Forget Cocreator and AI, this genius put Paint into Microsoft Notepad

What you need to know

• A developer created an app that allows you to draw within Microsoft Notepad using text characters.
• The app, dubbed "Paintpad," has a few features, such as changing the color of input and evaporating any content created.
• The developer behind Paintpad has made several other projects, including a first-person shooter inside Notepad and the Desktop Goose app.

Creators rejoice! Windows has a new app to handle all your digital artwork needs. Okay, not really, but you can now draw within Notepad. Developer SamNChiet made it possible to draw within Microsoft Notepad using text characters. SamNChiet calls the project "Paintpad" and joked that he "made MS Paint in Notepad."

You may recognize SamNChiet from other fun projects, such as Desktop Goose. While that app was designed to "ruin" your desktop, SamNChiet's Notepad project is built for creators. Paintpad is rather limited in its features, but it looks fun to play with.

In Paintpad, you can drag a cursor around to draw within Microsoft Notepad. Rather than painting with a brush or digital pen, dragging the cursor creates images by adding text to Notepad. Specifically, the "#" character appears within the app.

While not as feature rich as Paint, Paintpad has a few tricks up its sleeve. The app supports increasing or decreasing the size of your input as well as changing colors. You can clear away what's on the canvas with the "Evaporate" tool and hide Paintpad's UI if you'd like.

SamNChiet is no stranger to getting Notepad to do things it was never meant to accomplish. A previous project made a first-person shooter inside Notepad.

Paintpad was made as part of a joint effort that SamNChiet led through a live stream. That collaboration led to the addition of the "Evaporate" term and other options. It does not appear that it's possible to download Paintpad at this time.

A great week for creators on Windows

Paintpad is a fun project, but its existence is not the only Paint-related news this week. Microsoft announced Cocreator for Paint and showed the feature off during its Build conference. That feature allows you to draw within Paint and then have AI create an image inspired by your artwork.

Creators also received welcome news on the Windows on Arm front. Adobe pledged to optimize its entire suite of apps for Windows on Arm. Photoshop already runs on Arm natively, but Premiere Pro and other Adobe apps will soon follow. That's a big boost for anyone who plans to buy a Copilot+ PC, which run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors.