Microsoft Paint is soon to head to the great bitmap in the sky, so we asked our readers to share their own images created using the venerable graphics editing program.

Some contributions were deeply odd and must never be seen by human eyes. Of the others, we have carefully rounded up our favourites and present them to you below.



How a cat works



“Way back during the Windows 95 era I was trying to explain to a feline-obsessed work colleague how my cat had a special trick which involved lying on his back and pushing himself along with his feet in order to reach a treat,” says Marcus, who in “true MS Paint tradition” has sent his image as a bitmap.

How a cat works. Photograph: Marcus

“I guess at the time I decided that the best way to explain this was to fire up [my computer] to try to describe the scene, badly, with a mouse. The end result is a picture that I always thought represented the best and worst of Paint.

The humble stegosaurus



‘I’m sure it’s not as good as what I could whip up 20 years ago’. Photograph: Eoin Dornan

“I first encountered MS Paint in the early 1990s,” says Eoin Dornan from Dublin. “As a child my main concern when encountering any new technology, be it a spiral bound notebook or an Intel 386, was how it could facilitate my main passion, which was drawing pictures of dinosaurs.



“As a tribute to my decades of MS Paint use I have done up a quick stegosaurus.”

A whole new world



Aladdin, in the MS Paint stylee. Photograph: Barry Barber

“MS Paint is good fun for just messing about and not being too serious,” says Barry Barber, a games developer. “Just for fun, I did a load of old video game screen shots in Paint.”



‘As it dies, I die also’



Not really sure what’s going on here. Photograph: Rachel Swan

“Over the years, MS paint has been my professional go to as a clear artist with expertise,” explains Rachel Swan, tongue firmly lodged in cheek.Paint was the solid associate you fired up when you knew there were better ways to achieve your goal.



“As it dies, I die also.”

There’s always a bigger fish



A typical underwater scene. Photograph: Lucy Smith

And what about the office workers? Did Microsoft not consider the office workers? Lucy Smith was one of a surprising number of people who said bonding over a lack of drawing ability was a big success in her workplace.



“Every Friday afternoon we hold an animal paint challenge in the office. You get two minutes to draw the “animal of the week” using Paint.



“As you can imagine some are better than others.”

Bollywood bitmaps



Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Photograph: Areeq Chowdhury

Procrastination at university for me involved a mixture of minesweeper, solitaire, and Microsoft Paint. Here’s one I drew of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,” says Areeq Chowdhury in Manchester, who describes himself as an “avid fan”.



“The fact that Paint is clunky and amateurish makes drawing pictures on it feel like art.”



Sheriff of the Moon



How much crime even is there on the moon? Photograph: Mark Byrne

“This is a picture of me, as sheriff of the moon, riding my dinosaur,” says Mark Byrne.



“I made this when I was 35.”