Tux Paint
version 0.9.21
A simple drawing program for children
Copyright 2002-2009 by Bill Kendrick and others
New Breed Software & Tux4Kids
bill@newbreedsoftware.com
http://www.tuxpaint.org/
June 14, 2002 - April 28, 2009
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+-------------------------------------------+
| Table of Contents |
|-------------------------------------------|
| * About |
| * Using Tux Paint |
| * Loading Other Pictures into Tux Paint |
| * Further Reading |
| * How to Get Help |
+-------------------------------------------+
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About
What Is 'Tux Paint?'
Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children (kids
ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound
effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as
they use the program. It provides a blank canvas and a variety of
drawing tools to help your child be creative.
License:
Tux Paint is an Open Source project, Free Software released under the
GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free, and the 'source code'
behind the program is available. (This allows others to add features,
fix bugs, and use parts of the program in their own GPL'd software.)
See COPYING.txt for the full text of the GPL license.
Objectives:
Easy and Fun
Tux Paint is meant to be a simple drawing program for young
children. It is not meant as a general-purpose drawing tool.
It is meant to be fun and easy to use. Sound effects and a
cartoon character help let the user know what's going on, and
keeps them entertained. There are also extra-large
cartoon-style mouse pointer shapes.
Extensibility
Tux Paint is extensible. Brushes and "rubber stamp" shapes can
be dropped in and pulled out. For example, a teacher can drop
in a collection of animal shapes and ask their students to
draw an ecosystem. Each shape can have a sound which is
played, and textual facts which are displayed, when the child
selects the shape.
Portability
Tux Paint is portable among various computer platforms:
Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc. The interface looks the same
among them all. Tux Paint runs suitably well on older systems
(like a Pentium 133), and can be built to run better on slow
systems.
Simplicity
There is no direct access to the computer's underlying
intricacies. The current image is kept when the program quits,
and reappears when it is restarted. Saving images requires no
need to create filenames or use the keyboard. Opening an image
is done by selecting it from a collection of thumbnails.
Access to other files on the computer is restricted.
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Using Tux Paint
Loading Tux Paint
Linux/Unix Users
Tux Paint should have placed a laucher icon in your KDE and/or GNOME
menus, under 'Graphics.'
Alternatively, you can run the following command at a shell prompt
(e.g., "$"):
$ tuxpaint
If any errors occur, they will be displayed on the terminal (to
"stderr").
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Windows Users
[Icon]
Tux Paint
If you installed Tux Paint on your computer using the
'Tux Paint Installer,' it will have asked you whether you wanted a
'Start' menu short-cut, and/or a desktop shortcut. If you agreed,
you can simply run Tux Paint from the 'Tux Paint' section of your
'Start' menu (e.g., under "All Programs" on Windows XP), or by
double-clicking the "Tux Paint" icon on your desktop.
If you installed Tux Paint using the 'ZIP-file' download, or if you
used the 'Tux Paint Installer,' but chose not to have shortcuts
installed, you'll need to double-click the "tuxpaint.exe" icon in
the 'Tux Paint' folder on your computer.
By default, the 'Tux Paint Installer' will put Tux Paint's folder in
"C:\Program Files\", though you may have changed this when the
installer ran.
If you used the 'ZIP-file' download, Tux Paint's folder will be
wherever you put it when you unzipped the ZIP file.
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Mac OS X Users
Simply double-click the "Tux Paint" icon.
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Title Screen
When Tux Paint first loads, a title/credits screen will appear.
[Title Screenshot]
Once loading is complete, press a key or click on the mouse to
continue. (Or, after about 30 seconds, the title screen will go away
automatically.)
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Main Screen
The main screen is divided into the following sections:
Left Side: Toolbar
The toolbar contains the drawing and editing controls.
[Tools: Paint, Stamp, Lines, Shapes, Text, Magic, Undo, Redo, Eraser, New,
Open, Save, Print, Quit]
Middle: Drawing Canvas
The largest part of the screen, in the center, is the drawing
canvas. This is, obviously, where you draw!
[(Canvas)]
Note: The size of the drawing canvas depends on the size of
Tux Paint. You can change the size of Tux Paint using the
Tux Paint Config. configuration tool, or by other means. See
the OPTIONS documentation for more details.
Right Side: Selector
Depending on the current tool, the selector shows different
things. e.g., when the Paint Brush tool is selected, it shows
the various brushes available. When the Rubber Stamp tool is
selected, it shows the different shapes you can use.
[Selectors - Brushes, Letters, Shapes, Stamps]
Lower: Colors
A palette of available colors are shown near the bottom of the
screen.
