Suggestions for Graphics Editor

Yazwho · Post by **Yazwho** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:31 pm

Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent graphics editor for Windows? Something that can handle the 12bit colours and an indexed palette that we need?

Paint.Net is about as good as I've found, but maybe there is something considerably better that everyone is using?

Is the answer to spin up Deluxe Paint 4 in an emulator?!

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:40 pm

I use Gimp, and that works just fine on any desktop platform.

Yazwho · Post by **Yazwho** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 5:07 pm

14 minutes ago, SlithyMatt said:

I use Gimp, and that works just fine on any desktop platform.

I've never got on well with the gimp. Drawing bitmaps doesn't seem to be its forte.

I'd have thought there would be some editors for what the kids nowdays call 'Pixel Art'..?

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 5:50 pm

41 minutes ago, Yazwho said:

Drawing bitmaps doesn't seem to be its forte.

I've had success using Krita for the actual drawing part, and then exporting it to Gimp to do the palette conversion.

Fenner Machine · Post by **Fenner Machine** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 5:59 pm

A few suggestions I’ve received:

Aseprite

GraphicsGale

Pyxel Edit

Tilemap Editor

ZeroByte · Post by **ZeroByte** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 9:47 pm

I primarily used Aseprite for making Flappy Bird. It's a great tool, and then I used a python script that converts indexed PNG files into VERA tile data.

There's a Aseprite plugin in the downloads area here that quantizes the active color palette to 12 bit RGB, which ensures that your colors come out looking the same.

Ed Minchau · Post by **Ed Minchau** » Fri Jul 09, 2021 12:54 am

I'm using Libre Office spreadsheets and Paint. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.

Yazwho · Post by **Yazwho** » Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:21 am

6 hours ago, Ed Minchau said:

spreadsheets

Lol, what? Is that the modern day equivalent of graph paper for designing sprites?

Ed Minchau · Post by **Ed Minchau** » Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:06 pm

12 hours ago, Yazwho said:

Lol, what? Is that the modern day equivalent of graph paper for designing sprites?

Yep. Sort of. I can set custom colors for the background of cells, set a Style to that color, and then use that Style by reference, i.e.:

J30=T(STYLE("C4"&J14))

Whatever value is in J14 (a hex digit from 0 to F) becomes the color displayed in J30 (so if J14 contains 3, the style displayed will be style C43).

This is actually much better than graph paper, because I can make all sorts of changes, no problem. I even have the spreadsheet set up to generate a BASIC program, so once I make all my changes I just copy one sheet to the clipboard and paste it into the Commander X16 emulator.

edited to add: the world's most popular Functional Programming language isn't Haskell, it's Excel.

OguzhanKuyubasi · Post by **OguzhanKuyubasi** » Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:30 pm

I'm making Sprites on MS-Paint, and for Transparency Gimp.

For the Color Palette the 24-Bit Palette mimics the 12-Bit Palette and I using for that MS-Paint or Irfanview.

But I'm not a Programmer.