GrafX2
| Company type | Free software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Sunset Design |
Area served | Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, MacOS, AmigaOS, FreeBSD, BeOS, Haiku, MorphOS, AROS, SkyOS, Atari MiNT, GP2X) |
| Products | Bitmap graphics editor |
GrafX2 is a bitmap graphics editor influenced by the Amiga applications Deluxe Paint and Brilliance. It is offered as free software under the terms of the GPL-2.0-only.
History
Originally developed as an MS-DOS application by Sunset Design between 1996 and 2001, GrafX2 was released as freeware and gained popularity within the demoscene community. Development halted due to limited availability of developer resources, prompting the release of its source code under the GPL-2.0-only license.
A Windows version was later created by the Eclipse demogroup, showcased at the State of the Art event in 2004; however, this port’s source code has not been made public.
In 2007, efforts began to adapt the original MS-DOS source to utilize the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library, targeting a pixel art editor suitable for Linux. The adoption of SDL facilitated cross-platform compatibility, including support for Windows. This ongoing development aimed to reinstate features absent from both the initial open source release and the earlier Windows port.
Features
At its debut in 1996, GrafX2 introduced support for most Amiga screen resolutions, allowing PC users to employ it as a picture viewer through direct video card programming with Mode X and VESA. The SDL-based version operates on high-resolution displays and employs software scaling to simulate low-resolution modes with non-square pixel ratios, enabling editing tailored for vintage 16- or 8-bit microcomputer screens.
All iterations emphasize drawing in indexed color mode with a maximum palette of 256 colors. The detailed palette editor caters to console and mobile game graphics that require precise color indices for effects such as Palette swap, Color cycling, and transparent colors used in sprites.
The interface is primarily mouse-driven, featuring a toolbar alongside modal dialogs, augmented by comprehensive keyboard shortcuts to enhance workflow efficiency. Users can divide the workspace into standard and zoomed sections for meticulous editing.
Drawing tools draw inspiration from Deluxe Paint and include:
- Brushes: either built-in monochrome shapes or user-defined colored bitmaps displayed beneath the cursor.
- Tools: brush pasting via freehand drawing, lines, circles, curves, and airbrushes.
- Effects: modify pixel rendering—for example, Shade mode adjusts brightness based on mouse movement and selected color ranges. Traditional effects like Transparency and Smoothing are constrained by indexed palette limitations.
The SDL port is compatible with numerous platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, MacOS; less prevalent systems such as AmigaOS (both 68k and PPC), BeOS, Haiku, MorphOS, AROS, SkyOS, and Atari MiNT; handheld devices like GP2X; while Windows versions can also run on MS-DOS through HX DOS Extender.
File formats
- PKM (Sunset Design) – GrafX2’s proprietary format from early releases
- BMP (Microsoft)
- CEL, KCF (K.O.S. Kisekae Set System)
- GIF (Compuserve)
- IMG (Bivas)
- LBM (Electronic Arts) – compatible with Deluxe Paint and multiple Amiga paint applications
- PAL
- PCX (PC Paintbrush)
- PI1, PC1 (Degas Elite)
- PNG (supported in Windows and SDL versions only)
- SCx (Colorix)
- NEO (NeoChrome)
- Commodore 64 formats (Koala Painter, CDU-Paint, FLI)
- CPC formats (PPH, CM5)
- JPEG (import only)
- TGA (Truevision TGA import only)
- TIFF (Aldus Corporation)
- RECOIL allows importing numerous vintage native computer formats
See also
Further reading
External links
- source code repository
- Linux distributions: Debian, Ubuntu
- DOS edition available on pouet.net