[Colors - Black, White, Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue,
Purple, Brown, Grey]
(NOTE: You can define your own colors for Tux Paint. See the
"Options" documentation.)
Bottom: Help Area
At the very bottom of the screen, Tux, the Linux Penguin,
provides tips and other information while you draw.
(For example: 'Pick a shape. Click to pick the center, drag, then let go
when it is the size you want. Move around to rotate it, and click to draw
it.)
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Available Tools
Drawing Tools
Paint (Brush)
The Paint Brush tool lets you draw freehand, using various
brushes (chosen in the Selector on the right) and colors
(chosen in the Color palette towards the bottom).
If you hold the mouse button down, and move the mouse, it
will draw as you move.
As you draw, a sound is played. The bigger the brush, the
lower the pitch.
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Stamp (Rubber Stamp)
The Stamp tool is like a set of rubber stamps or stickers.
It lets you paste pre-drawn or photographic images (like a
picture of a horse, or a tree, or the moon) in your picture.
As you move the mouse around the canvas, an outline follows
the mouse, showing where the stamp will be placed, and how
big it will be.
There can be numerous categories of stamps (e.g., animals,
plants, outer space, vehicles, people, etc.). Use the Left
and Right arrows to cycle through the collections.
Some stamps can be colored or tinted. If the color palette
below the canvas is activated, you can click the colors to
change the tint or color of the stamp before placing it in
the picture.
Stamps can be shrunk and expanded, and many stamps can be
flipped vertically, or displayed as a mirror-image, using
controls at the bottom right of the screen.
Different stamps can have different sound effects and/or
descriptive (spoken) sounds. Buttons at the lower left (near
Tux, the Linux penguin) allow you to re-play the sound
effects and descriptive sounds for the currently-selected
stamp.
(NOTE: If the "nostampcontrols" option is set, Tux Paint
won't display the Mirror, Flip, Shrink and Grow controls for
stamps. See the "Options" documentation.)
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Lines
This tool lets you draw straight lines using the various
brushes and colors you normally use with the Paint Brush.
Click the mouse and hold it to choose the starting point of
the line. As you move the mouse around, a thin 'rubber-band'
line will show where the line will be drawn.
Let go of the mouse to complete the line. A "sproing!" sound
will play.
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Shapes
This tool lets you draw some simple filled, and un-filled
shapes.
Select a shape from the selector on the right (circle,
square, oval, etc.).
In the canvas, click the mouse and hold it to stretch the
shape out from where you clicked. Some shapes can change
proportion (e.g., rectangle and oval), others cannot (e.g.,
square and circle).
Let go of the mouse when you're done stretching.
Normal Mode
Now you can move the mouse around the canvas to
rotate the shape.
Click the mouse button again and the shape will
be drawn in the current color.
Simple Shapes Mode
If simple shapes are enabled (e.g., with the
"--simpleshapes" option), the shape will be
drawn on the canvas when you let go of the
mouse button. (There's no rotation step.)
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Text
Choose a font (from the 'Letters' available on the right)
and a color (from the color palette near the bottom). Click
on the screen and a cursor will appear. Type text and it
will show up on the screen.
Press [Enter] or [Return] and the text will be drawn onto
the picture and the cursor will move down one line.
Alternatively, press [Tab] and the text will be drawn onto
the picture, but the cursor will move to the right of the
text, rather than down a line, and to the left. (This can be
useful to create a line of text with mixed colors, fonts,
styles and sizes: Like this.)
Clicking elsewhere in the picture while the text entry is
still active causes the current line of text to move to that
location (where you can continue editing it).
International Character Input
Tux Paint allows inputting characters in
different languages. Most Latin characters
(A-Z, n, e, etc.) can by entered directly. Some
languages require that Tux Paint be switched
into an alternate input mode before entering,
and some characters must be composed using
numerous keypresses.
When Tux Paint's locale is set to one of the
languages that provide alternate input modes, a
key is used to cycle through normal (Latin
character) and locale-specific mode or modes.
Currently supported locales, the input methods
available, and the key to toggle or cycle
modes, are listed below. Note: Many fonts do
not include all characters for all languages,
so sometimes you'll need to change fonts to see
the characters you're trying to type.
* Japanese - Romanized Hiragana and
Romanized Katakana - right [Alt]
* Korean - Hangul 2-Bul - right [Alt] or
left [Alt]
* Traditional Chinese - right [Alt] or
left [Alt]
* Thai - right [Alt]
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Magic (Special Effects)
The 'Magic' tool is actually a set of special tools. Select
one of the "magic" effects from the selector on the right.
Then, depending on the tool, you can either click and drag
around the picture, and/or simply click the picture once, to
apply the effect.
