Fine Artist

Fine Artist was a raster graphics editor created by Microsoft Kids subsidiary in 1993. Using this program, which is specifically targeted at children, it is possible to create paintings. The interface and environment is especially targeted towards children and is set in Imaginopolis with the main helper being a character known as McZee. Fine Artist is discontinued.

Fine Artist was announced by Microsoft on 7 December 1993 and was released in 1994. It ran on both MS-DOS 3.2 and the Windows 3.1 operating system. A version for Apple Macintosh was also released.

The program took place in the fictional place of Imaginopolis and had several levels of a building each with a different topic (e.g. one for creating new images, one as a gallery of existing images). The design of the program was very similar to that of its sister program Creative Writer. The program runs full screen and creates an all inclusive environment.

Fine Artist was considerably more powerful than Microsoft Paint, as it included the clip art that could be easily manipulated and even sound effects that could be incorporated into the painting. Fine Artist also used sounds heavily where each tool would make a different noise.