https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkoi1AzOL6I

This will be the last video in the series before the launch but we’ve had so much fun doing them, we might peep in new updates with more ‘How to’ videos so watch out for those.

By the way, if you ever want us to do a specific video about a feature or certain techniques, drop us a note!

Without further ado, here be the new things and fixes for the new version.

• History is saved with each file so you can undo even after you close a file.
  Ctrl+Z - undo
  Ctrl+Y - redo
  Shift+U - undo
  U still works the same (does a redo until there is no redo available - in which case, it does an undo)
  
• Wrap mode now available in Config > Prefs > Wrap (preview tiling in drawing area)
  
• Draw anywhere in tiles, updates in drawing area
  
• Added Dither
  Dither window appears when you load true color images
  
• Access all available windows in current window
  Click > to Windows...

• Fixed temporary image ghosts
  
• Fixed brush ghosting
  
• Fixed Layer > Process > Flatten Layers doesn't work (creates a new image)
  
• Fixed Layers being remembered in Config -> Prefs when saved
  
• Fixed Brush pickup outside draw area error
  
• Fixed Preferences for layers (no longer set to global)
  
• Fixed Frame > Add a frame (Shift+2 still works)
  
• Fixed Undo with image resize
  
• Fixed Undo with palette remap
  
• Fixed Swapping frames crashing application
  
• Fixed number updating for Sliders in Colors
  
• Capitalise 'Contrast' in Dither window
  
• Fixed Dither to update values at 100% image scale
  
• Fixed typo Dither > Red goes up to 180 when it should be 100
  
• Fixed Layer compositing slowing down application
  
• Fixed Frames duplicate

• Display new icons for tools when in use
  
• Added Pipette icon
  
• Added Pr icon (processing - applying attribute clash / reduce color palette / apply effect over current image)
  
• Added Slide icon
  
• RemapTo palette and brush will not dither by default
  
• Added hover text to newer tools
  
• Include palette in New image presets
  
• Display current Paint mode
  
• Regroup menu drop downs
  
• Allow Dither for paletted files
  
• Update Images menu with preferences and image list

• When opening / loading / saving an image, you can edit the url of the file destination
  
• Add custom 8-bit palettes or presets to
  $HOME/Pictures/swankypaint/presets
  We scan for these files at startup and add them to the Palette Editor menu.
  Palette - filename.pal.png
  Preset - filename.set.png

It's almost time! We're posting videos of the new features you'll be seeing in the next version of Swanky Paint leading up to the official release party on the 4th of August, 2018 so see you next time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQqOrauxGG8

Trim off excess space easily by cropping your current image or increase your canvas to accommodate more assets.

Using the 'Anchor', you can specify from where your image is resized or cropped. The Image Size Adjuster window also lets you add new layers to your current image as well as resize your canvas, at the same time.

Resizing an image in various ways

Have a go at this new feature and tell us what you think! We want to improve the window interface for this feature so your feedback will help tremendously.

Scale your windows up to see better

With the new user interface design and structure, we now have our own windows system.

This gives us complete control over the application and allows us to do magical things like saving your preferences (which includes the layout of where the toolbox and preview area lives), creating our own buttons and menus and having the windows scale to accommodate legibility.

Windows inception - we put windows in your windows

You now have access to all other windows from a currently opened window. This should make it easier for you to get to where you want without having to navigate to the menu bar. It's the little things, innit?

It's almost time! We're posting videos of the new features you'll be seeing in the next version of Swanky Paint leading up to the official release party on the 4th of August, 2018 so see you next time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5KQqkZrovg

As game artists, an obviously repeated pattern is an eyesore, especially at small samples. This should make it easier to work out a more natural looking placement for your pixel art and games.

Tiling preview

With this new feature, artists are able to draw anywhere on the screen so you're not limited to just the drawing area. This is because we update your canvas regardless of where you paint your pixels.

Converting a spritesheet into different formats

Chop up your spritesheet easily into frames. Just use 'brush pickup' to select the dimension of one character and then choose 'Anim from SpriteSheet' under the Image dropdown.

You can always swap frames to layers, or vice versa, under the same dropdown and flatten back the spritesheet into a single image by adjusting the values to a single layer in the Layer window.

