Tux Paint: Open Source Drawing Software for Children

Tux Paint 0.9.21
(June 2009)

• All Versions (Global bugs)
  

  Tux Paint doesn't behave properly in fullscreen mode using multiple monitors

  This is an issue at the SDL library level, which will hopefully be addressed in an upcoming SDL 1.3.xx release. Unfortunately, Tux Paint is currently using SDL 1.2, so for the moment just disable Tux Paint's fullscreen option. You'll probably want to adjust window size from the default (800x600), and may also consider enabling Tux Paint's "grab mouse pointer" option.

• Windows

  Tux Paint loads very slowly

  The first time Tux Paint is launched (for a particular user), it may take a minute or more to respond. The font system used by Tux Paint (Pango) is creating a 'cache' of information about the fonts on your system. Subsequent launches of Tux Paint should be fast.
  
  While the font cache is generated behind the scenes, Tux Paint becomes unresponsive. Your desktop environment may report that the program may have crashed, giving you an option to abort the program. The next version of Tux Paint (0.9.22) will remain interactive (showing an animated 'please wait' animation) while this process runs.
  
  We are also examining other solutions to this issue. (Technical users may find fontconfig's documentation useful for debugging their situation.)
  
  Update, December 2010: Tux Paint 0.9.21c, a minor update includes the interactivity improvement and updated FontConfig libraries, and should address this issue.

  Tux Paint continues to load very slowly

  If Tux Paint loads slowly during subsequent launches (not just the first time), the 'font cache' that Tux Paint's font system (Pango) created may be getting deleted by another program on your system — "CCleaner", for example. Add the folder where the fonts are stored to the exclusions in any clean-up software you have installed. (For example, "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Temp\fontconfig\cache\")
  
  Update, December 2010: Tux Paint 0.9.21c, a minor update includes the interactivity improvement and updated FontConfig libraries, and should address this issue.

  Stresses cannot be added to Greek letters in the Text tool

  This is a known issue, and appears to be a Windows-only problem with libSDL. See: SF.net Bug #3153689

  Touchscreen 'clicks' happen at the previously-clicked location

  This is a known issue, and appears to be a Windows-only problem with libSDL. Replacing the older version of SDL with a newer one solves this problem:

  1. Download the latest version of SDL 1.2 from the Simple DirectMedia Layer website.
     (As of April 2013, the latest version (SDL 1.2.15) can be fetched directly from: http://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2.15-win32.zip)
  2. Locate a file called "SDL.dll" in your Tux Paint installation directory
     (e.g., "C:\Program Files (x86)\TuxPaint\")
  3. Extract "SDL.dll" from the ZIP file you downloaded in step 1, and replace the one you located in Tux Paint in step 2.

  
  See: SF.net Bug #160 and this post to the 'tuxpaint-users' mailing list.

• Mac OS X

  Unable to Install on OS X Lion or Mountain Lion

  If you receive an error that Tux Paint could not be installed "because it was not downloaded from the Mac App Store", you can override this requirement by altering the settings in OS X's "Gatekeeper" feature:

  • Click the Apple menu and select "System Preferences...", then "Security & Privacy", and then "General tab".
  • Under the "Allow applications downloaded from:" header, change the setting to "Anywhere"
  • Then try Tux Paint again

  For more, see OS X: About Gatekeeper at Apple's support site.

  Tux Paint crashes

  If you're running Tux Paint in fullscreen mode, try going back to normal, windowed mode. (Uncheck "Fullscreen" in Tux Paint Config., under "Video/Sound".)

  Tux Paint crashes on Snow Leopard

  Some fonts may cause Tux Paint 0.9.21 to crash. Try going to the "Languages" tab in "Tux Paint Config." and disabling the "System Fonts" option.

  Tux Paint crashes or hangs on some user accounts, but not others

  (As of October 2009, we're still investigating this.) Try deleting a hidden folder named ".fontconfig" in the user's home directory. If that doesn't work, please try this test version and let us know if it helps.

  Tux Paing crashes or hangs on G3-based systems

  As of October 2009, the build of Tux Paint 0.9.21 for Mac OS X requires a G4 or better CPU. See this bug report at SourceForge.net

  Some stamps seem to be missing

  A number of stamps were missing from the collection for Mac OS X. An updated version of the 2009.06.28 collection was made available in late July 2009.

  Text in some prompts still appear in English when running in other locales

  A character encoding problem has been tracked down and a corrected version of Tux Paint 0.9.21 for Mac OS X is slated for release.

  The Stamps download file appears as an Excel or Filemaker spreadsheet or macro

  This is apparently a problem with some browsers on the Mac (notably, Internet Explorer). Simply renaming the file so that it ends in ".dmg" appears to work around this problem. (Apple's Safari browser does not appear to have this problem.)

• Linux

  No sound, too much CPU usage, and/or freeze or crash on exit

  The ALSA sound backend in SDL has problems working with the PulseAudio sound system. Install SDL built against PulseAudio instead of ALSA (which is the default for SDL on Debian and Ubuntu). For example, on Ubuntu or Debian, install the "libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio" package. (See Bug #269082 at Ubuntu Launchpad: 'tuxpaint and other tux SDL driven apps slow down and/or freeze thin client terminals (ltsp)')

Older Versions' Known Issues:

• 0.9.20 (June 2008)
• 0.9.19 (March 2008)
• 0.9.18 (November 2007)
• 0.9.17 (July 2007)
• 0.9.16 (October 2006)
• 0.9.15 (November 2005)

How do I tell what version I have? Tux Paint displays its version number at the bottom left corner of its splash screen. You can also run "tuxpaint -v" from a command-line terminal, check your Tux Paint installation's documentation pages, or tell from the name of the installation file you downloaded (e.g., "tuxpaint-X.Y.Z-win32.zip").

If you have problems you can contact us. Be sure to tell us what version of Tux Paint you're using, what operating system and OS version you're using (e.g., "Windows95" vs. "Mac OS X 10.4"), and where you got your copy of Tux Paint from (our website, some other website, a magazine CDROM, etc.).

To find more free educational software, please visit www.educational-freeware.com.
One of our friends at Tux Paint is the amazing kids Magician Matthew James.
He creates fun shows for kids with magic and Bounce Houses just like we create fun for kids with paint!
Go check out his site and enjoy the magic.

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Did you know? You can help us translate Tux Paint to your language.