[HN Gopher] PixiEditor 2.0 - A FOSS universal 2D graphics editor
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       PixiEditor 2.0 - A FOSS universal 2D graphics editor
        
       Author : ksymph
       Score  : 381 points
       Date   : 2025-07-31 15:21 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (pixieditor.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (pixieditor.net)
        
       | eternityforest wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | Yes, it looks really good. I wonder if it will unseat Aseprite?
        
           | whizzter wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | You mean ASE is more focused? Both look quite smooth, but
             | PixiEditor seems to have more features (which inevitably
             | leads to less focus).
        
       | andrekandre wrote:
       | source if your interested:
       | 
       | https://github.com/PixiEditor/PixiEditor
       | 
       | * looks like its based on dotnet avalonia
        
       | msephton wrote:
       | As somebody who is currently making a native macOS-only 2D pixel
       | editor...this has some cool stuff in it!
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
       | FYI, this crashes the tab in the latest iOS 18.5 Safari and
       | Chrome.
        
         | tummler wrote:
         | Perpetually reloads in Brave on iOS (never resolves).
        
           | pzo wrote:
           | Confirm, same for me
        
         | oniony wrote:
         | Took out Waterfox mobile too, but was strangely okay after
         | reload.
        
       | Uehreka wrote:
       | > 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 wrote:
         | I've never heard of this property, what browser does this?
        
           | dindresto wrote:
           | iOS Safari
        
           | fmbb wrote:
           | Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari support this attribute.
        
           | yboris wrote:
           | Useful: https://css-tricks.com/what-does-playsinline-mean-in-
           | web-vid...
        
       | thegabriele wrote:
       | Do we finally have a new Fireworks?
        
         | WillAdams wrote:
         | The big feature I'd like to see is someone setting up the re-
         | rendering PNG files which Fireworks had.
        
         | vyrotek wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
       | Bones. Add 2D skeletal animation and I'll gladly pay money for
       | this.
        
         | register wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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.
        
       | ivanjermakov wrote:
       | FOSS? All I see is paid and no source.
        
         | mattbaker wrote:
         | You are mistaken, the source is available and the editor is
         | free to download.
        
         | ethan_smith wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | The repository says it's LGPL, not MIT-licensed.
        
             | mananaysiempre wrote:
             | Relicensed[1] under LGPL3 in 2023.
             | 
             | [1] https://github.com/PixiEditor/PixiEditor/commit/5db10cb
             | 8502b...
        
               | F3nd0 wrote:
               | Always refreshing to see a new project opt for copyleft!
        
       | pull_my_finger wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | I agree, but it seems the managenent won't change the policy.
        
       | she46BiOmUerPVj wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | Yeah can confirm it looks great on my 4K
        
         | spookie wrote:
         | Krita is pretty good. I find the UX reasonable and G'MIC1 is a
         | joy to use in there.
         | 
         | 1 https://gmic.eu/
        
           | F3nd0 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | 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 wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
       | All I want is proper color channel editing like Photoshop has and
       | Affinity refuses to do right.
        
         | archerx wrote:
         | Please elaborate, I'm working on an image editor made with
         | JavaScript.
        
       | doobiedowner wrote:
       | As a guy that tries to make the lame ui in FactoryTalk sparkle,
       | thank you!!!
        
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       (page generated 2025-08-03 23:01 UTC)