Fine Artist was an image-creation program created by Microsoft's 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.
Famous quotes containing the words fine and/or artist:
“[T]hose wholemeal breads ... look hand-thrown, like studio pottery, and are fine if you have all your teeth. But if not, then not. Perhaps the rise ... of the ... factory-made loaf, which may easily be mumbled to a pap betweeen gums, reflects the sorry state of the nation’s dental health.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Rich are the sea-gods:Mwho gives gifts but they?
They grope the sea for pearls, but more than pearls:
They pluck Force thence, and give it to the wise.
Every wave is wealth to Daedalus,
Wealth to the cunning artist who can work
This matchless strength. Where shall he find, O waves!
A load your Atlas shoulders cannot lift?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)