Graphics Tool Preference discussion

[AndersI]

I quit using it about when it decided to consume over half an hour of processor time for a flood-fill operation.

Is it worth reviving? I suspect most (all?) of the sources to it is inside GrfMaker, which I'm fiddling with a bit, now and then (mostly 'then' for the moment).

[denny577]

Are there any FREE ones out there?

You see, I'm a poor old boy living on a very limited income.

The GIMP is a free, open-source program as powerful as Paintshop and PhotoShop

Link is in my signature

[wallyweb]

Are there any FREE ones out there?

You see, I'm a poor old boy living on a very limited income.

The GIMP is a free, open-source program as powerful as Paintshop and PhotoShop

Link is in my signature

I guess you missed the post I made before that one:

Are there any other paint apps where the grid is made up of constant 1 pixel boxes that clearly surround the pixel?

[Spaceball]

The GIMP is a free, open-source program as powerful as Paintshop and PhotoShop

Sorry but The Gimp is not as powerfull as Photoshop!

Photoshop features several advantages in color management. It has support for 16-bit, 32-bit, and floating point images, support for the Pantone color matching system, or spot color and support for color models other than RGB(A) and greyscale, such as CIE XYZ. Photoshop features extensive gamma correction support.

In addition, Photoshop contains several productivity features and tools not supported by the GIMP, such as native support for Adjustment layers (layers which act like filters), undo history "snapshots" that persist between sessions, the history brush tool, folders in the layer window, a free transform tool to rotate, scale and move in one tool, and an interpolation code to draw smooth brush strokes using a tablet. The GIMP also requires basic programming knowledge to build an automation upon it, usually Script-Fu (scheme) or Python-Fu, while Photoshop can record your actions and repeat them with a "Play" button.

Photoshop Elements sells for less than 100,-$ and its often included in hardware products like scanners, which means you basicly get it for free.

It does not matter if you use Photoshop, The Gimp or something else as long as the results are good. Most people don't even need 5% of the functions Photoshop or The Gimp includes. Especially if you draw sprites for TTDX. If you just draw sprites for TTDX both programs are way to powerfull!

Link is in my signature

The Internet Explorer and Outlook Express are free. You can download them any time for free on the Microsoft website. Microsoft even made give away cd-roms.
There are several Extensions for Firefox which are malware and spyware (and widely in use). The guidline to fix security holes in Firefox is very similar to the guildine for the Internet Explorer. The Firefox is not better than the Internet Explorer nor is it more secure to use the Firefox. Its just your personal favour which of them you do actually use.

[DaleStan]

The guidline to fix security holes in Firefox is very similar to the guildine for the Internet Explorer.

But the security holes in Firefox do not include any sort of ActiveX crapware, and generally are less likely to be exploited merely because Firefox has a smaller percentage of the browser market. So please. Keep using IE. And make it less worthwhile for lusers to try to exploit my browser of choice.

I don't care if it's good enough for your machine. I only care that it's good enough for mine.

[Spaceball]

The guidline to fix security holes in Firefox is very similar to the guildine for the Internet Explorer.

But the security holes in Firefox do not include any sort of ActiveX crapware, and generally are less likely to be exploited merely because Firefox has a smaller percentage of the browser market.

The Firefox market share is between 12% and 45% - depending on the country. Those guys who are really using exploits to harm people allready targeting Firefox, IE and Opera users with the same site. They use scripts to define which browser is used and the script will then use the right exploit. Therefore it doesn't really matter if your browser has up to 45% or at least 50% marketshare. Some security leaks in Firefox haven't been fixed for several months. The Firefox guys sometimes need the same time to fix security leaks then those guys at Redmond. Btw the amount of extensions who have security leaks built in is increasing not declining.

So please. Keep using IE. And make it less worthwhile for lusers to try to exploit my browser of choice.

Well, my browsers market share is usually less than 3%. Even the Safaris market share is bigger though. Regarding your theory I should be allright then. I haven't used the IE since Opera 6.

cu, Spaceball

[wallyweb]

Gentlemen! Can you spell M-O-R-P-H?

Isn't it interesting how a Graphics Tool Preference discussion has morphed into a Web Browsing Tool Preference discussion?

Graphics, Browser, Hammer, Saw, Fork, Spoon ... It matters not what tool we discuss ... What does matter is the result we produce ... Was the picture pretty? Did I reach the web site? Do I have a nice house? Am I still hungry?

The only important thing about the tools you use is whether or not you are comfortable using those tools and whether they help you do what you want to do. It matters not what tools the other person uses. It matters only that they are happy with the tools that they use, that they have accomplished with those tools the job they set out to do.

A lady once said to me "I don't care how big or small it is. All I care about is if you make me happy."

I gave her a flower and she smiled.

[athanasios]

So please. Keep using IE. And make it less worthwhile for lusers to try to exploit my browser of choice.

Yeah, and do some naughty tricks that you can't do with IE.

[Sanchimaru]

I use Paint shop Pro. It has a lot of useful tools; I'll explain some of them:

- select tools: it has different ways of selecting: one is the basic drag to select a zone, but it has very a useful tool that allows you to select only pixels of a specific color. This comes handy to repaint sprites, or to modify them. Also to replace specific areas. Then, the tool to select a custom area (and not a square one) is easier to use, mainly because you see exactly what area you have selected, unlike paint, where after dragging the line, you only see a box. And you have more accuracy since you can de-select areas too. Very useful to draw elements and then combine them into one sprite: this was handy when drawing the industrial stations: I have the containers and barrels appart, then select them and remove the background to paste them together on the base tiles or platforms.

- recolor tool: You can replace one color with another, keeping the rest untouched. Actually the old "paintbrush" (Windows default painting program) used to have a similar feature with its eraser: you could erase only a selected color. But the new"paint" doesn't include it anymore... Very useful for adding accurate background transparent blue to the sprites.

- windows: you can work simultaneously with different windows. This is useful to work with sprites from different files.

- Undo: well, you have a higher range of undo actions available.

This program makes the work easier, I don't say that it's impossible to work with paint, but PSP saves me a lot of time and work. I haven't really tried other programs, but I'm comfortable with this one.

[athanasios]

PSP is great. One has to use it to understand its value.

[Zimmlock]

So i am the only dude that uses Ulead Photo Impact. To my opinion its better to draw with a extended program, if you need some kind of feature its there. When you start drawing for the first time you ll not use all those features, when your skills improve you have all tools at hand to experiment and slowly you learn how to use all those things inside a vast drawing program. I use many of them embedded in to Photo Impact, there are to many to make a list, its capable of saving images to all sorts of formats and you can have variouse formats opend and simply cut and past from one to the other while the pallete remains correct where you past into.

[wallyweb]

...

Yes, but judging by your avatar, I don't think you found the perspective feature yet.

[Dave]

Gents, The GIMP rules as a mix of simplicity and complexity.

Do not listen to the wallyweb. It is not good for your health (or his, for that matter )

He's right about Zimmlock though

[Bad Hair Day]

For drawing TTDP Sprites, I use MS Paint everytime. I don't NEED to use anything else, so I don't.