Best image editing program for editing graphics for a Keen mod?

[entropicdecay]

What image editing programs are best suited for editing graphics when making a Keen mod? Some seem to mess with the EGA palette.

[Dave216]

If you haven't already, download the Keen Galaxy Modding Package. It contains mspaint, which you can use for EGA graphics. It won't mess up your colors, no matter what you do with it. You can find it in the "Tools".

You can download the package from the Keen Galaxy Modding Tutorial:
https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/Keen_ ... sed)#Tools


You could also just search for the Microsoft Paint XP version on the net, but since you'll be modding, you can already find it there.

[Quillax]

Are you using Windows? Newer versions of MS Paint (which is what I assume you used) will mess up the Keen palette. Older versions (prior to Windows 7 according to Ceilick's tutorial) will work perfectly, though. They may be pretty primitive (e.g. no layers), but I find old MS Paint flexible and useful enough that it's my personal choice for editing Keen graphics (and any pixel art, really) ever since day 1! Many pixel art pros would probably recommended other tools, however. I've used GIMP a few times, like for pasting the items onto backgrounds in The Sqeek Battle, although that could've easily been done in MSPaint now that I look back. (MSPaint has a lot of hidden tricks that make life easier, I could tell you some if you're interested.)

By the way, in the link Dave216 posted, you'll want to look at the "Setup" section right above if you're searching for the package download.

[Benvolio]

Might I suggest Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7.

Amongst its many benefits is the ability to maintain indexes (not ruin 16-colour palettes) whilst displaying colours as they appear in game.

It is new enough (from 2000) to be far easier to use than anything contemporary with Keen, but old enough not to have swept pixel editing by the wayside.

It runs flawlessly on any Windows from 98 to 11.

[entropicdecay]

Are you using Windows?

Yes.

Newer versions of MS Paint (which is what I assume you used) will mess up the Keen palette.

It was paint.net that messed it up I think, and is what I usually use for most image editing on PC recently. What it is is, I think, a lot of (more recent, at least) image editing software when you save into an indexed image format, selects and arranges the palette for you in some manner I assume is based on what order the colours appear in the image going pixel by pixel (though I'm not sure in what order it goes through them, or if that varies by program).

I might look into the older version of MS Paint thing in the modding tools pack, however I will try GraphicsGale first since I already have that.

Edit: I'm not 100% sure it was paint.net that messed up the colours, my memory sucks. I mostly just assume it was since that's what I typically use for most image editing for a while now.

GraphicsGale does appear to work well for this. I can even fix the image with the messed up palette by copying and pasting the palette from a non-messed up exported BMP.

[DoomJedi]

Microsoft Paint XP, for me, always.

[entropicdecay]

New I can fix the screwed up "entropicdecay" graphic in Keen 0 Plus.

[Ceilick]

I believe my favorite version of mspaint is the Windows Vista version, which is almost identical to the XP version except for a slightly improved zoom functionality.

I have also occasionally used Paint.net for Keen projects, specifically for rotating images. When doing this, save the image file separately and then use mspaint to load the original and paste in your saved image. This should correct and color discrepancies.

[K1n9_Duk3]

If you use uGrab to import your modified images back into the EGAGRAPH file, the bitmaps don't need to have a palette. uGrab will convert true-color bitmaps to the default palette (using the light green color for transparency). So as long as you save your edited bitmaps as 24-bit (true-color) bitmaps, you should still be able to import them correctly.

Some modern versions of mspaint will mess up the colors when saving as 8-bit (256 color) or 4-bit (16 color) bitmaps, and you won't even see that until you re-open the saved file. In that case, uGrab might end up mapping the colors incorrectly, which is why I recommend saving as true-color bitmaps if you are forced to work with modern versions of mspaint.

One thing to keep in mind is that the command-line version of uGrab does not verify the palette of imported bitmap files that use a palette. If the bitmap has a palette, but it doesn't match Keen's EGA palette, the images will be imported with the wrong colors.

The GUI version will check the palette, but only if you use the "Add" or the "Replace" button or you drag-and-drop the image file onto the uGrab window.

[entropicdecay]

I thought uGrab was for source ports? Thus far it's more likely I'd be doing Vorticons modding, so I assume I'd use ModKeen. I did make a thread about possibly giving Galaxy level editing another try, but if I did that I'd probably start with a level pack so I wouldn't be doing graphics there.

[lemm]

https://www.aseprite.org/

Aseprite. It's specifically designed for pixel art. It's $20 but if you plan to make an entire keen mod then it's well worth it. MSPaint cannot compare.

[entropicdecay]

I have Aseprite already. Though I'm not sure about palette stuff with it.

[Gridlock]

I did all of Atroxian Realm with Paint XP because I was too stubborn to find something better. But I've been using Aseprite for several years now. I do experience a few minor annoyances with it, particularly with controls selection, but overall it's pretty nice. I wish it had a few more dithering-related features, but maybe there are tools or extensions I don't know about. Having more than 3 undos is already a nice improvement.

With Aseprite, you set a file to use indexed color mode, and then configure a 16 color palette (plus alpha colors) that you can set as your default palette. I don't remember if I've ever used it specifically for Keen modding (maybe The Alphamatic later on?), but I'm guessing it would work.