Tux Paint |
Tux Paint is an .
=Overview=
Tux Paint was initially created for GNU/Linux, as there was no suitable drawing program for young children available for Linux at that time. It was written in the C programming language and uses the open source library (software), including Simple DirectMedia Layer, and has since been made available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS and other platforms. (See the [http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/download/ Tux Paint downloads page].)
=Features=
Tux Paint stands apart from typical graphics editing software (such as The GIMP or Photoshop) in that it was designed to be usable by children as young as 3 years old. The user interface is meant to be intuitive, and utilizes icon (computing), audible feedback and textual hints to help explain how the software works. The brightly-colored interface, sound effects and cartoon mascot (Tux, the Linux penguin) are meant to engage children.
Tux Paint s normal interface is split into five sections:
==Basic Drawing Tools==
Like most popular graphics editing and composition tools, Tux Paint includes a paintbrush, an eraser, and tools to draw lines, polygon and text. Tux Paint provides multiple levels of undo and redo, allowing accidental or unwanted changes to be removed while editing a picture.
==Interacting with the Operating System==
Tux Paint was designed in such a way that the user does not need to understand the underlying operating system or how to Computer file management. The Save and Open commands were designed to mimic those of software for personal digital assistant devices, such as the Palm Pilot handheld. When one saves a picture in Tux Paint, they do not need to provide a computer file name or file browser for where to place it. When one goes to open a previously-saved picture, a collection of thumbnails of saved images is shown.
Similarly, printing is typically a no questions asked process, as well.
==Advanced Drawing Tools==
Tux Paint includes a number of filters and special effects which can be applied to a drawing, such as blurring, fading, and making the picture look as though it was drawn in chalk on pavement (roads). These are available through the Magic tool in Tux Paint.
A large collection of art and Photography imagery are also available (under a License allowing free redistribution), and may be placed inside drawings using Tux Paint s Rubber stamp tool.
==Parental and Teacher Controls==
As features are added to Tux Paint, configuration options have been added that allow parents and teachers to disable features and alter the behavior to better suit their children s or students needs, or to better integrate the software in their home or school computing environment. Typical options, such as enabling or disabling sound effects and full-screen mode are available. There are also options that help make Tux Paint suitable for younger or disabled children, such as displaying text using only uppercase letters or ignoring the distinction between buttons on the Computer mouse.
=Example Artwork=
Image:tuxpaint-a-girls-bedroom.png| A Girl s Bedroom , drawn by a 10 year old using Tux Paint. Image:tuxpaint-girl-and-zaurus.gif| Girl and Zaurus , drawn on a Sharp Zaurus Personal Digital Assistant Image:tuxpaint-golden-gate-bridge-sf.png| Golden Gate Bridge , drawn by a 29 year old using Tux Paint.
(See also: [http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/gallery/ the Tux Paint Artist Gallery])
=Press=
*TUX Magazine, online magazine, June 2005 *Computer Idee magazine, the Netherlands, January 2005 *[http://digiweb.ihned.cz/4-10053740-15548820-i00000_d-cd Hospodářské Noviny] newspaper, Czech Republic, January 2005 *[http://www.redhat.com/magazine/002dec04/features/tux-paint/ Red Hat Magazine] online magazine, December 2004 *[http://web.planet.nl/planetdownload/pd91.php Planet Download] website, the Netherlands, December 2004 *[http://www.pcmech.com/show/opensource/737/ PC Mechanic] website, December 2004 *[http://www.magicalchildhood.com/news/vol67.htm Magical Childhood Newsletter] internet newsletter, October 2004 *[http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/tltoolkit/web_wonders/wonders_32_1.html Teacher Librarian Toolkit magazine], United States, October 2004 *PC Projects magazine, United Kingdom, September 2004 *[http://www.journaldugratuit.com/archives/jdg126.htm Journal de Gratuit] website, France, 2004 *[http://www.easylinux.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2003/11/042-edu/ Easy Linux] magazine, Germany, November 2003 *[http://www.computeractive.co.uk/Download/1144330 Computeractive] magazine, United Kingdom, October 2003 *[http://www.macmerc.com/news/newsbite/893 MacMerc], website, June [2003] *[http://www.erabili.com/zer_berri/berriak/1075229084 Erabili] website, Spain, March 2003 *[http://www.softcatala.org/prog155.htm Softcatalà], website, 2003 *[http://www.pclinuxonline.com/article.phpsid=3963 PC Linux Online] website, December 2002 *Linux Magazin, Germany, October 2002 *Revista Do Linux, Brazil, September 2002 *[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6224 Linux Journal] magazine, United States, September 2002 *Linux Magazine, Japan, September 2002 *[http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/education/tgs/tagatschool5.en.html TUX&] website, 2002 *[http://openopen.org/old/edu/tux/index.html OpenOpen] website *[http://www.aiutamici.com/software/descrizione.aspCodSw=883 Aiutamici.com] website, Italy
=See Also=
*GCompris *Kid pix *List of bitmap graphics editors *Comparison of bitmap graphics editors *Tux (Linux mascot penguin)
=External Links=
==Official==
*[http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/ Tux Paint website] *[http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/tuxpaint/ Tux Paint project] at SourceForge.net *[http://www.tux4kids.com/ Tux4Kids]
==Other==
*[http://www.orgalinux.com/tice55/article.php3id_article=27 TuxPaint - Dessin en primaire] *[http://www.o.ne.tz/tuxpaint/ TuKsi Koti la Rangi (Tux Paint in Swahili)] Swahili translation project *[http://www.huftis.org/nynorsk-programvare/tux-paint/ Tux Paint in Norwegian Nynorsk] Norwegian language Nynorsk translation project *[http://ironbishop.altervista.org/tuxpaint/ Tux Paint Localizzazione in Italiano (it_IT l10n)] Italian language translation project|
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