How to Replace Colors in MS Paint

This article provides a guide on how to use the color replacement feature in Microsoft Paint on Windows. While MS Paint doesn't offer advanced color replacement options like Photoshop, you can still use the eraser tool to replace a single color with another without affecting the rest of your project.

Open Paint. Type paint in the search bar, then click Paint from the Start menu. The Paint window will appear on your screen.

• If you see "Paint 3D" listed, don't select it – it's not Microsoft Paint.

Open the image you want to edit. Although Paint’s color replacement feature can’t handle complex colors, you can still open a simple Paint project or clip art image to modify as needed:

• Click File at the top left of the Paint window.
• Select Open from the dropdown menu.
• Navigate to the folder containing the image you want to open.
• Click the image file.
• Click Open.
• If you don’t want to open an existing file, create a new Paint project before proceeding.

Select the Eyedropper Tool. Click on the eyedropper icon in the "Tools" section at the top of the Paint window.

Click on the color you want to replace. This will display the selected color in the "Color 1" section at the top of the Paint window.

• You can zoom in for a clearer view of the color by clicking the + button at the bottom-right corner of the window.

Select the Eyedropper Tool again. Click on the tool icon in the "Tools" section to activate it.

• If the color you want to use for replacement is not present in the image, you can skip this step.

Right-click on the color you want to use to replace the first color. This action will add the selected color to the "Color 2" box, meaning the color in the "Color 1" box will be replaced by the color in the "Color 2" box.

• If you skipped the previous step, click on the Color 2 box at the top and choose the color you want to use from the color palette at the top of the window.

Select the Eraser Tool. Click on the pink eraser icon in the "Tools" section at the top of the Paint window.

Right-click and drag the eraser over the color you want to replace. This action swaps the color in the "Color 1" box with the color in the "Color 2" box, without altering the other colors in the image.

• Do not use the left mouse button at this step. This would cause the eraser tool to delete everything while you drag it, instead of only replacing the selected color with the new one.

• Make sure to use the eyedropper tool to select the first color. Skipping this step will cause the eraser tool to add "Color 2" to areas it touches instead of replacing the selected color.

• Sometimes, a color outline may appear around the object whose color you replaced. You will need to manually remove this outline.
• These steps can only be performed on MS Paint version 6.1 or later.