Pixen

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Pixen

Developed by	Open Sword Group
Latest release	3.0 / June 15, 2006
OS	Mac OS X
Genre	Raster graphics editor
Website	http://opensword.org/pixen/

Pixen is an open-source raster graphics editor created by the Open Sword group. It is designed to create and edit pixel art. It runs on Mac OS X. The latest version is Pixen 3.

1 Features
2 Focus
3 Interface
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Features

Pixen utilizes a basic interface similar to that of Adobe Photoshop. While common tools are included in Pixen, such as the pencil, eraser, and fill tool, Pixen also uses a unique left/right tool system. This system enables the user to assign a different tool to the left and right mouse buttons. This can be used effectively when drawing and erasing. It also features several color palettes, as well as integration with Mac OS X's color options. Like many other bitmap-based applications, Pixen has a layer system that will let you organize parts of an image, name them, or hide them.

[edit] Focus

Pixen is designed for pixel art, and therefore only has tools primarily focused on a few colors. One important part of this is that anti-aliasing is not possible to archive in Pixen, and all tools have had color fading. Pixen also focuses on indexed colors and palette use. This makes it ideal for editing indexed formats, like .gif, and usage on systems with low memory resources.

[edit] Interface

Pixen is designed from the start with a native Mac OS X look and feel. It therefor features a Cocoa (API), and makes extensive use of cocoa elements. From a layout perspective Pixen borrows ideas from other rasters editors. It features a tool case and separate windows for the image, layers and tools.