If the tool can be used by clicking and dragging, a
'painting' button will be available on the left, below the
list of "magic" tools on the right side of the screen. If
the tool can affect the entire picture at once, an
'entire picture' button will be available on the right.
See the instructions for each Magic tool (in the
'magic-docs' folder).
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Eraser
This tool is similar to the Paint Brush. Wherever you click
(or click and drag), the picture will be erased. (This may
be white, some other color, or to a background picture,
depending on the picture.)
A number of eraser sizes are available, both round and
square..
As you move the mouse around, a square outline follows the
pointer, showing what part of the picture will be erased to
white.
As you erase, a "squeaky clean" eraser/wiping sound is
played.
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Other Controls
Undo
Clicking this tool will undo the last drawing action. You
can even undo more than once!
Note: You can also press [Control]-[Z] on the keyboard to
undo.
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Redo
Clicking this tool will redo the drawing action you just
"undid" with the 'Undo' button.
As long as you don't draw again, you can redo as many times
as you had "undone!"
Note: You can also press [Control]-[R] on the keyboard to
redo.
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New
Clicking the "New" button will start a new drawing. A dialog
will appear where you may choose to start a new picture
using a solid background color, or using a 'Starter' image
(see below). You will first be asked whether you really want
to do this.
Note: You can also press [Control]-[N] on the keyboard to
start a new drawing.
'Starter' Images
'Starters' can be like a page from a coloring book (a
black-and-white outline of a picture, which you can then
color in), or like a 3D photograph, where you draw the
bits in between.
When you load a 'Starter,' draw on it, and then click
'Save,' it creates a new picture file (it doesn't
overwrite the original 'Starter,' so you can use it again
later).
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Open
This shows you a list of all of the pictures you've saved.
If there are more than can fit on the screen, use the "Up"
and "Down" arrows at the top and bottom of the list to
scroll through the list of pictures.
Click a picture to select it, then...
* Click the green "Open" button at the lower left of
the list to load the selected picture.
(Alternatively, you can double-click a picture's icon
to load it.)
* Click the brown "Erase" (trash can) button at the
lower right of the list to erase the selected
picture. (You will be asked to confirm.)
* Click the blue "Slides" (slide projector) button at
the lower left to go to slideshow mode. See "Slides",
below, for details.
* Or click the red "Back" arrow button at the lower
right of the list to cancel and return to the picture
you were drawing.
If choose to open a picture, and your current drawing hasn't
been saved, you will be prompted as to whether you want to
save it or not. (See "Save," below.)
Note: You can also press [Control]-[O] on the keyboard to
get the 'Open' dialog.
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Save
This saves your current picture.
If you haven't saved it before, it will create a new entry
in the list of saved images. (i.e., it will create a new
file)
Note: It won't ask you anything (e.g., for a filename). It
will simply save the picture, and play a "camera shutter"
sound effect.
If you HAVE saved the picture before, or this is a picture
you just loaded using the "Open" command, you will first be
asked whether you want to save over the old version, or
create a new entry (a new file).
(NOTE: If either the "saveover" or "saveovernew" options are
set, it won't ask before saving over. See the "Options"
documentation.)
Note: You can also press [Control]-[S] on the keyboard to
save.
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Print
Click this button and your picture will be printed!
On most platforms, you can also hold the [Alt] key (called
[Option] on Macs) while clicking the 'Print' button to get a
printer dialog. Note that this may not work if you're
running Tux Paint in fullscreen mode. See below.
Disabling Printing
If the "noprint" option was set (either with
"noprint=yes" in Tux Paint's configuration
file, or using "--noprint" on the
command-line), the "Print" button will be
disabled.
See the "Options" documentation.)
Restricting Printing
If the "printdelay" option was used (either
with "printdelay=SECONDS" in the configuration
file, or using "--printdelay=SECONDS" on the
command-line), you can only print once every
SECONDS seconds.
For example, with "printdelay=60", you can
print only once a minute.
See the "Options" documentation.)
Printing Commands
(Linux and Unix only)
Tux Paint prints by generating a PostScript
representation of the drawing and sending it to
an external program. By default, the program
is:
lpr
This command can be changed by setting the
"printcommand" value in Tux Paint's
configuration file.
If the [Alt] key on the keyboard is being
pushed while clicking the 'Print' button, as
long as you're not in fullscreen mode, an
alternative program is run. By default, the
program is KDE's graphical print dialog:
kprinter
This command can be changed by setting the
"altprintcommand" value in Tux Paint's
configuration file.
For information on how to change the printing
commands, see the "Options" documentation.
