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Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, 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.

Tux Paint provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help your child be creative. Additional artwork ("stamps") can be downloaded and installed, providing a sticker-book functionality.

Tux Paint has been translated into over 45 languages, and a graphical configuration tool for parents and teachers is available which allows Tux Paint to be reconfigured to suit the special needs of children or the classroom environment.

Simple Interface

* A number of useful drawing tools are made available. (See Drawing Tools, 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 640x480, and can be displayed full-screen, to hide the computer's underlying 'desktop' interface. (It defaults to 800x600 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 Brushes can be animated
o Brushes can change shape depending on the direction they're drawn
o Alternate color palettes can be created and used
* 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 descriptive text and sound samples (names, facts, etc.) and/or 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
* 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 and Label tools
o Come with various fonts
o Bold, italic and size can be changed
o Parents/teachers can add more fonts
o Supports numerous languages (See International Character Input, below)
o Labels may be moved or edited later (Coming soon)
* 'Magic' (special effects) tool
o Blind - pull window blinds down, or across, the picture (Coming soon)
o Blocks - turn parts of the picture 'blocky'
o Blur - blur parts of the picture using the mouse
o Bricks - paint realistic large or small brick patterns
o Calligraphy - a smooth brush that changes thickness depending on how quickly you stroke
o Cartoon - make parts of the picture look like a cartoon
o Chalk - make parts of the picture look like a chalk drawing
o Color & White - turn the picture monotone
o Color Shift - Jumble the colors of the picture
o Confetti - Throw confetti over your picture
o Darken - darken the colors of parts of the picture
o Distortion - slightly alters the position of the picture under the brush
o Drip - make parts of the picture look like it's dripping away
o Edges - outline the edges of shapes in yur picture