Kid Pix Studio Deluxe on macOS

Kid Pix Studio Deluxe 🎨, released in 1998, is something I grew up using on school computers and on my mom's Mac. At its core, it's a paint program, but packed with a surprise and delight that's missing from a lot of modern software design. Regardless, it's really fun and I want everyone to be able to experience it.

For more background, I highly recommend reading Craig Hickman's personal history of Kid Pix and watching Just Another System's recent interview with Hickman about the unexpected legacy of Kid Pix.

fault

Nov 25, 20181 image #visuals #kid-pix #glitch

two medical outlines of the human body, filled in a pale yellow, are overlaid on a topographic map. where features in the map intersect with the bodies, they are colored in a bright, blood red, giving the impression the geology has torn through them. the edges of the bodies, particularly around the sides of the faces, arms, and shoulders, are distorted and glitched. the map's colors have also been distorted and pixelated, and are mostly in shades of purple, pink, and pale green, with the bottom right corner fading into a bright yellow.

lumen + kid pix feedback loop experiment

Nov 23, 20171 image #visuals #kid-pix

a shifting gradient of bright colors cycles over a simple framed scene, containing pixel glyphs of a planet, a palm tree, and a fried egg. as the gradient moves, it creates echoes of the symbols below it, which grow increasingly larger then fizzle out into static.

queens.js kid pix slides

Jun 01, 2016slides.com #kid-pix

classic macintosh art program kid pix studio deluxe's editor, in text mode. in the editor, the heading text 'the guiding principles' is selected. below it are 3 of the guiding principles: #1 (The Prime Directive) The program should be extremely easy to use. No manual should be needed and program features should 'explain themselves' through use. All tasks should be able to be performed in the simplest, most straightforward way. The program should go out of its way to meet the user. #2 As long as The Prime Directive is not violated, every opportunity should be taken to make the program surprising and satisfying to use. No opportunity should be missed. The process of making a picture should be as important as the picture produced. #14 The program should, in most ways, act like a standard program and have a standard user interface so users new to the computer learn basic principles. Kid Pix ended up being widely used to introduce children and adults to using the computer. - red-green-blue.com/kid-pix-the-early-years/

slow heat death

May 03, 20142 images #visuals #kid-pix

kid pix 1.0 zine

Mar 04, 2014 #kid-pix