Creative Painter 2008

Creative Painter is a tool designed for kids, so they can paint in a digital environment and maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

The application is automatically initialized in full screen mode and has a user-friendly interface. Music is automatically played in the background, but you can disable it in the settings menu.

Unfortunately, since there isn't any kind of text to describe menus and functions, you can only rely on your curiosity and ambition to explore Creative Painter.

On the other hand, the help file offers information about all features found in this program, by displaying their icons. This can be initiated by pressing the F1 key.

Thus, a kid can use a color palette (just like the one in Windows' Paint), paintbrush, pencil, marker, crayon, chalk, spray can, figures, lasso, dropper, magnifying glass, eraser and magic wand. It is also possible to enter text and to select a different writing texture.

Furthermore, there's a "Picture Storehouse Area" in which you can toggle music, access predefined sketches, backgrounds, cartoons and animated pictures.

In addition, drawings can be saved (in the BMP format), printed or deleted. However, the Undo button can take you only one step back.

The program uses a low amount of system resources and its help file seems to explain features quite well. Although the interface can only be viewed in full screen mode, black margins which surround the drawing take up most of the screen.

Also, music stops playing after a while (and you don't have the possibility of playing your preferred songs) and the buttons are pretty small, so a kid might have a difficult time discovering features while relying solely on icons (at least text could have been displayed while the user is hovering the mouse over various items).

With all these considered, Creative Painter is a very good software for keeping your kid busy drawing, but its features could have been better implemented.