Yesterday, the Open Sword Group released a beta of Pixen v3. “Pixen is the best program for the pixel artist using Mac OS X. Pixen is specifically for small-scale or pixel art; it shines better there than any other application. Not only that, but Pixen carries no price tag: it’s open source under the MIT license and absolutely free.” As far as I know, this is the only application of it’s kind, with no equivelant on either Mac, Windows or Linux.
Hey! I like the group’s name! Open Sword, wow~
Sorry you never had the pleasure of using Zsoft’s pc paintbrush.
I still do use PC paintbrush and its the main reason I keep my win 98 partition going,i wish there was a BeOS app that was as nice to paint with as Zsoft,sorry folks i can’t afford a new Mac that will run OS X
Very nicely designed website.
I agree.
I also think it’s cool that they use the MIT licence. Not so that others can earn money from their work, but I personally prefer the cut’n’paste programming method. And if I find a good example or part of code that I can use, it’s nice to be able to use it.
No, the website is stupid.
Dark blue text on very dark blue background is nearly impossible to read.
Only a clueless idiot could design a website like that.
I wouldn’t download a program from a website like that even if it’s free.
If I can’t read a website I don’t go back again.
Actually, that’s not a very good website. The background and text colours don’t have enough contrast between them and there’s no liquid layout, wich means the site layout will be broken if you enlarge the text size.
praise the light… someone else that recognizes what I like to call QUALITY site design…..
I DO like the look of the site… kinda dark and “gimpish”, colors are borderline acceptable, table usage is reasonable but should of contained enough spacing for at least 1+ increase in text size, also using tables should of been able to do a “full” page website instead of the middle strip….
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html
Graphics Gale is one for Windows. Personally, I don’t like it that much, but some people like it. MS Paint is used by some [crazy] people for pixel art. Too bad pixen is Mac OSX only. If I could code I’d try to add more pixel art features to the Gimp, or make a stand-alone program at least.
Most definitely there are other pixel art oriented paint programs for DOS/Windows. *NIX or *NIX-like platforms may be lacking in this area, but DOS/Windows are not.
As far as I know, not really. Most Pixel Artists on Windows use MS Paint, but that’s only for die-hards. Pixen is the only app on any OS that is specifically designed to make static pixel art, much like the insane works from Howling ( http://howling.deviantart.com/ ).
Check Boxedtown. Pixen is designed to do stuff like that, while most other apps (like the one for Windows a few posts above) are more geared towards icons, cursors and animated gifs.
While that Boxedtown is good, it certainly has some competition from others, and they don’t all use MS-Paint (in Windows). Graphics Gale is more popular than you seem to think it is.
http://www.spriteart.com/
http://www.x-panded.com/pixeldam/pixelmoon.html
http://www.pixeljoint.com/
While you could say that pixen specializes in static art, it is not unique (in being a pixel art manipulation program), and there are plenty of other programs out there that can be used to do equal or greater works than pixen. Really, arguing that is futile, since are is effected not by the tools so much as the one wielding the tools. MS-Paint is for the diehards, but the diehards aren’t the majority.
Check Boxedtown. Pixen is designed to do stuff like that, while most other apps (like the one for Windows a few posts above) are more geared towards icons, cursors and animated gifs.
Reading the description and looking at the screenshots, I’m not sure what exactly sets it apart from something like Illustrator. If the differentiating factor is that it’s primarily a bitmap editor, then what sets it apart from PhotoShop or Corel’s drawing apps?
Boxedtown is nice, but I don’t see anything there that I couldn’t do in Illustrator.
Also, unless I’m missing something, it looks pretty similar in concept to WonderBrush on BeOS ( http://www.yellowbites.com/wonderbrush.html ).
This is a new one!
http://www.sub-ether.org/lunapaint/
It’s in development – but can already be used for work.
Icon Workshop does a competent job. http://axialis.com/
http://www.microangelo.us/advanced_icon_editor/XP_icon_editor.asp
I think that’s actually the biggest Icon design tool on Windows.
But it also costs $55.00. What other tools that are availible with this feature set is free?
I factor that into what he lables “of it’s kind.” Price is a very good distinction to me and many others.
That’s one cool program! Great also that the developers chose the MIT licence – sharing code makes the world go round.
“no equivelant on either Mac, Windows or Linux.”
That’s true, Deluxe Paint was only available for the Amiga and on DOS
I don’t have a mac but wanted to try pixen. Fortunatly I was able to presure a friend into installing it for me to try.
I liked it alot, there is nothing all that special about it but everything is layed out for pixel art. Being able to chose tools for left and right mouse button was cool and being able to paint on a tiled version of your pixmap was nice.
I still don’t have a mac and am stuck with MS paint and Jasc PSP, and I’m realy realy hoping that the guy that wanted to do the Gnustep port (to get it runing on Linux and windows) reapears.
>I’m realy realy hoping that the guy that wanted to do >the Gnustep port (to get it runing on Linux and windows) >reapears.
I’m here
Most of the code works for GNUstep but ( at least for Pixen 2 )
– some code was ugly : zoom / drawer …
– some paths was hardcode
– it use one method ( a lot ) not implement by GNUstep ( NSReadPixel ) ( there is a more efficient method to use through )
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnustep/2004-12/msg00023.html
I’m really busy this days but I will try to sync GNUstep / Cocoa code when Pixen3 will be out.
You mean to tell me The GIMP can’t do this?
You mean to tell me The GIMP can’t do this?
Of course it can– but you don’t use a chainsaw to cut your bread now do you?
