PrimeArt

An art package aimed at education

Key Stage: 1/2/3/4 | RISC OS: 2/3/RISC PC  |  Memory: 1MB

PrimeArt is a 256 colour art package running in mode 15 or 21 (hi-res) with on-line help. The program is designed for use with Primary and Special Needs Children and menus can be tailored to a particular class or individual child. Pictures can be saved with the setup routines to allow the class to continue the project at a later stage.

The package can be used with a concept keyboard and requires no adjustment as it automatically recognises when a concept keyboard is attached. PrimeArt also gives you the option of 'sticky menus' and 'brush latching'. With the 'sticky menus' option turned on the menus stay on screen until the child has selected the required option. The 'brush latching' option is particularly useful for children who have difficulty in holding down the mouse button for any length of time. With this option switched on the child clicks select on the mouse to start painting with a brush and then clicks again to stop.

Sprites can be imported and saved in a viewing window which allows the child to browse through the library of sprites available and make a choice. The sprites can be used to paint and draw, produce stunning tiled effects, be placed anywhere on screen and even rotated and resized. This allows pupils to build up pictures from the sprite library, eg. a farmyard scene by placing sprites of animals onto a background picture.

PrimeArt is designed to be easy to use and has icons, text and shortcut keypresses on the menus. The palette, whilst simple to use, teaches colour relationships. Pictures can be printed in several formats including poster format which spreads the picture over four pages so that they can be joined together. All the usual features such as circles, triangles and rectangles are included in the package together with rays, 6 brush shapes, spray, magnify and a range of fill options. PrimeArt also has an undo function, wash brush and the ability to change colours on screen including shaded areas.

PrimeArt will load any RISC OS font allowing children to easily re-size text and place it anywhere on screen. The text can be repeatedly placed on screen if required. Pictures are stored in compressed format allowing many more to be saved to a disc. In addition to freehand drawing, draw files can be converted to sprites using the 'get screen area option' in !Paint and then loaded in PrimeArt for pupils to colour.