Expert's Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s Summer of Mac Gems series. Each business day until the middle of August 2008, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for a list of past Mac Gems.
There are plenty of painting and drawing programs for Mac kids, but plasq’s Doozla is one of the best I’ve seen.
Doozla’s interface is super-intuitive and clear, even to pre-literate tykes: On launch, you get four simple, colorful buttons—Coloring In, Drawing, Drawing on Background, and Webcam Drawing. Choose one and you’ll get a nice, clean drawing interface, with seven built-in drawing tools (pen, eraser, line, rectangle, color fill, ellipse, text), some simple file management buttons, and a color palette. Click on one of the tools, and a chirpy little voice will tell you what it is. (Though I’m not sure what a three-year old is going to think when the robotic voice says, “Ellipse!”)
If you’ve got kids and want them to do something more creative than play games on the family Mac, Doozla is a great choice.