Printer Settings
(Windows and Mac OS X)
By default, Tux Paint simply prints to the
default printer with default settings when the
'Print' button is pushed.
However, if you hold the [Alt] (or [Option])
key on the keyboard while pushing the button,
as long as you're not in fullscreen mode, your
operating system's printer dialog will appear,
where you can change the settings.
You can have the printer configuration changes
stored by using the "printcfg" option, either
by using "--printcfg" on the command-line, or
"printcfg=yes" in Tux Paint's own configuration
file ("tuxpaint.cfg").
If the "printcfg" option is used, printer
settings will be loaded from the file
"print.cfg" in your personal folder (see
below). Any changes will be saved there as
well.
See the "Options" documentation.)
Printer Dialog Options
By default, Tux Paint only shows the printer
dialog (or, on Linux/Unix, runs the
"altprintcommand", e.g., "kprinter" instead of
"lpr") if the [Alt] (or [Option]) key is held
while clicking the 'Print' button.
However, this behavior can be changed. You can
have the printer dialog always appear by using
"--altprintalways" on the command-line, or
"altprint=always" in Tux Paint's configuration
file. Or, you can prevent the [Alt]/[Option]
key from having any effect by using
"--altprintnever", or "altprint=never".
See the "Options" documentation.)
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Slides (under "Open")
The "Slides" button is available in the "Open" dialog. It
displays a list of your saved files, just like the "Open"
dialog.
Click each of the images you wish to display in a
slideshow-style presentation, one by one. A digit will
appear over each image, letting you know in which order they
will be displayed.
You can click a selected image to unselect it (take it out
of your slideshow).
A sliding scale at the lower left of the screen (next to the
"Play" button) can be used to adjust the speed of the
slideshow, from slowest to fastest. Choose the leftmost
setting to disable automatic advancement - you will need to
press a key or click to go to the next slide (see below).
Note: The slowest setting does not automatically advance
through the slides. Use it for when you want to step through
them manually.
When you're ready, click the "Play" button to begin the
slideshow. (Note: If you hadn't selected ANY images, then
ALL images will be played in the slideshow.)
During the slideshow, press [Space], [Enter] or [Return] or
the [Right Arrow], or click the "Next" button at the lower
left, to manually advance to the next slide. Press [Left] to
go back to the previous slide.
Press [Escape], or click the "Back" button at the lower
right, to exit the slideshow and return to the slideshow
image selection screen.
Click "Back" in the slideshow image selection screen to
return to the "Open" dialog.
Quit
Clicking the "Quit" button, closing the Tux Paint window, or
pushing the [Escape] key will quit Tux Paint.
You will first be prompted as to whether you really want to
quit.
If you choose to quit, and you haven't saved the current
picture, you will first be asked if wish to save it. If it's
not a new image, you will then be asked if you want to save
over the old version, or create a new entry. (See "Save"
above.)
NOTE: If the image is saved, it will be reloaded
automatically the next time you run Tux Paint!
NOTE: The "Quit" button and [Escape] key can be disabled
(e.g., by selecting "Disable 'Quit' Button" in
Tux Paint Config. or running Tux Paint with the "--noquit"
command-line option).
In that case, the "window close" button on Tux Paint's title
bar (if not in fullscreen mode) or the [Alt] + [F4] key
sequence may be used to quit.
If neither of those are possible, the key sequence of
[Shift] + [Control] + [Escape] may be used to quit. (See the
"Options" documentation.)
Sound Muting
There is no on-screen control button at this time, but by
pressing [Alt] + [S], sound effects can be disabled and
re-enabled (muted and unmuted) while the program is running.
Note that if sounds are completely disabled (e.g., by
unselecting "Enable Sound Effects" in Tux Paint Config or
running Tux Paint with the "--nosound" command-line option),
the [Alt] + [S] key sequence has no effect. (i.e., it cannot
be used to turn on sounds when the parent/teacher wants them
disabled.)
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Loading Other Pictures into Tux Paint
Since Tux Paint's 'Open' dialog only displays pictures you created with
Tux Paint, what if you want to load some other picture or photograph
into Tux Paint to edit?
To do so, you simply need to convert the picture into a PNG (Portable
Network Graphic) image file, and place it in Tux Paint's "saved"
directory:
Windows Vista
Inside the user's "AppData" folder, e.g.:
"C:\Users\(user name)\AppData\Roaming\TuxPaint\saved\"
Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP
Inside the user's "Application Data" folder, e.g.: "C:\Documents
and Settings\(user name)\Application Data\TuxPaint\saved\"
Mac OS X
Inside the user's "Library" folder:
"/Users/(user name)/Library/Application
Support/Tux Paint/saved/"
Linux/Unix
Inside a hidden ".tuxpaint" directory, in the user's home
directory: "$(HOME)/.tuxpaint/saved/"
Note: It is from this folder that you can copy or open pictures drawn in
Tux Paint using other applications.
