Solid art: Windows 10, makes 3-D creation, a dummies game for all

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany, seven centuries ago, it changed books for ever, taking jealously guarded hand-written texts out of the hands of a small elite class of priests and bringing them to aam janatha of the day.

Last week Microsoft announced a major update — coming next week — to its Windows 10 operating system, with the pitch that it would have an effect similar to the Gutenberg press on the next wave of computing.

Before we dismiss that as hyperbole, let us examine what is new in the upcoming avatar of Windows 10 to be known as the Creators Update.

The single biggest change is that the drawing and photo editing software, Windows Paint, has gone 3-D. Once you have installed the free update, you can capture, create and share three dimensional images. It will be dummies-level simple to create 3D objects from scratch, easily changing colours or adding textures from a drop down menu.

Or you can take an existing 2D picture and quickly turn it into a 3D work of art. If you are too lazy to do even that, you can go to Remix3D.com and access a large library of pre-made 3D art in an online library that you can freely use, tweak or share.

The new Paint 3D Object tool is easy and intuitive enough to be used by a child — and if the cannily named Creators update can indeed turn the rest of us into creators of 3-D art and objects, the Gutenberg analogy may not be so farfetched after all.

For those with more professional inclinations, the 3D Paint tool also allows users to send their output to a 3D printer, if they have one. Such printers are becoming cheaper every year and basic units can be had on India for half a lakh of rupees or less. I can see schools and colleges adding a 3D printer to their craft and hobby tools, now that simple software to create 3-D patterns is available.

The Creators Update has other elements: Beam, a new tool for the interactive broadcasting of your game play to fellow gamers that will be compatible with a games console like XBox. New features in the Edge browser include better management of multiple windows and tabs: you can see thumbnails of all the tabs you have open. And additional security features, include a single dashboard display so you can control all your security options from one place.

But the icing on the cake is the democratization of 3D. Free upgrades for all legal Windows 10 systems will be available from April 11.