anything."

  • Realistic oil paint and brushes
  • Transform photos into paintings with artistic camera lenses
  • Easy sharing with a tap, text message, email or SkyDrive
  • Custom mix colors to create the perfect shades

The technology behind Fresh Paint is quite impressive on both the phone and Windows 8 version. It should be ideally suited for kids and adults who have a penchant for drawing or painting.

Pick it up here in the Store. Windows Phone 8 only. Free. 22 MB. 1GB of RAM required. 

Thanks, Andrew K., for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

101 Comments
  • Fresh, Microsoft!
  • Lets try..
  • Look's great app..lets give it a try
  • Express yourself! Ahhh do it! Gonna play the song whenever I use this app like the commercial.
  • Now all we need it stylus support in WP Blue, and Nokia can release an uber cool phablet that can take awesome photos and run advanced photo editing, and the Galaxy Note would be history.
  • Stop being naive. It would take billions in marketing and at least a decade in order for Nokia to start damaging the galaxy brand to the point of making it "history".
  • And people said Samsung will never damage the iPhone brand, ever, in history. Things change quicker than you think, I remember when there was no Galaxy now look few years later and it holds the marketshare, few year people can say the same for the Lumia. Fastest growing rate if any smartphone OS is a pretty big feat.
  • This^
     
  • I got a Galaxy 4 years ago, nobody knew what it was. People laughed and carried their iPhones. Now all those people have Galaxies, while i have my Lumia. Give it two years and the Galaxy will be in a very different position.
  • A decade? This is tech, anything can happen. Although, I believe Iphone will the one slowly blowing away like a fart in the wind within the next 2 years.
  • Fart in the wind. Lol
  • well, he is 'sdreamer', right? Can't be mad at this dreams, can you?
  • Do you still don't understand Microsoft's strategy? Apple: iOS for phone and tablet, OSX for PC. Microsoft: Windows Phone for phones, Windows 8 for tablets and PCs. To damage the Galaxy Note there is the smaller screen support in Windows 8.1, which already has better stylus support than the Galaxy Note, just look at digital inking on the Surface Pro.
  • Yes, most understand their strategy but they move at a snails pace and are always in catch up mode for the basic of features.
  • true.
  • why not for wp7.8? /s
  • Because it's a dead platform that is being phased out. Sorry. I do understand the want for 7.x versions, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect a whole lot of new app dev for it.
  • Did you see the /s tag?
  • I did.  But I don't know what it means.  I take it that indicates sarcasm or something?
  • it means 'shenanigans', you should try it.  /s
  • /s
     
    You're right, that does feel good
  • get a new phone. /s
  • I hate to say it man but the 7.x is not going to receive the love that wp8 gets. If it makes you feel any better I have apps that I purchase on wp7 that I can't get on wp8.
  • I'm working on a photo app for WP7. The plan was to then upgrade it to WP8 (easy right?)...wrong. Never again. I'm going to have to code it all from scratch for WP8. What runs fine on WP7 (and on WP8 as a WP7 app) flips out when upgraded to WP8. Complete headache.
  • Yea, same here, I talked to Microsoft and got a refund for all the apps that I paid for on WP7 that WILL not run on WP8....
     
    A few games I really missed too.....
  • I wonder if it it's too late
  • Should work on low memory devices right?
     
    Update: Nope :( it need the extra memory for its crazy physics simluator.
  • Not on my Lumia 520
  • neither on the Lumia 720 :-(((
  • Must be part of the 2% lol
  • pretty cool. here's to hoping those bing apps (news, finance, travel, ...) are next.
  • Seriously! I want Bing Finance, News and Sports on my phone!
  • I would also want those apps in my phone.
  • Yes!! I don't like having loads of news apps on my phone. Just give me one for news and one for sports. Those apps are fantastic.
  • Bing News!!
  • Yeah! Love it with W8
  • require 1GB ram.
  • Finally paint on The go :D
  • Love it on my tablet
  • why? I got 1 GB ram prob here!
  • lol "paint your boss" - Gonna need a bigger canvas... OHHHHHHHHHHH!! snap.
  • Why does this need 1GB of RAM?
  • Because it uses heavy physics
  • What do you mean by 'heavy physics'?
  • http://images.wikia.com/poohadventures/images/8/8f/Marty-mcfly.jpg
     
