MS Paint Drawing Basic Shapes

MS Paint includes a built-in shapes library that makes drawing neat and precise shapes extremely easy. Instead of drawing a circle freehand, simply select the Ellipse shape and drag the mouse on the canvas. MS Paint does all the hard work. This topic covers every available shape, how to draw them correctly, and how to customise their outline and fill.

Where to Find the Shapes Tool

The Shapes group is on the Home tab of the ribbon. It appears as a collection of small shape icons. Click any shape icon to select it. The mouse cursor changes to a crosshair (+) on the canvas, indicating that the tool is ready to draw.

List of Available Shapes in MS Paint

MS Paint provides a wide variety of shapes for different purposes:

• Line – draws a straight line between two points
• Curve – draws a line that can be bent into a curve
• Rectangle – draws a four-sided shape with right-angle corners
• Rounded Rectangle – same as rectangle but with smooth, rounded corners
• Ellipse – draws an oval or a perfect circle
• Triangle – draws a three-sided shape
• Right Triangle – draws a triangle with one 90-degree corner
• Diamond (Rhombus) – draws a tilted square shape
• Pentagon – draws a five-sided shape
• Hexagon – draws a six-sided shape
• Arrow (4 directions) – draws directional arrows
• Star – draws a five-pointed star shape
• Heart – draws a heart shape
• Lightning Bolt – draws a zigzag bolt shape
• Callout shapes – speech bubble shapes for adding labels or dialogue

How to Draw a Shape

Follow these steps to draw any shape in MS Paint:

1. Open MS Paint
2. Click on the Home tab
3. Click the desired shape from the Shapes group
4. Choose a colour from the Colors group
5. Move the mouse to the canvas
6. Click and hold the left mouse button
7. Drag the mouse in any direction
8. Release the mouse button when the shape looks right

Example: To draw a rectangle, select the Rectangle shape, click on the canvas, drag to the right and downward, then release. A rectangle appears instantly.

Drawing a Perfect Circle or Perfect Square

By default, dragging the Ellipse tool draws an oval and dragging the Rectangle tool draws a stretched rectangle. To draw a perfect circle or a perfect square, hold the Shift key while dragging. This locks the proportions and produces a perfectly even shape.

• Shift + Ellipse drag = perfect circle
• Shift + Rectangle drag = perfect square
• Shift + Line drag = perfectly straight horizontal, vertical, or 45-degree line

Changing the Shape Outline

The Outline button in the Shapes group controls how the border of the shape looks. Click the arrow below the Outline button to see three options:

• Solid Color – the shape has a solid, filled border
• Crayon – the border appears rough, like drawn with a crayon
• Marker – the border appears bold and marker-like
• Oil – the border has a thick, painted look
• Natural Pencil – the border looks like a pencil sketch
• No outline – the shape has no border at all

Changing the Shape Fill

The Fill button controls what goes inside the shape. Click the arrow below the Fill button to see the options:

• No fill – the inside of the shape is transparent (shows the canvas or image behind it)
• Solid Color – fills the shape with Color 1 (the selected colour)
• Crayon – fills with a crayon texture
• Marker – fills with a bold marker texture
• Oil – fills with a thick paint texture
• Natural Pencil – fills with a light pencil texture
• Watercolor – fills with a soft watercolour texture

Using Color 1 and Color 2 with Shapes

When drawing shapes, MS Paint uses two colours:

• Color 1 (Foreground) – used for the outline of the shape. Left-click a colour swatch to set Color 1.
• Color 2 (Background) – used for the fill inside the shape. Right-click a colour swatch to set Color 2.

Example: Set Color 1 to black and Color 2 to yellow. Draw a rectangle. The border appears black and the inside fills with yellow automatically.

Drawing a Line

The Line tool draws a straight line between two points. Select the Line tool, choose its thickness from the Size option in the ribbon, then click and drag on the canvas. Hold Shift while dragging to snap the line to exactly 0°, 45°, or 90°.

Drawing a Curve

The Curve tool works differently from other shapes. Follow these steps:

1. Select the Curve tool
2. Click and drag on the canvas to draw a straight line
3. Release the mouse
4. Click somewhere near the line and drag — the line bends into a curve
5. Release the mouse to fix the curve in place

Changing the Line Thickness (Size)

The Size button in the ribbon controls how thick the outline of any shape or line appears. Click the Size button and choose from the options shown. Thicker lines produce bolder shapes, while thin lines produce fine, delicate outlines.

Practical Exercise

Try this simple exercise to practise shapes:

1. Open MS Paint
2. Draw a rectangle using a blue outline and a yellow fill
3. Draw a perfect circle (hold Shift) using a red outline and no fill
4. Draw a star using an orange solid colour fill
5. Draw a straight line from the left side to the right side of the canvas

Practising these steps builds muscle memory for using the Shapes tool quickly and accurately.