Kid Pix
© 1998 Brøderbund
Note: The following review is for version 1.0. Newer versions are available. See also Kid Pix 3D. For a rock-solid children's drawing and painting program, you can't go wrong with this classic. Be forewarned, however, although this is an upgrade of the original product, there aren't many new features besides text-to-speech capabilities and some new clip art and music. When it was first released back in 1991, Kid Pix's design power turned heads. Unfortunately the original drawing program is essentially the same. This version of Kid Pix is a bit like a trusty Model-T when compared to new programs like Flying Colors 2.0 and Disney's Magic Artist Studio which have many more tools and options. The opening menu offers five activities. Most children go directly to the drawing portion of the program to start creating. The other four areas let kids make moving pictures, watch cartoons, make a puppet dance by pressing keys on the keyboard and learn about animation. Kid Pix handily loads onto your hard disk, so no CD is required. You'll find a nice range of paint tools, a vast array of tiny stamps and the ability to erase your picture with a stick of dynamite. You can easily create professional-looking slide shows out of an entire classroom of children's work– great for back-to-school nights. We appreciated the program's ability to switch between Spanish and English. The new text-to-speech feature reads back children's writing and pictures can be imported or exported in BMP (PICT for the Mac), JPG or GIF formats. Kid Pix earns every bit of its 4.4 star rating, but we'd love to see some new design features and a smoother interface.
$39.99, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: creativity, art