Reviews

PIXIA | rating: Description: Paint program/ image editor File size: 3.29MB Platforms: Windows 95/ 98 / 2000/ ME / NT 4.0. / XP Download

The Rundown

What exactly is Pixia? Pixia was originally a Japanese paint program and image editor, but it became so popular that it was expanded to several non Japanese editions, including English. Since so many people like Pixia, let's take a look at some of the features that have made it so popular.

Features

SUPERB PAINT TOOLS
As a paint program, Pixia shines. You'll be gladly getting rid of MSPaint in favor of this program and thanking your lucky stars it exists. Paint with a number of brushes that come in various shapes and types, and fill your drawings with solid colors, gradients, and even graphics from the bitmap gallery. Moreover, watch the line come out in a nice, fluid way, not as a scratchy, pixely line that is common with a cheaper paint program. You really feel as if you're drawing with true ink and not pixels. Even better, play with the controls to actually simulate real paint/ ink effects, such as dry marker or drybrush.

LAYERS
No painting program would be complete without the ability to use layers, and Pixia is no exception. You can draw and paint with as many layers as needed. Pixia also allows you to blend layers in specific ways, such as choosing settings like darken, lighten, luminosity, and difference. This is essential for more advanced image creation and gives you more options than you'd normally get with a simple paint program.

IMAGE EDITING
With Pixia, you can manipulate your images with a number of filters matching some of the ever popular ones you commonly see in programs like Photoshop, such as graph paper, mesh, sepia, and duotone. There are also some of your more traditional and functional image editing capabilities, such as cropping, channel manipulation, and the option to adjust color and values (HSL).

Shortcomings

Despite some of the cool  stuff you can do with Pixia, here is a caveat: some of the actions in the program are a little counter-intuitive, so you might find yourself tearing your hair out over the simplest things. In this situation, the best thing to do is to download the help file and read the message boards at the site to avoid heartache.

A second shortcoming is that this program does not support the .gif format. However, it does support the other more popular image formats, including .jpeg and .png.

In summary

If you want to create computer graphics from scratch that are more advanced than what you would get with MS Paint, Pixia is your best bet. The interface can be a bit counter-intuitive, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, which is why Webdesigner-Freebies has rated it a 4.5.

Visit Homepage: Pixia
 

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