A Good Computer Coloring Book
A Review of Magic Canvas
Karina Worlton
IBM's Magic Canvas is a paint program aimed at ages 3-10, and as such, is a very simple tool. Overall, it has entertainment value, but isn't very useful as an educational tool, or as a drawing program. It has lots of good features, with minor flaws.
Magic Canvas includes an Art Pack of twenty backgrounds for the young
artist to color. (Additional Art Packs can be ordered.) The backgrounds
are varied, with options such as a treehouse, haunted house, football field
and "freestyle" or blank screen. The graphics are appealing to children,
and can be colored with sixteen bright colors. The backgrounds can be
personalized using 10-15 "stamps" (graphics specific to each scene),
letters, numbers, and symbols.
Tools include "paint cans" (which perform the fill function), and crayons in three sizes. There are five sizes of erasers, and an option to wipe the canvas clean. The undo option will reverse the most recent change made to the canvas. The more advanced tools can be used on stamps to enlarge, reduce, flip top to bottom or left to right, and/or rotate them to the left or right.
Magic Canvas includes a few special features that make it better than the
average coloring book program. First, the graphical interface is easy to
use, with each tool represented by an icon. Even my two-year-old knows
where to click! Second, the program includes short random animation
sequences where a character, such as a star or a plane, praises the artist
("Cool!" or "Neato!").
Any time the artist leaves a painting, the program automatically saves it, allowing later access. Saved canvases can be exported to other programs in several graphic formats. The artist can also retrieve canvases from another copy of Magic Canvas.
The program is easy to install and use, making the included documentation
unnecessary. A help bubble appears whenever the cursor passes over
something the artist can click on. My favorite feature is the ability to
"lock" the program by use of a password, which keeps your child from exiting
the program and messing up your setup.
I found a few problems with Magic Canvas. First, adding color to the canvas can be difficult. The paint can (or fill) is hard to use in small areas. When I tried the crayons, I could not completely fill in an area, and I certainly could not draw anything with them. Second, the outline square used when resizing or rotating a stamp occasionally remained after the stamp had been placed. Third, the Help bubble kept getting in the way on the stamp screen.
To summarize, this is probably one of the better coloring book programs
I've seen. Don't expect it to be a full-featured paint program, and you'll
probably find that your youngsters enjoy playing with it. By the way, I
recommend that you don't run the program in anything higher than a 640x480
color resolution, as it is becomes harder to use with higher resolution.
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Magic Canvas |
| Company: |
IBM Multimedia Publishing Studio
|
| Cost: |
$16.95 |
System Requirements:
IBM Compatible PC with 386 or higher processor,
1.44 MB 3.5" diskette drive, 4MB RAM,
5MB available hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later,
SuperVGA display supporting 256 colors,
mouse or other pointing device.
Optional:
Windows compatible sound card
Windows compatible printer.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 2
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 3
Overall Score:
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