GIMP is nice but it’ way too overkill for true Pixelart. Besides that, GIMP is a usability nightmare to me.
It’s also not Mac-native, so it doesn’t fit in as well with the rest of the interface. It doesn’t feel at “home”.
tv paint and tons of other ?
pixel art is not dead
using some emulator you can run neochrome master, spectrum 512 or even deluxe paint on any machine….
yes, I know, pixel paint is like… going back to root of 16/32 bits graphics art
what about a port of Art Director or Degas Elite on Linux ?
joke outside, it would be nice to have Deluxe Paint in a 24 bits version on Linux…
Djamé
ps : photogenics is avalaible on linux, save is disabled but screenshot via gimp is not
To add to the others above, http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
Freeware and available in several different languages. Windows-only, though. I’ve been looking for something like Pixen to run on my G4.
Thanks for the article. I downloaded it for my Mini Mac. Small piece of code, like not even 2 megs. Loaded it, painted over a pic. Looks great.
I like Gimp also, I used it on X11. Runs really good. I can’t say enough good stuff about Gimp, it’s excellent.
Gimp is the best Photoshop challenger out there. I mean there is Paintshop pro, but Gimp, there is something I really like about it everytime I used it
sp29
Too funny, I found my copy of Z-Soft PC Paintbrush for windows… it installs ok, but wants an MSDOS path variable to be entered. It’s a Softkey reprint, and even came with the INN network batch file.
Thanks for making me play with old software. Now I just gotta make it work. Probably have to install 9x on a box just to use it. hehe I think i used this on Win 3.x!!!
This is a free windows ‘Deluxe Paint’ clone which seems to be perfect for pixel drawing:
http://www.eclipse-game.com/?menu=tools&sub=graphic&dat=7
PhoenixPaint — Another free pixel drawing DP clone (made in C#)
http://pxp.grapefruitopia.com/
for linux there is AOCP (which is free, dont have a working URL)
Open source (SDL based)
http://patsy.cis.rit.edu/Software/4p/
This is a more modern DP clone (all graphics are manipulated in 24 bits) (35$)
http://www.ultimatepaint.com/
gimp and psp is fine with me….
whats so special about this proggy, more than enough programs graphical programs out there…
but more choice is always better….i think!
Has someone finaly caught up to AmigaOS’ DeLuxe Paint and Personal Paint?
There is a freeware version of Ultimate Paint available on their site as well,and it has tons of filters included(20 to be prescise)This prog is another important part of my windoze 9x graphics toolbox,along with Zsoft,both apps have certain features that make them better than the heavyweights,for lite graphics work,I agree that Pixia is also a good one,as is project Dogwaffle
you all forgot pixel32, in development since 1997 and available for the following set of operating systems:
Windows, Linux, MacOSX, BeOS/Zeta, QNX, MorphOS, Solaris and DOS
That’s as multiplatform as it can be
http://pixel32.box.sk
and It’s even close to photoshop function-wise;
(Ok, this is not pixel-art-specific, but I thought it’d be worth mentioning this gem as most people seem to not know about it)
Pixel32 ain’t freeware …
true.
but cheap-ware compared to other similar packages.. $32 is like 3 good meals at hooters
(didn’t buy it yet either, still evuluating the hooters thingie
)
obviously they have never used Pro Motion (http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php).
A lot of game design houses use this.
it also has a much better feature set than pixen…
it also has a much better feature set than pixen…
Nonsense, it does just about the same that Pixen does. However, Pixen is free in every sense of the word (MIT, so truly free), while ProMotion costs a staggering $78.
And to all the people saying that GIMP or Photoshop or whatever is better: get a deal on what Pixelart is. Pixelart is where you draw an entire picture pixel by pixel. This means that creating a 64×64 icon can take up to hours and sometimes days to complete and perfectionate (is that a word?), especially when trying to recreate proper shadows, depth perception and realistic lighting conditions. Especially round objects are a pain in the ass to do, but I’ve mastered to make pixel-per-pixel gradients by now.
Anyway, GIMP and co are useless when it comes to Pixelart. Like I said, it’s like cutting bread with a chainsaw.
> take up to hours and sometimes days to complete and perfectionate (is that a word?)
not a word, should be:
“take days to perfect”
perfect can be used as a verb,
“Pixelart is where you draw an entire picture pixel by pixel”
but what stops you from doing this in the gimp or psp? what makes these chainsaws in contrast to your perfect bread cutting tool? i would prefer to learn one app and be able to do everything in it that I need to graphically than to learn a app numerous apps with similar purposes….
i would prefer to learn one app and be able to do everything in it that I need to graphically than to learn a app numerous apps with similar purposes….
The beauty of Mac OS X is that you don’t need to do that. Application behaviour is most of the time very consistent and applications do what you expect ’em to do. Everything is where it must be and where you expect it to be.
🙂
The difference a lot of people are missing is that with pixel art the artist will typically limit themselves to a very restricted color palette. Perhaps only 8 or 16 colors. Any hue not indexed in the palette must be simulated by closely putting pixels together to blend the color.
This is in contrast to doing work in Photoshop or Illustrator (or even Gimp), where things like anti-aliasing (sub hues) are rendered for you by software.
Pixel art is a throw back to the indexed color palettes found on the Amiga and other limited pallet systems like the NES.
This isn’t to say that every pixel artist limits themselves to small indexed pallets, or does all the image anti-aliasing by hand, but the true craft of pixel art is in the self imposed restrictions the artist allows.
One of the things that makes Pixen nice is the control it allows you over the color palette.
OSNEWS? You guys should rename the site to APPNEWS.