Using 'tuxpaint-import'
Linux and Unix users can use the "tuxpaint-import" shell script which
gets installed when you install Tux Paint. It uses some NetPBM tools
to convert the image ("anytopnm"), resize it so that it will fit in
Tux Paint's canvas ("pnmscale"), and convert it to a PNG ("pnmtopng").
It also uses the "date" command to get the current time and date,
which is the file-naming convention Tux Paint uses for saved files.
(Remember, you are never asked for a 'filename' when you go to Save or
Open pictures!)
To use 'tuxpaint-import', simply run the command from a command-line
prompt and provide it the name(s) of the file(s) you wish to convert.
They will be converted and placed in your Tux Paint 'saved' directory.
(Note: If you're doing this for a different user - e.g., your child,
you'll need to make sure to run the command under their account.)
Example:
$ tuxpaint-import grandma.jpg
grandma.jpg -> /home/username/.tuxpaint/saved/20020921123456.png
jpegtopnm: WRITING A PPM FILE
The first line ("tuxpaint-import grandma.jpg") is the command to run.
The following two lines are output from the program while it's
working.
Now you can load Tux Paint, and a version of that original picture
will be available under the 'Open' dialog. Just double-click its icon!
Doing it Manually
Windows, Mac OS X and BeOS users must currently do the conversion
manually.
Load a graphics program that is capable of both loading your picture
and saving a PNG format file. (See the documentation file "PNG.txt"
for a list of suggested software, and other references.)
When Tux Paint loads an image that's not the same size as its drawing
canvas, it scales (and sometimes smears the edges of) the image so
that it fits within the canvas.
To avoid having the image stretched or smeared, you can resize it to
Tux Paint's canvas size. This size depends on the size of the
Tux Paint window, or resolution at which Tux Paint is run, if in
fullscreen. (Note: The default resolution is 800x600.) See
"Calculating Image Dimensions", below.
Save the picture in PNG format. It is highly recommended that you name
the filename using the current date and time, since that's the
convention Tux Paint uses:
YYYYMMDDhhmmss.png
* YYYY = Year
* MM = Month (01-12)
* DD = Day (01-31)
* HH = Hour, in 24-hour format (00-23)
* mm = Minute (00-59)
* ss = Second (00-59)
e.g.:
20020921130500 - for September 21, 2002, 1:05:00pm
Place this PNG file in your Tux Paint 'saved' directory. (See above.)
Calculating Image Dimensions
The width of Tux Paint's canvas is simply the width of the window
(e.g., 640, 800 or 1024 pixels), minus 192.
Calculating the height of Tux Paint's canvas requires multiple
steps:
1. Take the height of the window (e.g, 480, 600 or 768 pixels) and
subtract 144
2. Take the result of Step 1 and divide it by 48
3. Take the result of Step 2 and round it down (e.g., 9.5 becomes
simply 9)
4. Take the result of Step 3 and multiply it by 48
5. Finally, take the result of Step 4 and add 40
Example: Tux Paint running at fullscreen on a 1440x900 display.
* The canvas width is simply 1440 - 192, or 1248.
* The canvas height is calculated as:
1. 900 - 144, or 756
2. 756 / 48, or 15.75
3. 15.75 rounded down, or 15
4. 15 * 48, or 720
5. 720 + 40, or 760
So the canvas within a 1440x900 Tux Paint window is 1248x760.
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Further Reading
Other documentation included with Tux Paint (in the "docs"
folder/directory) include:
* "Magic" Tool Documentation ("magic-docs")
Documentation for each of the currently-installed "Magic" tools.
* AUTHORS.txt
List of authors and contributors.
* CHANGES.txt
Summary of changed between releases.
* COPYING.txt
Copying license (The GNU General Public License).
* INSTALL.txt
Instructions for compiling/installing, when applicable.
* EXTENDING.html
Detailed instructions on creating brushes, stamps and starters, and
adding fonts, to extend Tux Paint.
* OPTIONS.html
Detailed instructions on command-line and configuration-file
options, for those who don't want to use Tux Paint Config.
* PNG.txt
Notes on creating PNG format bitmapped images for use in Tux Paint.
* SVG.txt
Notes on creating SVG format vector images for use in Tux Paint.
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How to Get Help
If you need help, feel free to contact New Breed Software:
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/
You may also wish to participate in the numerous Tux Paint mailing
lists:
http://www.tuxpaint.org/lists/
