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Tux Paint 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.
* 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.
* Loading and saving of images is done using thumbnails, so no knowledge of the underlying operating system's filesystem structure is needed.
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
* Rubber stamp
* Line Tool
* Shape Tool
* 'Magic' (special effects) tool
* Eraser
* Undo
Parental and Teacher Controls
* Run Tux Paint in full-screen mode to prevent children from accidentally accessing other programs on the desktop.
* Sound effects can be disabled.
* The Print and Quit options can be disabled.
* Alternatively, the Print option can be limited to allow only one print every n minutes.
* Tux Paint cannot be launched more than once every 30 seconds, to prevent multiple copies from being run accidentally, due to over-eager mouse clicking.
* The directory/folder where Tux Paint saves files may be changed.
* Stamps, starters and brushes are stored using popular open formats (PNG, SVG, Ogg Vorbis, etc.) allowing parents and teachers to create their own content for use at home or in the classroom - even using completely free tools.
* The 'Tux Paint Config.' program allows parents, teachers, and school technicians to alter Tux Paint's behaviour using a simple, easy-to-use graphical interface. (It's separate from Tux Paint, to prevent children from changing things.)
* ... and much more!
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