Tux Paint for Mac is a highly popular drawing and learning software designed for children. The latest version of Tux Paint for Mac enhances young users' interest in learning through engaging sound effects and a cartoon-style mascot—a friendly penguin. With a blank canvas and a wide range of intuitive drawing tools, Tux Paint allows kids to freely express their creativity and bring their imaginative ideas to life on screen.
Software Overview
Tux Paint for Mac is an excellent open-source drawing application for young children, combining fun and ease of use. It includes a full suite of drawing tools, support for rubber stamps, and magical "Effects" tools. The software supports multiple undo/redo actions, one-click saving, a thumbnail browser for loading saved artwork, and playful sound effects. The interface text is translated into over 15 languages, meeting the needs of users around the world.
Key Features
- Wide Variety of Brushes and Shapes: Choose from numerous brush styles and colors. To draw a straight line, click the "Lines" button; use the "Shapes" button to select from various geometric shapes such as rectangles, squares, circles, ovals, triangles, diamonds, and pentagons. You can even rotate and scale shapes before placing them on the canvas.
- Create, Save, and Open Artwork: Click "New" to start with a colored background. Click "Save" to store your drawing, or "Open" to browse and load previously saved artwork. Tux Paint displays saved images as thumbnails for easy navigation.
- File Management: Drawings are saved in PNG format in the
.tuxpaint/savedfolder. You can back up your children's masterpieces by copying these files to another location before they decide to redraw them! - Magical Effects Tools: The "Magic" tool is where the fun really begins. Use it to paint rainbows, add sparkle effects, annotate with chalk-style text, blur parts of your image, and much more—unlocking endless creative possibilities!
Software Features
1. Extensive Graphics Library
This application offers seemingly endless entertainment, especially for children who love to draw. Kids can hand-draw with the mouse, add lines, insert shapes (rectangles, circles, triangles, etc.), or use fun rubber stamps to enhance their artwork.
The Magic tools are sure to captivate users of all ages. Add stems, stencils, confetti, bubbles, grass, rain, mosaics, rainbows, kaleidoscope effects, snowflakes, tornadoes, and more to your drawings!
You can also adjust perspective, brighten or darken the image, add patterns or glass block effects, and choose from various text or label styles.
2. Separate Configuration Utility
Since the app is primarily for young children, the settings window is not accessible within the main interface. Instead, Tux Paint includes a fully independent configuration tool where parents or educators can customize the experience.
You can adjust the main window size, enable full-screen mode, disable keyboard shortcuts or the exit button, and control which tools and objects appear in the interface—limiting options to suit a child’s age and skill level.
Additional options include disabling shape rotation (helpful for younger users), displaying only uppercase text, loading only simple stamp outlines, disabling print/save functions, or even enabling joystick/gamepad control.
3. Fun for All Ages
Although marketed as a children’s application, Tux Paint is enjoyable for users of any age. Whether you're a child exploring creativity or an adult looking for a relaxing, playful drawing experience, you’ll have fun creating impressive drawings and designs.
4. Cross-Platform Compatibility
Tux Paint is available for macOS (10.10 Yosemite and later), Windows (7 through 11), Linux, Android, and other systems. Unofficial versions are also available for Apple iOS (iPhone/iPad).