PixiEditor 2.0 – A FOSS universal 2D graphics editor

https://pixieditor.net/blog/2025/07/30/20-release/

405•ksymph•6mo ago

Comments

eternityforest•6mo ago

Wow, if this is as good as it looks, I suspect I'll be using it quite a bit in the future, especially once it gets a brush engine!

Buttons840•6mo ago

Yes, it looks really good. I wonder if it will unseat Aseprite?

whizzter•6mo ago

Not necessarily, ASE is has a smooth UI that people like and as long as you're fine within the constraints.

This one is great since it allows for in-editor previewing of "weird" ideas, I know I've re-invented that UV-mapping workflow shown with the skeleton on the page once for a game-jam and wanted to use it but skipped it in the end since asset-creation was "annoying", having support in an editor to preview it easily can be a game-changer.

Buttons840•6mo ago

You mean ASE is more focused? Both look quite smooth, but PixiEditor seems to have more features (which inevitably leads to less focus).

andrekandre•6mo ago

source if your interested:

https://github.com/PixiEditor/PixiEditor

* looks like its based on dotnet avalonia

msephton•6mo ago

As somebody who is currently making a native macOS-only 2D pixel editor...this has some cool stuff in it!

JKCalhoun•6mo ago

If your pixel-editor does just the one thing very well (and intuitively), I say keep going.

This app looks cool — but also looks to be heading into Blender-level complexity. A 21st Century MacPaint is still desirable.

msephton•6mo ago

Thanks! I will surely keep going. My app also has a bunch of novel features and brings back a bunch of functionality forgotten since the classic Macintosh era.

cloogshicer•6mo ago

FYI, this crashes the tab in the latest iOS 18.5 Safari and Chrome.

tummler•6mo ago

Perpetually reloads in Brave on iOS (never resolves).

pzo•6mo ago

Confirm, same for me

oniony•6mo ago

Took out Waterfox mobile too, but was strangely okay after reload.

Uehreka•6mo ago

> Procedural (VFX, effects, non-desctuctive editing)

You had my attention, now you have my interest… or however that quote goes.

Edit: Please please please add the `playsinline` attribute to your video elements. I’m on my phone, and every time I scroll a video explodes and takes over the whole screen.

jeroenhd•6mo ago

I've never heard of this property, what browser does this?

dindresto•6mo ago

iOS Safari

fmbb•6mo ago

Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari support this attribute.

yboris•6mo ago

Useful: https://css-tricks.com/what-does-playsinline-mean-in-web-vid...

thegabriele•6mo ago

Do we finally have a new Fireworks?

WillAdams•6mo ago

The big feature I'd like to see is someone setting up the re-rendering PNG files which Fireworks had.

vyrotek•6mo ago

I had the exact same thought! I played with it a bit and I immediately thought of Fireworks. I still use it from CS6. Hopefully not anymore.

reactordev•6mo ago

Bones. Add 2D skeletal animation and I’ll gladly pay money for this.

I am working on Pixel Editor for retro graphics. What do you believe that ASE is missing? At the moment I am targetting the Zx Spectrum Next that I have recently backed. However if I get some compelling ideas I migth deviate from my original objective.

reactordev•6mo ago

For retro graphics, definitely a palette editor and animation tool. Frame by frame animation is one thing. Bone animation is better. UV indexed bone animation is best. But there’s something fucking magical about palette animated backgrounds. Color cycling animation.

HelloNurse•6mo ago

For an advanced palette editor (GIF class: 256 colours, one transparent) with first class support for color cycling, I suggest looking at FRACTINT.

ivanjermakov•6mo ago

FOSS? All I see is paid and no source.

mattbaker•6mo ago

You are mistaken, the source is available and the editor is free to download.

ethan_smith•6mo ago

The project is indeed FOSS - it's licensed under MIT according to their GitHub repository (https://github.com/PixiEditor/PixiEditor), though they offer a paid version with additional features.

Borealid•6mo ago

The repository says it's LGPL, not MIT-licensed.

mananaysiempre•6mo ago

Relicensed[1] under LGPL3 in 2023.

[1] https://github.com/PixiEditor/PixiEditor/commit/5db10cb8502b...

F3nd0•6mo ago

Always refreshing to see a new project opt for copyleft!

pull_my_finger•6mo ago

I thought I'd seen this posted just 2 days ago, it looks like that post is this post and the timestamp just got updated. I know HN boosts interesting posts that slips through the gaps, but I think it should be more transparent then just updating the timestamp and presenting it as a new post.

msephton•6mo ago

I agree, but it seems the managenent won't change the policy.

she46BiOmUerPVj•6mo ago

Looks fun. It's standard for software packaged for Linux to include a base directory in its tarball, and I usually check, but I did barf your application all over my /opt.

May sound crazy but I was hoping for export to terminal escape codes / box drawing chars. No biggie, I can convert the output.

mythz•6mo ago

I like it, works great in Fedora.

Looks like a great addition to the available image editors on Linux. IMO image editing is one of the few areas lagging in Linux. Currently alternating between Pinta, Krita, Gimp and photopea.com. Will switch to this for a while to see it become my new go to.

oneshtein•6mo ago

It doesn't fit my 2k screen on Fedora (X11/Mate) with no option to scale it down. It looks like 4k screens are supported only.

mythz•6mo ago

Yeah can confirm it looks great on my 4K

spookie•6mo ago

Krita is pretty good. I find the UX reasonable and G'MIC¹ is a joy to use in there.

¹ https://gmic.eu/

F3nd0•6mo ago

I enjoy using GIMP. Most of my (not very advanced) needs are met quite well. Looking forward to try out the more recent versions too.

kelvinjps10•6mo ago

I don't think some stuff is reasonable, but for most stuff, I find it hard to use. And I don't come from Photoshop, so it's not like a problem of being used to another program or something

chilmers•6mo ago

I tried this for pixel art and came away a bit disappointed. It seems to have no real support for drawing using palettes / indexed colors. Sure, you can setup or load a palette, but the drawing tools make no reference to it, and continue to colors outside of it. The color pickers don't even show the palette, they just show the full color wheel. Where is the support for dithered gradients using on palette colors? Where is the support for antialiasing using only palette colors? Maybe this is planned, but given it's already at v2.0 I'm surprised the pixel art support is so half-baked.

ksymph•6mo ago

It's possible to implement dithering and posterization using the node graph, where you paint normally and it outputs as dithered pixel art in whatever palette you want. It's not a perfect replacement for builtin tools, but still pretty cool. Someone showed their setup for this in the Discord server.

JKCalhoun•6mo ago

That's cool that you can do that. I worry though that the level of complexity required to set that sort of thing up will act as a hurdle for many that might want to use that feature.

If the node graph is saved in the document (?) perhaps there exists then a "template" (empty document) where the node graph is already set up for palette dithering. That would make it easy to onboard for new users.

bentt•6mo ago

All I want is proper color channel editing like Photoshop has and Affinity refuses to do right.

archerx•6mo ago

Please elaborate, I’m working on an image editor made with JavaScript.

doobiedowner•6mo ago

As a guy that tries to make the lame ui in FactoryTalk sparkle, thank you!!!

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PixiEditor 2.0 – A FOSS universal 2D graphics editor

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