Brush Strokes Image Editor

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Screenshot of two tool boxes in the Brush Strokes Image Editor.

Brush Strokes Image Editor 1.01 [1] is a bitmap graphics editor made by Paul Bird for the Microsoft Windows operating system. The current free version has a memory leak making the editing of large images impossible.

1 Features
- 1.1 John Conway's Game of Life simulation
2 Bitmap formats
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Features

GIF animations
filters (e.g. blur, sharpen, negative, outline, posterize)
transformations (e.g. rotation, perspective, twist)
colour adjustment
selections (e.g. magic wand, colour selections)
paint tools (e.g. pen, brush, clone tool)
pattern and image fills
transparency
feathering
crop

The "Filters & Lenses" tool box has a noise reduction function that retains edges within the canvas. It does a surprisingly good job of eliminating speckles and smudging in JPEG images. Any of the filters can be applied repeatedly for two seconds by clicking on the last button in the tool box. The first row of buttons in the tool box apply the current pen color as a semi-transparent gradient superimposed on the canvas:

Top to bottom
Right to left
Bottom to top
Left to right

The "Distortions" tool box performs horizontal & vertical flips and rotations. It also contains the "stretch or twist" and "perspective" tools, which unfortunately don't apply anti-aliasing (in the free version, at least). However, the "Text" tool in the "Pens & Brushes" toolbox does apply anti-aliasing (if enabled via the Control Panel for Windows), and is easy and convenient to use.

Note: Right-click the mouse in Brush Strokes to show tooltips. They don't appear automatically.

[edit] John Conway's Game of Life simulation

An unusual addition to the "Filters & Lenses" tool box is an implementation of John Horton Conway's Game of Life. It's a simulation of the evolution of cellular automata in which cells replicate or die according to a simple set of rules. The initial pattern of cells constitutes the first generation of automata in the simulation. In Brush Strokes, the pattern of pixels in an image constitute the initial state. Three buttons at the bottom of the "Filters & Lenses" tool box launch a single iteration of the game, modify the image by means of plug-in filters, or trigger the last command repeatedly for two seconds. Any of the filters in the tool box can be applied before proceeding with the game.