A Not-So-Brief History
Part 2 - Through Year 10
(2003-2012)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

The next two years (2003 and 2004) saw four more somewhat minor releases: versions 0.9.11 through 0.9.14 (which saw our first press release). UTF-8 support was added to the Text tool, and the Stamps tool gained flip, mirror, and size controls. Mac OS X printing support was also added.

These releases also added 20 new translations: Afrikaans, Basque, Belarusian, Breton, Bulgarian, Croatian, Georgian, Hebrew, Hindi, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian Bokmal, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Tamil, Traditional, Vietnamese, Walloon, and Welsh.

In November 2005, version 0.9.15 was released (press release), which added a half dozen new Magic tools ("Smudge", "Grass", "Bricks", "Darken", "Tint", and "Cartoon"), improvements to the Stamps tinting feature, and faster start-up time. Keeping up with the times, the default window size is increased to 800×600 (but to this day¹, Tux Paint still supports 640×480). Ten more new translations were added: Albanian, Estonian, Gaelic, Galician, Gronings, Kinyarwanda, Mexican Spanish, Swahili, Thai, and Ukrainian.

Version 0.9.15 welcomes long-time contributor Albert Cahalan (2005-2014 ¹), who was responsible for a lot of this version's changes, as well as the voice of Tux, Daniel 'TuxthePenguin' Alston.

In 2006, the tuxpaint.org domain name is registered, and one new version is released. Tux Paint 0.9.16 (press release) introduces the Slideshow feature, stereo sound effects, and animated and directional brushes (inspired by the lead developer watching a squirrel run across his street). Ten more new translations were added: Arabic, Faroese, Gujarati, Ndebele, Scottish Gaelic, South African English, Tagalog, Tibetan, Venda, and Xhosa.

Now five years old, Tux Paint's July 2007 release, 0.9.17 (press release), introduces Input Method to the Text tool, with Korean and Japanese support. Stamps may now be SVG vector images, were split into groups (rather than one long scrolling list), and the audio playback buttons were added.

Releases for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO-1 and Nokia Maemo platforms were made, and screen rotation support was added for users of tablet PCs. Translations to Latvian, Telugu, and Twi were added. This version welcomes another long-time contributor, Caroline Ford (2007-2018 ¹).

November 2007's 0.9.18 release (press release) sees a major change in how Tux Paint's Magic tools are developed. An API is added, making it faster and easier to create new ones. Proving this fact, a dozen new tools appear in this release: "Calligraphy", "Distortion", "Emboss", "Flower", "Foam", "Glass Tile", "Kaleidoscope", "Light", "Metal Paint", "Ripples", "Shift", and "Waves". A simple color picking palette is added, expanding artists' options to tens of thousands of colors.

Version 0.9.18 adds Input Methods for Traditional Chinese and Thai. Translations to Esperanto, Ojibway, and Wolof are added. Support for older versions of Microsoft Windows (95, 98, and ME) is added, to help extend the usefulness of older PCs ².

In early 2008, version 0.9.19 (press release) is released. It includes a number of bug fixes and minor changes, along with seven more translations: Australian English, Azerbaijani, Canadian English, Khmer, Macedonian, Occitan, and Zapoteco.

Also in early 2008, the loosely-knit Tux4Kids project, which includes Tux Paint, Tux Typing, and Tux, of Math Command, is accepted Google's Summer of Code program, where college students spend their summer helping Open Source projects in return for cash stipends. Out of 133 proposals from 90 students, Tux4Kids chose eleven (six of which were allocated to Tux Paint).

Over the next year, only two more releases are made: 0.9.20 (press release) which adds over 100 new Stamp images, and 0.9.21 (press release) which added two dozen new Magic tools, thanks to Summer of Code contributors: "Color Shift", "Color and White", "Confetti", "Edges", "Fisheye", "Fold", "Mosaic", "Noise", "Picasso", "Rails", "Rain", "Real Rainbow", "Rosette", "Sharpen", "Silhouette", "Snow Ball", "Snow Flake", "String 'V'", "String Corner", "String Edges", "TV", "Toothpaste", "Tornado", and "Wavelets". Translations to Asturian, Shuswap, and Songhay are introduced.

A very long gap in releases starts here, which we'll cover in Part 3.

However, before we hit the 10 year mark, a Summer Drawing Contest, sponsored by Worldlabel.com, is held from June to September 2011 (press release). Among the prizes were three One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO-1 subnotebook computers. Over 100 entries were made by children around the world.

---

Written by Tux Paint creator and lead developer: Bill Kendrick, May 2022.