Tux Paint [freeware]

[Tami]

[url=\"http://www.tuxpaint.org/\"][u]Tux Paint[/u][/url] is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program.

Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

Simple Interface

* A number of useful drawing tools are made available. (See below.)
* The drawing canvas is a fixed size, so the user doesn’t need to worry about “pixels” or “inches” when making a new picture.
* The entire program fits on a screen as small as 640×480, and can be displayed full-screen, to hide the computer’s underlying “desktop” interface. (It defaults to 800×600 mode, but can run at larger sizes and in portrait or landscape mode, as well.)
* Loading and saving of images is done using thumbnails, so no knowledge of the underlying operating system’s filesystem structure is needed. Even filenames are unnecessary.

Entertaining Interface

* Fun sound effects are played when tools are selected and used.
* A cartoon version of Tux, the Linux penguin, appears at the bottom to give tips, hints and information.

Drawing Tools

* Paint brush
o Various brushes available
o Parents/teachers can add more brushes
o Various colors available
* Rubber stamp
o Hundreds of photographic and cartoon stamps images are available
o Parents/teachers can add more stamps and create categories
o Stamps can have text (names, facts, etc.) and sound effects assigned to them
o Stamps can be resized, flipped and mirrored
o Raster bitmaps (Portable Network Graphics ("PNG")) with full-color and alpha transparency (32bpp RGBA) supported
o Vector graphics (Scalable Vector Graphics ("SVG")) supported (Coming in version 0.9.17!)
* Line tool
o Uses Paint Brush’s brushes
o “Rubberband” shows where the line will be drawn as you move the mouse
* Shape tool
o Draw various filled and unfilled polygonal shapes
o Rotate shapes (this feature can be disabled for younger children)
* Text tool
o Comes with various fonts
o Bold, italic and size can be changed
o Parents/teachers can add more fonts
* “Magic” (special effects) tool
o Fill – “flood-fill” an area with a particular color
o Grass – paint realistic clumps of grass on the screen and into the distance
o Bricks – paint realistic large or small brick patterns
o Rainbow brush – draw using a brush that paints in all colors in the rainbow
o Sparkles – draw glowing yellow sparkles
o Blur – blur parts of the picture using the mouse
o Smudge – push the colors around as though smudging wet paint
o Lighten – fade the colors of parts of the picture
o Darken – darken the colors of parts of the picture
o Chalk – make parts of the picture look like a chalk drawing
o Blocks – turn parts of the picture “blocky”
o Negative – invert the colors of parts of the picture
o Tint – change the color of parts of the picture
o Drip – make parts of the picture look like it’s dripping away
o Cartoon – make parts of the picture look like a cartoon
o Mirror – flip the image horizontally
o Flip – flip the image vertically
* Eraser
* Undo
o Multiple levels of undo
o Undo actions can themselves be undone with the “Redo” button

Commands

* Save
o Save a picture to the virtual “picturebook”
o One-click save: No file browser dialogs or filename prompts are used
o If saving an opened picture, choose to save over it (like “Save” in desktop programs), or save a new picture (like “Save As”)
* Open
o Open a previous drawing by selecting its thumbnail in a virtual “picturebook”
o Delete previously-saved pictures
* Slides
o View a slideshow of multiple saved drawings
o Control the speed of playback, for presentations or a simple looping animation
o Go forward or back using the arrow keys
* Print
o Print pictures on a printer