How to use color swap in MS Paint: 9 steps

Table of contents:

2023 Author: Martin Macey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 06:41

In this article, we are going to show you how to use the color replace function in Paint on a Windows computer. You cannot change complex colors in Paint (as in Photoshop), but you can use the Eraser tool to replace a simple color with another without touching other colors.

Steps

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 1

Step 1. Open the Start Menu

Click on the Windows logo in the lower left corner of the screen.

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 2

Step 2. Open Paint

Type paint, and then click Paint from the Start menu. The Paint window will open.

If the "Paint 3D" option is active, do not click on it - Paint 3D is different from Microsoft Paint

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 3

Step 3. Open the image (if necessary)

Paint's color swap feature does not work with complex colors, but you can open a simple image:

click "File" in the upper left corner of the window;
click on "Open" in the menu;
go to the folder with the desired image;
click on the image;
click "Open";
if you don't want to open an existing file, create a new image in Paint.

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 4

Step 4. Select the "Palette" tool

Click the eyedropper icon in the Tools section at the top of the window.

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 5

Step 5. Click on the color you want to replace

It will be labeled "Color 1" at the top of the window.

Zoom in to see the color better; to do this, click the "+" in the lower right corner of the window

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 6

Step 6. Select the "Palette" tool

Click the eyedropper icon in the Tools section at the top of the window.

Skip this step if the colors you want to replace the first color with are not in the picture

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 7

Step 7. Right-click on the color you want to replace the first color with

It will be labeled as "Color 2" which means that "Color 1" will be replaced with "Color 2".

If you skipped the last step, click Color 2 at the top of the window, and then click on the desired color in the palette (at the top of the window)

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 8

Step 8. Select the Eraser tool

Click on the pink eraser icon in the Tools section.

Use Color Replacement in MS Paint Step 9

Step 9. Hold down the right mouse button and drag over the color you want to replace

This will cause Color 2 to replace Color 1 (no other colors will be affected).

Don't use the left mouse button here; otherwise, the eraser will erase everything you swipe over (instead of replacing the color)

Advice

Select the first color using the Palette tool. Otherwise, the eraser will color everything it touches in "Color 2"

Cautions

Sometimes a colored border appears around the picture you have changed the color on. You will have to erase it manually.
These methods work in MS Paint 6.1 and newer.