  • +1985
  • It only works on a Lumia 920....snap!
  • Yeah, nice going there Microsoft. Winning the hearts and minds of Lumia users, only half of your customers won't be able to use it (520, 620, 625, 720).
  • Its about time Microsoft creates some cross platform apps for Windows 8/Phone 8.
    Now if we could get the full Bing News app on WP and Bing Music on Surface that would be something! :D
  • So, I can run a heavy ass game like asphalt 7 on my phone but can't run this lil painting app? K
  • There are lots of physics involved..
  • I didn't get to enjoy Fresh paint on a touchscreen on windows 8. But finally I can enjoy it on my phone! Thanks goes to MSFT
  • Awesome!
  • I LOVE this on my tablet.  But the phone version lacks it's most killer awesome feature: pressure sensitivity.  That is where the REAL power and artisitic capabilities of fresh paint lies.  And unfortunately, phone digitizers are not digipen and pressure sensitive.  This app seriously comes ALIVE with pressure sensitivity.  
  • Ever heard of the Samsung S-Pen? And the fact that you can use Lenovo's pressure sensitivity stylus on phones?
  • Huh?  Because you can run MS Fresh Paint on a Galaxy Note?  Speaking in the context of phones that can ACTUALLY run this app, there are no pressure sensitive digitizer options available.  The S-Pen is irrelevant in this discussion.  
  • I meant that you can buy the S-Pen and use it on your Windows Phone/Windows tablet.
  • What?  You can't use an S-Pen on a Nokia Lumia; it won't work!  Unless you coated the tip in metal.  And there would be NO pressure sensitivity at all, it would only register a touch just like your finger would.  Pressure sensitivity has to be built into the device.  A digitizer pen doesn't magically give you pressure sensitivity.  
  • Pressure sensitivy, alright, I agree that that has to be built into the device. But I can confirm that the S-Pen (aside from the pressure sensitivity) works fine on a Lumia without coating the tip in metal.
  • That's funny, because I had a couple people try the S-pen from a Note II on their super sensitive Lumias, and they said it did absolutely nothing.
  • Yes you can use it because it has capacitative screen capabilities but why spend the money on an extra one when it's main feature won't do you any good?
    The main point of the S-pen is it has the "wacom" pressure sensitive capabilities built into it. That requires that the screen has the appropriate digitizer built into it. Which Windows Phones currently do not have. Which is why my feature rich wacom stylus on my Surface Pro isn't anything more than a simple capacitative stylus on my wifes Surface RT.
  • Seriously? Because I use a Wacom Intuos 4 pen, and it does absolutely NOTHING on my 920, 820, 810, and 620. I also have a Lenovo Wacom pen from my X220 Tablet and same thing, does NOTHING. Are you guys using magic styli enchanted with fairy dust or something?
  • No they're not; read Goodeye's post (the one you replied to) again.
  • Loving it!
  • Works really well...better performance than on RT
  • I thought GDR2 for T-Mobile 8X came out today? .. What happened .. I've gotten no update?!
  • Cool! Until I read the 1 GB of RAM thing... so a no-go for me because I have the Lumia 720.
  • I know how that feels bro
  • Dem same feels :(
  • So much supported languages! Very good for MS.
  • Awesome!! XD
  • Have been waiting so long for this, but the 1GB RAM requirement turns me downnnn away. :'(
  • I know that feel bro
  • wow I didn't expect this!
  • This makes me a great day! Keep it up!
  • Im glad you are now a great day
  • good catch
  • :O
  • needs 1 gb of ram
     
     
  • 1gb RAM? WTF!
  • This is part of the 1% of apps that will not run with less than 1GB RAM
  • i have noticed dat every new relese nowdays requires 1 gb ram,,!!!##
  • Next time get a phone with at least 1gb.... so you wont run into this problem any more. OR sell it and buy a new phone wiht 1gb....
     
    It does seem like that.... Not sure why Microsoft released phones that would not run some big apps on the platform, I know cost comes into it but, in the real world, how much different is it to put 1gb over 512mb ? Can't see it costing more than $10-20 in the cost of things...
  • Ha! Surprisingly AWESOME!!! 810 guy ;)
  • I made a happy little tree.
  • Show me
  • Was just going to download it then I saw the 1GB requirement :'( although they are 1%, these apps are the high profile ones that people actually care about.
  • +512 of shite ram
  • Does it sync my paintings over SkyDrive with the Windows 8 App? Would be cool!
  • Hey, Dan! What do you take those pictures with for the articles? They look pretty great! 
  • Wow, real great app.
  • cool app
  • wow it neeeds 1GB while almost all games including angry birds, monster burner work fine on 512MB phones
  • Those are two of the simplest games in the world :)
  • Been looking for something like this for a while on Windows Phone .. Finally. Works good so far
  • 1GB RAM required? Bullshit. Don't sell phones with stupid specs that you won't fully support then.
  • Lumia 520 here. Really disappointed. I'm okay not having top tier games but apps?! :/
  • Lovely news. Hopefully we see more and more cross Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 apps.
  • I was happy to install it till I got to the 1Gig requirement. After that I was like http://chocolatenyanko.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/okaymeme.jpg
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  • What about the guys with 512 mb ram devices?
    "1 GB" my foot!!
    Over a decade ago used to play GTA Vice City on my crappy PC with 256 MB RAM. Its becoming a trend to somehow discriminate consumers with low-end phones on almost every platform except iOS, cos it have no low-end devices. Earlier,256 MB RAM was min requirement for WP7 & Lumia 710 with 512 MB RAM enjoyed all the premium apps leaving behind the poor 610 & 510. And now 512 MB RAM is the min requirement for WP8, hence the guys with HTC 8S & Lumia 520,620 & even 720 are suffering. I know that games require superior graphic performance that low RAM devices can't afford but this is not the case with apps. Anyways, am glad that this time I bought a high end Lumia 920 over my old Lumia 610.