As you can probably tell from the title, Kid Pix is an art package for children. Developed in the US by PC Programmer and father of a three year-old, Craig Hickman, the package has been designed specifically for younger users to exercise their imagination and creative skills within an environment that is user-friendly and simple without being over-simplified or restrictive. It has been a big hit with American children, and now it comes to the Amiga courtesy of Electronic Arts and the nimble fingers of John Jones-Steele, the coder behind numerous projects including the up-and-coming Amiga version of Sim Life from Mindscape.

The first thing I need to point out is that this is not an art package in the vein of Deluxe Paint. Deluxe Paint is full of tools which you can utilise to create certain effects and other options to make your art creation less cumbersome. Kid Pix is full of tools that are designed to stimulate ideas in children, rather than help them realise pre-defined images.

By way of explanation, if you were drawing a picture in Deluxe Paint, you would select brushes and tools when you had an idea of what you were going to draw. With Kid Pix, the idea is that children will experiment with the variety of aids, which will hopefully spark an idea which they can then create.

On loading first time, you are presented with a registration screen, where the child types in his/her name. On subsequent loads the program will announce that the software belongs to that person, creating a friendly link between child and machine. Then it is on the main screen and you are away!

Along the left hand side lie all the options, and the bottom strip of the screen contains all the sub-options for each item. Clicking on an option, for example the brush icon, brings up a bank at the bottom of the screen displaying all the brushes available. This strip can be spread over eight segments, displayed in rotation by clicking on a small arrow on the right hand edge of the strip. This is how all drawing functions are selected, using the left mouse button. The right mouse button comes into play when using the menu bar at the top of the screen, and as that is only used when loading, saving or altering some part of the program (display language, preferences, etc.), the right button is not used very often, making the program even easier to get into.

WYSIWYG
The main drawing area itself is smaller than a standard screen by about 32 pixels in each direction. Although this creates a non-standard screen size, it does mean that the entire picture is displayed at all times, making this a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) package.

The standard options are, as ever, freehand draw, line draw, box draw, ellipse draw, erase, undo and fill. Other options include an interesting selection of brushes, talking text, a variety of screen wipes and a plethora of pen styles, the likes of which have never been seen before. Sure, you have pens of different widths, and a selection of shades, but what about ones that emulate a leaking pen, that occasionally spurts large circles of ink onto the page? Or a pen that leaves a jagged line, making it impossible to draw straight?

Other pen and brush types include a trail of pie charts of different values, small coloured dots, a trail of letters, a dot-to-dot pen that leaves numbered spots on the screen rather than a line, a drippy paint brush, where the paint runs down the screen and even a pen that creates geometric shapes - the sort of thing you used to make with a Spirograph if you were (a) unlucky enough to be expected to play one and, (b) could never figure out to use it properly. If trees are your thing, one click with the fractal tree pen and you have got a complete tree ready to be coloured and given foliage.

CLIP ART
For those of you who would rather paste a picture together than start one from scratch, Kid Pix contains a clip art bank containing everything from tigers to trains, which can be lifted and stamped wherever you want, at three different sizes, and can be used either for the finishing touches or just for inspiration.

Editing a picture could not be easier. By clicking on the Moving Van Icon, you can draw a box around an area of the screen, and then lift it or copy it to memory. That new block can be manipulated and replaced anywhere, saving you a lot of time and effort when tailoring your picture.

There are also a bundle of full screen effects that can be called in to add that final bit of sparkle to your artwork. You can invert all the colours with a single click, or add a checked background to the whole piece, even tessellate it or split it into strips so that it resembles a Venetian blind!

'OH NO!'
One of the most interesting things about this package is the use of samples. Obviously the whole thing has been written to be as appealing to kids as possible, and what you end up with is a cross between Deluxe Paint and Sesame Street. Click on 'Undo' and a voice will say 'Oops' or 'Oh No!' before removing the offending mistake. Click on the text option, and the name of each letter will be said as you stamp it down, in the chosen language (selected from a menu of six different tongues, including Spanish and German). Even the pens make scratching noises as they are dragged across the page!

CONCLUSION
The big question here, of course, is how easy is it to use? If you can use a mouse, you can use this package, with ease. I know I am a little too old for it, but I was up and running with it inside about three minutes from loading, without reference to the manual.

The control method, only employing the left button for all tasks, is faultless and stops children from selecting options from the menu bar by accident. The menus are clearly laid out, and everything is where you would expect it to be. I cannot see any children having difficulty with this and as there are examples of artwork in the manual from kids as young as three years old, that statement reaches right down in the age range.

I wish I had Kid Pix when I was young. It is an extremely versatile tool, and one that younger children will really enjoy. It is 'messy' enough to keep you entertained even if all you want to do is doodle, but with the capacity to really work for something impressive if you want to. A superb package, and one that parents should not be without.