Teachers in our school are mostly familiar with Silica Software’s Dazzle, but support for this seems to have ceased. We have recently acquired a new application called Textease Paint CT through the Tesco computers for schools scheme. TuxPaint was introduced last year to our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children.

Training has not yet been offered to staff on TuxPaint or Textease Paint CT, so most are unaware of their existence. A few are happy with Dazzle and others don’t require a paint program or are happy with the functionality and tools that are part of their interactive whiteboard.

The younger children in our school love to use TuxPaint because of its simplicity and its ability to create a picture from scratch very quickly. It comes complete with a wide range of different stamps and backgrounds that the children can start creating with, straight out of the box. The first thing you notice is that its interface differs from most other programs; each button is clearly labelled with a picture and label. There are no common menus with features hidden behind them, so it is perfect for our younger children who lack basic reading skills.

Another great feature of this free software is its parental and teacher controls that allow certain features in the program to be locked down so the child can’t access them. An example of this would be the ability to restrict a printout to once every 30 minutes for example, great for the reception kids who think drawing a single line warrants a printout!

The magic tool is simple to use: click it and you’re presented with a range of options on the menu on the right. Rainbows, chalk, drips and the likes can be created with a stroke of the brush. The children love these tools as they all do something rather magic!

 

Overall, TuxPaint is a great piece of software for younger children and provides them with every tool they require at a basic level. It may be the case that older children will require more tools and a more standardised interface; however they’re still provided with the tools to create a great picture.

 

The great thing about TuxPaint is it’s free, you don’t pay anything, no matter how many machines you install it on!

 

	Tux Paint	Textease Paint CT
Fixed size drawing canvas	Yes	Yes
Simple Icon save with thumbnails	Yes	No
Animated brushes	Yes	Yes
Ability to create new colour palettes	Yes	Yes
Number of rubber stamps	100+	12
User can create rubber stamps	Yes	Yes
Can resize, flip, mirror stamps	Yes	Yes
Ability to change fonts	Yes	Yes
Number of special effects	28	4
Multiple levels of Undo	Yes	Yes
Sound FX	Yes	No
Teacher configuration	Yes	No
Clone Tool	No	Yes
Symmetry	No	Yes
Transparency	No	Yes
Region selection	No	Yes
Magic wand selection	No	Yes
Instant telephone support	No	Yes
Platform	Windows 95/98/ME, 2000/XP/Vista, Linux, Mac OS X	Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista
Price	Free	£39.00 for an individual user license £499.00 for Primary Site License

TuxPaint will work on most platforms and doesn’t need much computing power to get up and running. A computer no more than 5 years old should be adequate.

Installation is simple - it’s just a case of a quick download from the website (9Mb).

If you want to use the stamp feature then don’t forget to download and install the rubber stamps (27Mmb) which can be found on the same download page.

TuxPaint can be downloaded freely from: http://www.tuxpaint.org/download/