Pixel Ninja

Executive Summary: it's Studio/32* and/or Deluxe Paint Reloaded.

Here's the deal. When you want to produce absolutely precise bitmap graphics, e.g. for use in a 2d game or as part of a user interface, having a tool that doesn't precisely hit pixels and pixel boundaries is amazingly frustrating.

In Photoshop you've basically got the pencil tool and the marquee tool, everything else is useless. Pixel Ninja aims to fill this need, and it will be supported precisely because I often need it in my day-to-day work.

Pixel Ninja will be released as shareware for $20 when it's ready. Until then, it's free for personal use, and anyone who provides useful and constructive feedback will be entitled to a free license when Pixel Ninja 1.0 ships. I reserve the right to define "useful and constructive"!

Downloads

Download Pixel Ninja

The current version of Pixel Ninja expires at the end of September, 2009.

Version History

Version 0.4.1

Expires March 2010
New About Box

Version 0.4

256x256 icon added (the important stuff!)
zooming behavior tweaked
resizing behavior tweaked
deleting selections works properly now
moving selections no longer behaves oddly sometimes
clipboard now works (doesn't export so nicely to other apps)
command-key behavior is now attached to the control key so that (for example) cutting with the clipboard doesn't leave behind the outline color.
misc. bugs fixed

Version 0.3

navigator palette implemented
tweaked selection behavior
command-select makes background pixels transparent
cursor changes over selection
better info in the info bar
fixed colored pixel bug in freeform tool

Version 0.2

removed scrollbars (they don't make sense) but haven't added "grabber hand" yet
added info bar to bottom of window
improved zooming behavior (now more-or-less working)
added lasso selection
added freeform with fill and with fill and outline
finessed selection behavior:
- picking a non-selection tool drops selection
- selection dragging now scales properly
- deleting a "floating" selection simply removes the selection
- dragging selection with/without option down works appropriately now

Version 0.1

proper document icon and behavior.
numerous minor glitches fixed.
better zooming behavior.
clipboard less broken (but still...)

Philosophy

I will shamelessly rip off the best features of every graphics program I've ever used in an attempt to produce the perfect pixel painting tool. (There will be some compromises, e.g. I love Studio/32's "tab to toggle the eyedropper" shortcut, but I also love Photoshop's "tab to toggle the UI" shortcut. What to do?)

I don't really care about speed. These kinds of graphics tend to be small. Studio/32 was a pedal-to-the-metal program in its day because it was pushing the envelope. I'm not and I don't care.

I do care about leveraging modern hardware capabilities such as fabulous alpha channel support and filters. There are plenty of great programs for applying filters, so this isn't a priority, but translucent drawing tools are hugely better today than back in 1991 when Studio/32 was around.

It's the usability, stupid. I want this to be a fantastic tool for novices and experts. This means intuitive tools and powerful shortcuts. Who knows, maybe even scriptability and plugins. We'll see.

Current Notes

It's early days yet. So early, Pixel Ninja doesn't have a version number. (Edit: now it does!) I hope to have it polished enough to call it version 1.0 some time next year.

It will load almost anything, but only saves PNGs.
Not many keyboard shortcuts yet, except I support Studio/32's zooming (e.g. pressing 8 gives you 800%, pressing shift-8 gives you 12.5%) Photoshop's delete convention (option-delete fills with forecolor, command-click fills with stroke color) and Studio/32's eyedropper convention (option-click picks up back color, command-click picks up stroke color).
~~Clipboard support is pretty broken, although you can copy and create a document from the clipboard (favorite ever GC feature).~~
Undo doesn't deal with selections properly, so you don't get back lost selections. I plan to do this when I put in a more robust undo architecture (which will be needed for layers).
Yes, full layer support will be coming.
Holding down ~~command~~ control turns off anti-aliasing when drawing.
You can drag around selections or click off them to deselect them. ~~The cursor doesn't currently change to reflect this, but it will.~~
Everything should be pixel-perfect. I.e. when you draw a line it will start in the center of your crosshairs and end there. If not, it's a bug.
I think I'll increase the size of the tool palette to make clicking on the colors precisely a little easier. (Note that you can click on the colors themselves to get the system picker.)

Note: * There was also the 8-bit Studio/8, which had its own virtues. But even if you're working with palette-based graphics, a 32-bit paint program along with (say) GraphicConverter to manage the palette reduction works fine.

It's been a long time since anyone produced a good pixel-centric paint program for the Mac. The last even vaguely decent one was probably Brushstrokes (published by Claris, briefly) which was itself an unashamed clone of Studio/32 (produced by Electronic Arts). Studio/32 was really Deluxe Paint (same developers even) but with 32-bit graphics, alpha channel support (back before Apple had put it into the OS), layers (well, a layer), and the slickest keyboard shortcuts ever.

I was told by an acquaintance at EA that Studio/32 was used internally by game artists for something like a decade after it stopped being shipped and was still considered indispensable. I can believe it.

Feedback

For now please leave any feedback and comments here.

Products

In Development

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