GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIA: Painting with Pixels

Imagine how much of a whiz you'd be at editing photos or video if you grew playing with Photoshop or iMovie. Photoshop may be stretching it - especially for kids younger than 10. But there are several very good graphics and multimedia apps for the Mac that can give your wee ones a great foundation in the digital arts.

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An easy-to-use interface makes Kid Pix a winner.

KidPix 2007 Universal Edition

KidPix 2007 does two things at once: It helps your children create works of art while providing tons of entertainment. Junior can use one of thousands of art objects called stickers to make pictures, or he can use the freehand painting and drawing tools. True multimedia whizzes can add background music from an iTunes library, record sounds through a mic, or export animations for viewing on an iPod.

COMPANY: Software MacKiev
CONTACT: www.mackiev.com
PRICE: $39.95
AGE RANGE: 4 and up
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.1.5 or later, 192MB RAM, 170MB disk space
Abundance of art objects. Fun interface. Good iLife '06 integration. Universal binary.
Only one level of undo. Can't import iTunes-purchased music.

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Canvastic

Canvastic offers kids a leg up in future careers as marketers or digital designers, letting them design slideshows and other graphics projects. Our younger testers found the blank canvas baffling, but kids 8 and up got the hang of it quickly. Devoid of novelty "kid features," Canvastic offers serious functionality.

COMPANY: Canvastic
CONTACT: www.canvastic.com
PRICE: $79
AGE RANGE: 4 to 14
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.8 or later
Clean interface can be customized for varying skill/age levels. Advanced graphics functionality without a huge learning curve. Universal binary.
Pricey compared to other kid-oriented software.

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Unleash the future Pixar animator in your child.

Cosmic Blobs

The next time your child comes home from the latest 3D animated blockbuster awestruck and inspired, fire up Cosmic Blobs, a 3D modeling application made for kids. Like all good kids' software, the app encourages creativity and doesn't punish experimentation. With a groovy interface that almost makes you want to eat it, our testers had to be threatened with early bedtime before they'd yank themselves away from the screen where they were creating flora and fauna in three lifelike dimensions. At first, you may need to help your kids conceptualize 3D objects and use some of the tools, but once they get the hang of it, good luck getting them to play outside.

COMPANY: SolidWorks
CONTACT: www.cosmicblobs.com
PRICE: $34.99 download, $39.99 CD
AGE RANGE: 7 and up
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.9 or later
Makes 3D modeling easy - which isn't that easy to do. Universal binary.
No keyboard shortcuts.

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GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIA: Also try...

Rare is the free kid-oriented app that's as full-featured and nicely designed as Tux Paint (free download or $6.99 on CD, www.tuxpaint.org), which lets kids 3 and up create their own graphical masterpieces. With Comic Life Deluxe ($29.95, www.freeverse.com), kids 8 and up can blend photos and words in a way that makes storytelling fast, easy, and fun. (If you have a Mac with OS 10.3 or higher, you already have Comic Life.) Photo Kit Junior ($39.95, www.apte.com) is a learning tool disguised as graphics app: A cute green bug guides kids through a variety of activities, such as creating a movie using photos, staging a puppet show, and more. If your grade-school kids are into photography, check out Slide Show ($29.95, www.apimac.com) for sharing photos and videos.

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