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macstatic

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
2,029
168
Norway
I'd like to set up my Mac for my 5 year old daughter to draw on the screen. I've got Sketchbook express which I let her try but it's too complex. Besides, all the OSX interfacing messes things up when she moves the mouse pointer outside the screen -the auto-hiding dock reappears etc.).
As all of this is very frustrating for her I'm wondering if there's a drawing app out there made specifically for kids?

I also have a Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet which I think would be great for her if set up correctly with the drawing app. And to further simplify things I want to create a separate OSX user for her. I'm using OSX 10.9.5.
 
Looks nice, but all she needs is something similar like a piece of paper and colored pencils/crayons.

I've tried numerous apps but although nice (for me) they're not made for kids. It's too easy to drag a window around, complicated color choosers, tools which she'll never need (and if she presses the wrong one she might mess up the entire drawing).
We just need something very basic with a full-screen layout, a color chooser, eraser and the ability to choose a pen or brush in different sizes. And I wish there was a way to make the dock go away (even with it auto-hidden it's way too easy to have it pop up again when drawing, then clicking on something and all of a sudden she's in the Finder and doesn't understand why drawing doesn't work any longer).
 
Looks nice, but all she needs is something similar like a piece of paper and colored pencils/crayons.
>
And I wish there was a way to make the dock go away (even with it auto-hidden it's way too easy to have it pop up again when drawing, then clicking on something and all of a sudden she's in the Finder and doesn't understand why drawing doesn't work any longer).

Perhaps experiment with setting up another profile with Parental Controls enabled, you can choose a simple finder etc for that user
 
Looks nice, but all she needs is something similar like a piece of paper and colored pencils/crayons.

I've tried numerous apps but although nice (for me) they're not made for kids. It's too easy to drag a window around, complicated color choosers, tools which she'll never need (and if she presses the wrong one she might mess up the entire drawing).
We just need something very basic with a full-screen layout, a color chooser, eraser and the ability to choose a pen or brush in different sizes. And I wish there was a way to make the dock go away (even with it auto-hidden it's way too easy to have it pop up again when drawing, then clicking on something and all of a sudden she's in the Finder and doesn't understand why drawing doesn't work any longer).

You really want KidPix. What you're describing is KidPix. Specifically, you probably want the slightly simpler KidPix 3X, not the 3D version.
 
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