HotPicks

PIXEL ART EDITOR

Slate

Version: 0.7.0 Web: https://github.com/mitchcurtis/slate

Our first pick is related to editing bitmap graphics. Despite the fact that this category is dominated by Gimp, there are many other smaller applications that – while they do less – have a much lower barrier to entry. Slate is a good example, with a nice balance between features and simplicity. On one hand, this is a classic Paint-like program with a basic set of drawing tools: pencil, eraser, bucket filler and colour picker. But at the same Slate has some useful advanced features, such as layers, support for animations and ‘double view’.

The last one is interesting in the light of Slate’s main purpose: it is a tool for creating tilesets for retro and indie games. The author is Mitch Curtis, a passionate Qt developer who is fond of games with isometric graphics. Slate is his personal project for working with such artwork, and it seems like it already has everything for daily use.

When you create a new project in Slate, you can go with a layered image project, a flat image (layers disabled) or with a tileset (a grid of squares). The ‘double view’ mode that we mentioned above is a great usability feature for drawing highly detailed tiles. It looks like a split-view mode, except that both halves are synced. The idea is that you can zoom in on one view and master a pixel-perfect image, while keeping an eye on the whole image in another view.

You have a square and circular brush, a brush size scale, a ruler with guiding lines, and that’s nearly it – at least nothing will distract you from drawing. The main interface uses a dark colour theme and can be customised in Tools > Options. You can change the right-click behaviour, tell Slate to auto-load the last project and even alter the window opacity.

uses its own SLP file format and supports exporting graphics to PNG and BMP. You might not be a programmer, but with it’s so easy to immerse yourself in drawing that it