About Tilly Paint 1.2
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Tilly Paint is a very simple paint program for very young children.

It's a bit like a cross between finger painting and etch-a-sketch.


How to use it

Start it up and move the mouse - just moving the mouse makes marks on
the screen. Press the space bar or click the mouse to change the colour
- you get a random colour and a random blob size. Move the mouse slowly
to get lines, move it quickly to get spots. To get a psychedelic
catepillar, move the mouse whilst holding the space bar down.
Press S to save the picture (saves in same folder as the TillyPaint application, saves a new image each time)
Press shift-backspace to erase the picture
Hold down the shift key to move your mouse without making a mark
Press shift-Q to quit


Background

I had the idea for it when my first child was very small - he could drag a mouse around but couldn't get the hang of holding the mouse button down and dragging at the same time - even the simplest paint program for children requires the child to click to make a mark.

I never got around to writing my paint program when Henry was small, nor William. But now Tilly is here and I managed to figure it out.


The author

TillyPaint is written by Giles Booth. It's freeware but all rights are reserved. You may distribute it in an unmodified form with this read me file intact.


The future

Visit the web site at http://www.othermachines.org/tillypaint
to see if I've developed it any further - ideas include printing, noises, possibility of colour changes being triggered by sound (synaesthesia, anyone?). If you have any ideas or comments about TillyPaint, drop me a line at tillypaint@othermachines.org


Software and readme  2005 Giles Booth,
London UK