Kid Pix

Kid Pix is a bitmap drawing program aimed at children. Created by Craig Hickman, it was first released for the Apple Macintosh in 1989 and subsequently published in 1991 by Brøderbund. Kid Pix was inspired after watching his son Ben struggle with MacPaint, thus the main idea behind its development was to create a drawing program that was very simple to use.

Kid Pix has been expanded far beyond the realm of a simple drawing application, the latest version includes the ability to create slide shows and to incorporate animated elements into an otherwise static canvas.

= History =

*Development started on Kid Pix some time in 1988 *Original black and white version is distributed in 1989 *1990 - Kid Pix Professional is released at a price of $25 with sound, colour, the mixer tool, more stamps and bilingual menus in English and Spanish. *Brøderbund offers to publish Kid Pix *March 1991 - Kid Pix 1.0 is released with impressive sales and reviews *1992 - Kid Pix Companion adds new features and QuickTime movies *1993 - Kid Cuts, a derivitive of Kid Pix that allows for creation of special projects, is released *1994 - Kid Pix 2 markets both Kid Pix and the Companion together *1994 - Kid Pix Fun Pack adds new stamps and hidden pictures *1995 - Kid Pix Studio is released *1998 - Kid Pix Deluxe is released *1999 - Kid Pix Studio Deluxe is released *2004 - Kid Pix Deluxe 4 is released

= Features =

The interface was designed to be as easy to use and as open ended as possible.[http://pixelpoppin.com/kidpix/] The canvas occupies most of the available screen space. Unlike other drawing programs, all of the canvas is shown all of the time. The drawing tools available to the user are placed in a column of buttons down the left edge of the screen. Instead of using Menu (computing) to access the different options that each tool has, they are displayed in a row of Icon (computing) along the bottom of the screen. Selecting a new tool presents a new set of options, such as different styles for the Wacky Brush . The colour palette is situated below the list of tools and consists of a collection of coloured squares for each of the available colours.

== Basic Drawing Tools ==

*Pencil Tool, the Pixel drawing tool. With six different sizes.

*Line Tool, used to create perfectly straight lines. Six line thickness are provided.

*Paint Bucket, used to fill an area with a solid colour or a pattern.

*Square Tool, used to create perfect square or rectangular shapes. By changing the line thickness in the line tool you could change the thickness of the square.

*Circle Tool, similar to the Square Tool. It is used to create perfect circles, as with the Square Tool the thickness can be changed using the line tool.

== Special Drawing Tools ==

Kid Pix includes a selection of tools that go beyond drawing simple lines and shapes. These are clearly aimed at the interests of children and have a fun playful feel to them.

*Wacky Brush, contains an array of options to paint various effects onto the image, such as a line of dripping paint, a line of shapes or a random leafless tree.

*Mixer Tool, provides various options to affect the entire image with distortion, blurring and fading effects.

*Rubber Stamps, a collection of small icons that can be added to the picture in a way similar to the use of clip art. The original stamps were taken from the Apple Computer font named Cairo. From Kid Pix Professional onwards the size of the stamp on the canvas could be enlarged.

== Selection and Erasing Tools ==

*Erasing Tools, these provide several different ways to erase various parts, or all, of your drawing. For example, the popular firecracker, which would cause the image to explode in alternating black and white concentric circles.

*Moving Truck, allows various parts of the image to be selected and moved around the canvas. There are different shapes and sizes that the selections can be, such as circles or rectangles.

*Dye Tool, used to pick out colours already used somewhere in the canvas.

== Text Insertion ==

*Text tool, provides rubber stamps of the letters of the alphabet which speak the name of the letter when selected.

*Typing tool, provides basic abilities to add text to the image in different fonts and various sizes.

== Other Tools ==

*Sound tool, allows you to record your own sounds to add to your pictures.

