Three tools in the tool box handle straight strokes and bent ones. Line makes a single straight stroke, Curve turns a straight stroke into a bent one, and Polygon joins straight sides into a closed shape. All three take their thickness from the same width setting, and the polygon also has fill styles for an outline, a solid shape or both.
Draw a straight line with the Line tool
The tool box sits on the left side of the window, and the options area for whichever tool is active sits right below it. Clicking a tool's button there selects it. Until you release a line, it keeps being drawn again from the point where you started, so you can move the pointer around and settle on the angle and length you want.
- Click Line in the tool box.
- In the options area, pick a width from 1 to 5 pixels. The default width is 1, and the width you set stays in use until you change it.
- Set your colors in the color box along the bottom of the window: left-click a color to make it the primary color, or right-click one to make it the secondary color.
- Starting at one end, hold the button down and move to the other end. The line is placed when you release.
- Drag using the left button for a primary-color line, or the right button for a secondary-color one.
Keep a line level or diagonal with Shift
Hold Shift while you drag and the line jumps to whichever 45 degree direction is closest to the pointer. That gives eight possible directions: across, up and down, and the four diagonals. If the line is going wrong partway through, press Escape before you release and it is dropped without leaving a mark.
Bend a line into a curve with the Curve tool
The Curve tool uses the same five widths as Line. A full curve takes up to three drags; the third adds a second bend.
- Click Curve in the tool box and pick a width in the options area.
- Lay down a straight line first: hold the button at one end, move to the other end, and release.
- Make a second drag and the straight line bends with the pointer; releasing fixes that first bend in place.
- For a second bend, make one more drag. When you release this third drag, the curve is finished.
Snap or restart a curve
One bend gives a single arc, and a second bend reshapes it further. During the first drag, Shift works as it does for the Line tool and keeps that starting line on a 45 degree step. Choosing a different tool resets Curve, and your next press on the canvas begins a fresh curve.
Draw a polygon corner by corner
A polygon is a closed shape made only of straight sides, such as a triangle or an irregular outline. You start it with a drag and then add one corner per click. Shift has no effect on the Polygon tool, so sides are drawn at whatever angle you click.
- Click Polygon in the tool box and choose a fill style in the options area.
- Press on the first corner, then drag over to the next corner before releasing. This lays down the first side.
- Click where the next corner goes. Until that click, the newest side stretches from the previous corner to wherever the pointer is.
- Keep clicking until every corner is placed.
- To close the shape, either double-click, or make your last release close to where the first corner is.
Close the polygon cleanly
When the shape closes, Paint connects the last side back to the first one and draws the outline and fill to match the chosen fill style. Two details decide whether a closing move counts.
- Releasing near the start: the pointer has to be within roughly five times the line width of the first corner. A thicker line gives you more room.
- Double-clicking: the second click must come within about 250 milliseconds of the first and land no more than about 4 pixels away from it.
Pick an outline, a fill or both for the polygon
With Polygon selected, the options area shows three fill style icons with no text on them. The same three icons appear for Rectangle, Ellipse and Rounded Rectangle, and each of these tools keeps its own choice, so changing the polygon's style leaves the others as they were. The primary and secondary colors are the ones set in the color box, as in the Line steps above.
- First icon, the default: only the outline is drawn and the inside stays empty. Outlines come out in your primary color from the left button, or your secondary color from the right.
- Second icon: outline plus fill. Holding the left button puts a primary-color outline around a secondary-color inside, and the right button swaps them.
- Third icon: a solid shape with no outline. The shape is solid primary color from the left button, or solid secondary color from the right.
Set the line thickness for curves and polygon outlines
Only Line and Curve show width choices in the options area. The Polygon tool and the other shape tools have none of their own; their outline uses the width you last picked under Line or Curve. The + and - keys on the number pad change the width by 1, from 1 to 500, for Line, Curve, Rectangle, Polygon, Ellipse and Rounded Rectangle. Pressed mid-drag, they update the shape at once.
Undo a line, curve or polygon
A finished line, curve or polygon counts as one step in the undo history, so a single Ctrl+Z removes the whole thing, however many drags or clicks it took. For a straight line that you have not released yet, Escape throws it away instead.