Rid yourself of MsPaint

[Broken_Erika]

This has got to be the best paint program i have come across, best of all it's FREE!
http://www.getpaint.net/

If you can't use the l;ink then just look up paint.net

 

[Mercator]

Does it work well with the GIFs as well? I downloaded it a while ago when some people on Apoylton were looking for something good, but it doesn't have a palette you can pick colours from (well, only max 96 colours). I didn't check if it could also save the right GIF format and 256 colour bitmaps without screwing up the palette... I uninstalled it again after.

But if that's no probem, it *is* a nice program.

 

[Catfish]

Does it work well with the GIFs as well? I downloaded it a while ago when some people on Apoylton were looking for something good, but it doesn't have a palette you can pick colours from (well, only max 96 colours). I didn't check if it could also save the right GIF format and 256 colour bitmaps without screwing up the palette... I uninstalled it again after.

Funnily enough, I did exactly the same thing: couldn't see a way to customise or load 8-bit palettes, and it had no format options for GIFs, BMPs or PNGs under 'Save As...'. I may have been using an older version. Seems to have a lot of people working on various plug-ins, though.

BTW, I noticed a new Windows version of The GIMP (2.4.3) was posted on filehippo.com yesterday. It does have these palette and format options.

 

[Mercator]

Hmmm, interesting site... I'm not too much of a fan of The Gimp, though. It has a funny interface. Paint.net looks really nice... Of course a nice interface is useless without the features you need.

 

[Catfish]

Hmmm, interesting site...

Yeah, it's where I check for updates for most of the major freeware apps, drivers and APIs. Its ads are discreet (invisible with the right Firefox extensions), its updates are timely and it's all legal.

I'm not too much of a fan of The Gimp, though. It has a funny interface.

Agreed, it takes some getting used to - but as you intimated, it has features the other doesn't. Either way, people should stop complaining about MS Paint. I'm still using a shareware version of Paint Shop Pro 9.

 

[Jesdisciple]

Thanks for that note, Wobbegong; I still had GIMP 2.2.1.3.

Mercator, what do you mean by "funny interface"? That it uses separate windows, perhaps?

 

[Mercator]

Among other things, yes. It's just completely unlike what I'm used to, and just doesn't look very good or organised. All those separate windows get in the way when editing. I haven't tried it in a long while, though. I might give it another go, perhaps with GIMPshop... Photoshop kind of annoys me too, though.

I use PSP9 as well.

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

PSP5 still rocks... Hard to come by, but it's one of the nicest and more importantly "unemcumbered" image processors for simple graphics work. The later versions didn't do it for me, much too heavy to load up for simple things.

 

[Rayxes]

Corel's bought out JASC.
And PSP is up to 12.
But my old "Six" has served me well.
If you can lay your mitts on a PSP 5 or 6,
It has everything a Civ Scenario maker needs.

 

[Catfish]

I use scripts/macros quite a bit. They were introduced in version 8.

Corel's bought out JASC.

At version 10. Reviews weren't that great and I've read complaints that the package was becoming bloated. I remember there being a marked increase in load times when I switched from version 8 to 9. I think I'll stop there.

 

[SpecialCookies]

I love GIMP. Free, but the interface is a bit confusing for those new to it, but as you get more used to it, you'll find that the separate windows are actually more of a blessing-in-disguise. The one bad thing is that it sometimes overpacks the toolbar thing at the bottom of the screen. Which is bad when you're jumping from say IE or Firefox to GIMP and back again. (which happens when your looking up guides on photo-editing and using special effects etc.)

 

[Newbunkle]

Does anyone know of a program/know how to write one that takes an image, and adjusts all the colours to fit the Civ 2 palette?

(Lets say I wanted to convert a photograph of myself to the Civ 2 palette, cut out my head, and use it for an Evil Overlord unit.)

 

[Chieftess]

Does anyone know of a program/know how to write one that takes an image, and adjusts all the colours to fit the Civ 2 palette?

(Lets say I wanted to convert a photograph of myself to the Civ 2 palette, cut out my head, and use it for an Evil Overlord unit.)

Most modern paint programs have something where you can adjust the hue, or other colors. I know in Paint Shop Pro 3.11 (Yes, very old, but it served me well), you could change colors by setting it to 256 (or was it 16?) colors, and changing the pallete colors one by one. There's also a color changer tool where you can replace the selected foreground color with the selected background color.

 

[Catfish]

Does anyone know of a program/know how to write one that takes an image, and adjusts all the colours to fit the Civ 2 palette?

If you paste a new image into an existing image that uses an indexed palette, the original palette is normally retained. At least that's the case with most graphics editors that I've seen. You could do that and then crop the image to size. Of course there's a better (or more correct, I guess) way to do it and that's to save the Civ2 palette from one of the game's graphics files (units.gif is best), open the new image and then load the palette. Most graphics editors worth their salt will provide a number of resampling (ie, the way colours are reassigned) options. Then you've got to be able to save it in the right format: 87a, non-interlaced GIF. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and The GIMP can do all of these; MS Paint and Paint.NET cannot.

 

[Newbunkle]

Thanks, I downloaded GIMP the other day, so I'll try that.

I was only going to do it for a laugh. If its too much of a headache, I'll probably forget it.