== Undo Guy ==

The Undo Guy is a humorous spin on the standard undo button. The creator of the program believed that undo is such an important function that it deserves a button of its own.[http://pixelpoppin.com/kidpix/] The Undo Guy undoes the last change to the image and cries such phrases as Oh no! and Ooops! upon being clicked.

= Kid Pix 2 =

Kid Pix 2 added new features to the original. These features were originally availible in an add-on known as Kid Pix Companion.

==SlideShow==

A program allowing the creation of a Slide show of Kid Pix images with transitions and custom recorded sounds. By setting the time delay between slides to the lowest possible setting crude animations can be created using multiple Kid Pix images acting as each of the Frame (film) of animation.

==Wacky TV==

The Wacky TV allows the user to watch video clips in common media formats. The picture can then be distorted using various buttons.

= Kid Pix Studio =

A later version of Kid Pix entitled Kid Pix Studio offers a complement of programs to the original Kid Pix. It opened up the ability for children to create not only static images but animated creations as well.

==Features==

===Wacky TV===

Same as in Kid Pix 2.

===Kid Pix===

The standard Kid Pix program in colour, updated with a slightly more modern looking interface and new features such as colouring in pages.

===SlideShow===

Extended to allow the use of any Kid Pix, Moopie, Stampimator and Digital Puppet files in the slide show.

===Moopies===

Very similar to the standard Kid Pix program except with a reduced canvas size and the ability to add several animated rubber stamps and wacky brush items. Music and sounds can also be chosen to play in the background of the moopie .

===Stampimator===

Again similar to the standard Kid Pix program and Moopies , except the animated rubber stamps can be dragged across the canvas recording a path which they would then repetitively follow.

===Digital Puppets===

Several pre-made computer puppets are provided in this program. The user can animate them like a real puppet including choosing facial expressions. Sound and music can be added to go along with the movement of the puppet.

===Standalones===

The Moopies , Digital Puppets , Stampimator and Slideshow creations can be saved as a standalone executable that enables them to be viewed by others regardless of them owning a copy of Kid Pix Studio . Slideshows also have the added possibility of being exported to a video file, although this functionality is limited to slide shows that contain only Kid Pix drawings.

==Kid Pix Studio Deluxe==

A later version entitled Kid Pix Studio Deluxe allowed you to edit text items once they were placed down (in previous versions this was not possible). It was also possible in this version to have the computer read out the text.

= Kid Pix Deluxe =

Kid Pix received a significant makeover with Kid Pix Deluxe. It was updated with a new 3-D computer graphics looking interface and new wacky sound effects which makes it almost unrecognisable from the older versions. The only surviving new feature inherited from Kid Pix Studio was the Slideshow. This is possibly because the others were rendered unnecessary with the addition of clip art pictures and animations to the basic Kid Pix program. Some believe this has given Kid Pix a stronger emphasis on the user using pre-drawn images rather than creating their own.

== New Tools ==

*Background, to select a premade background from a large library.

*Static Clip Art, a large library of premade static clip art.

*Animated Clip Art.

*Sound Tool, used to select sounds for the image from the provided library or to record your own.

*Play Button, upon being clicked the animated clip art on the page would animate, the selected sound (if any) would begin to play and text typed would be spoken by the selected voice.

= Multiple Kid Pix Controversy =

As of 2005, Brøderbund currently licenses the Kid Pix product to both The Learning Company and MacKiev. The Learning Company produces Kid Px Deluxe 4X for Mac OS X while MacKiev produces Kid Pix Deluxe 3x for Mac OS X. The MacKiev version has been widely acclaimed in the media, garnering a 4.5 mouse rating from MacWorld magazine and a Best Of Show award at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2004. The Learning Company version of Kid Pix has been known for lack of support, long outstanding bugs, file saving errors, and incompatibility with a managed client environment that is common in many schools. Regardless of this, The Learning Company version is still quite common in schools due to state contracts and purchasing arrangements throughout the United States.

=References=

# [http://pixelpoppin.com/kidpix/ Kid Pix: The Early Years]