Good paint / drawing programs for kids?

December 26, 2005 12:42 PM

What's a good paint / drawing program for a 6 yo girl, on Windows XP?

I know there's good stuff out there, I'd just like some recommendations. I am willing to shell out some money to get something my daughter will enjoy more than Paint. Bonus points if it's got little unicorn stamps and stuff like that.

posted by beth to Shopping (17 answers total)

Personally, I was happy with MS Paint as a kid.
posted by BradNelson at 12:46 PM on December 26, 2005

Kid Pix is a great program. I used version 3 as a elementary school computer instructor and the kids loved it. It is really easy to learn, yet has some advanced features that allow older kids to continue to enjoy it.
posted by richardhay at 12:48 PM on December 26, 2005

(and Kid Pix has all kinds of stamps. Version 3 that I have even has unicorns!)
posted by richardhay at 12:48 PM on December 26, 2005

TuxPaint has cute stamps and is designed for "ages 3 and up." It's free, open source software, and is available for Windows as well as many other platforms.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:51 PM on December 26, 2005

ArtRage
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:34 PM on December 26, 2005

I loved KidPix. It was absolutely perfect for me.
posted by devilsbrigade at 1:41 PM on December 26, 2005

The Crayola series of software perhaps?
posted by Hot Like Your 12V Wire at 2:23 PM on December 26, 2005

I'll third Kidpix. Great freaking software.
posted by zpousman at 2:32 PM on December 26, 2005

I remember back in the early years of Primary School (I think you yanks call it 'grade school' or something) the computers that were installed with KidPix were the hottest things ever. That must have been at least 11 years ago, so it certainly has lasted the ages.

So yeah, I'll fourth it.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 2:49 PM on December 26, 2005

The free paint.net is not specially kid-sized, but if your daughter has exhausted MS Paint (which doesn't take long of course) then paint.net gives more scope for real image manipulation. Even if you buy KidPix (haven't seen it, but it sounds attractive) you might want to get paint.net just for its free power.
posted by anadem at 3:05 PM on December 26, 2005

I hate to sound silly, but why not start her on Photoshop? I started using it in elementary school.

Kids are naturally curious and are really able to grasp new ways of doing things quickly. Not only that, they enjoy it :) That's something adults can't do.

Of course, it might be hard if she can't even read yet. I don't have kids, but I wouldn't hesitate to try them out on adult software to see if they could hack it before moving them on to the easy stuff.
posted by Paris Hilton at 3:46 PM on December 26, 2005

seconding artrage, it has easy controls and its tracing mode is rewarding fun (heck i'm old and i use the tracing mode)
posted by suni at 4:19 PM on December 26, 2005

I loved KidPix when I was younger. Plus I think they still sell ad-on packs if she ever gets bored. I played around with it at the Apple store recently and it's still solid.
posted by radioamy at 4:38 PM on December 26, 2005

Pais Hilton may have a point, but I'd hazard not for a six year old. If you could find some kind of workbook with exercises aimed at that level, sure, but you'd probably need to wait until at least 10 before even 'for dummies' books were age appropriate. Of course - she could be a wunderkind...
posted by Sparx at 6:11 PM on December 26, 2005

Thanks, everyone. I downloaded TuxPaint and she's been having some fun with that, and I will definitely look for Kid Pix.
posted by beth at 7:41 PM on December 26, 2005

Mmm, old Kid Pix on the Mac. Gave me my love for image editing. I wonder if there's any abandonware available of the old versions.
posted by luftmensch at 11:32 PM on December 26, 2005

Free, and excellent -Tux Paint
posted by singingfish at 2:21 AM on December 27, 2005