We're posting videos of the new features you'll be seeing in the next version of Swanky Paint leading up to the official release party on the 4th of August, 2018 so see you next time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE-vTXyTKU0

A cat in 4 flavours, with and without attribute clash

There are 15 base palette choices for dithering, with RGB, HSVC adjustments and an option to build your own base palette. We might add in Gamma for the next stable version (or sooner in the experimental build).

Scarborough in MSX, attribute clash

The Attribute Clash button (flash icon) toggles a preview for before and after dither effects. Hover over the icon and choose the Image Processing window - this window sets the option to enable attribute clash to achieve the effects above.

Image Processing window

Attribute width and height - Size of each character / tile
Attribute Redux - Size of reduction (2 colours is traditional for ZXSpectrum)
Attribute Sub - Size of sub-palette (Groupings of colours)
Attribute Back - The colour that is allowed to be in each tile (Background colour - defaults to none)

And yes! This can be applied to any base palette so you'll be able to create really unique flavours of glitch art.

Our dither pattern algorithm

The default dither pattern in Swanky Paint is an ordered dither, based on an 8x8 tile. This is essentially a Bayer pattern with 65 levels.

We're posting videos of the new features you'll be seeing in the next version of Swanky Paint leading up to the official release party on the 4th of August, 2018 so see you next time!

Feature art - ‘A Pond’ by Frances MacDonald, 1940.


We’ve done quite a big rehaul of the infrastructure under the hood. We fixed a bunch of bugs, the user interface has been spruced up to accommodate future features and we’ve streamlined current ones that were hidden before. You should find that things have been moved around quite a bit but they will make more sense under their allocated groupings.

The main new feature we’re excited about is the ULTIMATE UNDO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZX6jDO5qWE
Fans of Deluxe Paint should be familiar with the 1 undo of the past and we’ve honoured that tradition - until now.

The ULTIMATE UNDO remembers everything you do from the beginning of an artwork’s inception. It remembers even after you close the file and reopen it again! That's because the history is attached to the image and not the session.

But wait, there's more - you can also save the entire history of an image and export it as a GIF.

Yes, the ULTIMATE UNDO is the most ultimate undo ever conceived!!!!1111oneeleven

We’re able to do this because pixels are oh so very small and the file sizes are negligible. There is a soft limit of 64mb for each history save but you can increase it if you’re really hardcore.

We're posting videos of the new features you'll be seeing in the next version of Swanky Paint leading up to the official release party on the 4th of August, 2018 so see you next time!

We've introduced a BETA option for those who want the latest experimental build of Swanky Paint. This build is mostly to test new features before we update the stable version.

We've got a list of things in mind (you can view the list here - https://github.com/xriss/swankypaint/issues/14). Go ahead and ask requests there if you want. We will also be keeping an eye on the Steam discussion group.

Today, we've added a small feature which is SVG support as an export option.

This is great for anyone who wants to print out their masterpieces as high resolution posters, etc. Just name your exported file as .svg and Swanky Paint will take care of the rest.

Beware: Beta option may be buggy.

If you would like to opt for Beta test, just right click on Swanky Paint in your Library and click on Properties to access the BETAS option as below. Click on 'test' and Steam should automatically update. Enjoy.

The previous update that fixed the issue with AMD drivers on Windows 10 machines unfortunately broke on Mac OS machines.

This was due to versions of GLSL supported by different architectures.

We've now updated a new version which should fix loading on Mac OS machines.

Many thanks for your patience and your support!

Looks like AMD was unhappy with some of the GLSL shaders. This is now fixed and Swanky Paint should work fine on AMD cards.

If you're still having problems, do let us know and we'll get back on the treadmill.

It looks like there is an issue with AMD graphics card and Windows 10. We're currently trying to replicate these so we can fix them.

This build is working on all the machines we have access to, including a Linx 8 tablet running Windows 10 which is a fairly low specced device.

For now, we are setting up an AMD machine with Windows 10 installed and hope that we will be able to recreate the problems.

Many thanks for your support and apologies if you're one of those affected. We'll soon get to the bottom of this.