Microsoft Adds AI Coloring Tools to Paint and Notepad

The most striking addition is the “Coloring book” feature in Paint version 11.2512.191.0, which allows users to generate blank templates from text prompts. By selecting the option from the Copilot menu, creators can describe a scene—such as a cat on a donut—and receive four distinct designs to populate their canvas. While the tool targets casual digital art, access is restricted to Copilot Plus PCs, suggesting the move serves as a hardware showcase rather than a universal utility. Paint also receives a practical non-AI upgrade in the form of a fill tolerance slider, granting users granular control over color application.

Notepad 11.2512.10.0 focuses on efficiency, introducing streaming previews for the Write, Rewrite, and Summarize functions. Instead of forcing users to wait for a complete output, the app now displays text as it generates, trimming the latency of AI-assisted drafting. These shifts signal a broader strategy to integrate Copilot deeper into the Windows ecosystem, turning foundational software into testing grounds for generative hardware performance.