Fine Artist
Raster graphics editor software
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Fine Artist is a raster graphics editor published by Microsoft under their Microsoft Kids portfolio. The editor allows the user to create paintings using a variety of brushes and stamps. The interface and environment is especially targeted towards children and is set in Imaginopolis, with a character named McZee acting as a virtual assistant. The editor's interface uses levels of a building as a visual metaphor each of the software's different features (e.g. one for creating new images, one as a gallery of existing images). The design of the program was very similar to that of its sister program Creative Writer, which was a word processor.[1] The program runs exclusively in full screen, creating an all-inclusive environment.
- Turning Point Software
- Microsoft Kids
| Fine Artist | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developers |
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| Release | January 1994 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows System 7 |
| Type | Raster graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
Fine Artist was designed and developed primarily by Turning Point Software in collaboration with Microsoft.[2] It was announced by Microsoft in December 1993 alongside Creative Writer.[3][4] It was released in January 1994 for both the PC and the Mac, requiring at minimum Windows 3.1 (for the PC) and System 7 (for the Mac).[5][6][7] Microsoft discontinued it in 1997.[8]
Fine Artist is considerably more powerful than Microsoft Paint, as it includes over 500 pieces of clip art (refereed to as "stickers" in the game), 50 of which are animated; 72 paintbrush styles; 76 assignable colors and patterns; and 87 predrawn backgrounds. It also has the ability to assign sound effects (from a library of 300) to any point on the painting. The sound effect can be activated by click on said point with the "magic wand" tool.[9][10] The software also generates sounds whenever the user clicks any of the tools.