I'm sure that as a user of HippoPaint, you have many questions regarding the site you like to color pictures on. We'll try to answer as many of those as you may have!
While it may seem that HippoPaint has a large selection of images available for you to color, in reality, we really don't. We haven't created any of the images used for coloring on HippoPaint, and we don't choose the images that you can color, either! How does this work you ask? Well, you as the user download and color the picture you want all through the magic of Google.
You as a user go to the site, and type in a search term into the Google Images search bar. You select a picture from the Google Images results, and your browser loads the image you've selected from your Google Images search into your browser. From there, the browser's Javascript engine works with HTML5 to allow you to color the image you've selected, all without the server having ever hosted the file. Everything is generated by you on your computer in the exact same way you'd go to Google Images, and save a file to color in Paint. It's okay if you color outside of the lines, because no other user can see the images you've generated on your own computer using Google.
To make it easier for you to color the pictures you want to find, Google Images provides a search category called "lineart." As an example, when you click the "hippo" or "triceratops" links for the first suggestions, you're actually doing a Google Images search for "hippo" or "triceratops" in the lineart category. Here is a link to the hippo results from Google Images:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hippo&tbm=isch&tbs=itp:lineart&cad=h
Even though your painting is never saved on the HippoPaint site, we do realize that some people may want to save the images they downloaded from Google Images that they've colored, and to help them, there is a Print button that will allow you to print the picture you've colored to hang on the fridge, or even frame.
In the case you find an image you find disturbing or otherwise offensive, it's probably best to not use the search term that returned the image from Google Images. Unfortunately, we have no way of controlling Google Images, so there may be times where you or your child find a search term that produces an offensive image. We're sorry if you encounter these, the lineart category of Google Images usually does not produce much in the way of offensive images when using search terms like "hippo," "triceratops," or "castle." If you wish to have an image removed from Google Images, you can find their image removal policy here:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4628134?hl=en
We recognize that copyright is important to some content creators on the internet, and we fully agree. This is why when you download an image, we provide a link to where you downloaded the image you've selected from, and let you know that the image may be copyrighted. We fully recommend that you contact the creator of the image that you've painted to find out if you can have permission to use their work before saving a copy of it online, like to Facebook or Google+. If you save a copy of their work, you may be violating copyright law.
If you are a content creator that has believes your artwork is on this site and are worried that your copyright might be being infringed, we have good news for you. Your copyright is perfectly safe. You have simply done a Google Images search on yourself and have found a link back to your own site where your artwork is hosted. We don't host any of the images, and we make sure that we direct our users to your site and let them know that your work might be copyrighted. All the painting is done by the user on their PC, and our servers do not have access to your art, or to the Google Images search terms the users may be entering. Our servers only provide a link to Google Images and a small amount of Javascript that allows users to color pictures. We recognize the importance of protecting your digital work, and to that extent, we do not have any method to provide digital copies of our users paintings to them.
HippoPaint was originally created at HippoPaint.com and is hosted here to continue to provide an online coloring experience for kids of all ages.
Have a paintastic day!
Fidsah