2010s

GRAFX 2.6 (11/01/2018)

New features

  • -size option on command line to set the picture size
  • Underline keyboard shortcuts in button labels (easier to use grafx2 with a keyboard)
  • Generic "rasters" drawing mode for CPC
  • Much better support for C64 fileformats (files from various C64 paint programs are recognized and loaded)
  • Load and save Thomson MO/TO pictures (raw files and MAP with some of the well known extensions)
  • Drawing modes that automatically apply constraints of several 8bit computers and consoles (C64 including FLI and Multicoor, ZX now with brightness check, Thomson, Game Boy, Apple II). Auto set palette, grid, etc for ease of use
  • Loading WIN and SCR files from Amstrad CPC, and saving them with palette (separate PAL file in Advanced OCP Art Studio format)
  • Load Apple II HGR and DHGR files
  • Clipboard support: you can copy/paste images and brushes to/from other software in GrafX2 now
  • Load/save TIFF files

Improvements

  • Only allow panning when it is safe to do so (not in the middle of a drawing operation)
  • In addition to SDL, support SDL2, Win32 GDI, and X11 backends
  • "tall 3" (1x3 aspect ratio) pixels are properly saved and loaded in GIF files
  • Better management of aspect ratio in PNG files
  • Show the appropriate icon for network drives in the fileselector
  • Better support for NetBSD and OpenBSD
  • More system information in the statistics screen
  • Restoring the lasso brush does not erase the current brush if there is nothing to restore
  • URL in inline help are now clickable
  • Mode 5 and raster mode now show ink colors under the cursor in the statusbar
  • Configuring the menu colors in the ini file works again
  • Load a default palette (default.pal) at startup automatically (no need to edit the skin files anymore)
  • Improve loading of Neochrome and IFF images (color cycling, etc)
  • When spare and main pages filename start the same, display the end of the names instead
  • More complete support for BMP files (OS/2 variants, embedded PNG in BMP, etc)

Fixes

  • For some operations, the cursor would not be visible or be corrupt
  • Color clash enforcing now works as expected
  • Fix crash when loading images or restoring backups to spare page
  • Saving of CPC images and PI1 images could be corrupt or crash the program
  • Problems with unicode filenames

GRAFX 2.5 (07/05/2018) - Pixels not dead!

New features

  • Ability to draw ellipses and circles corner-to-corner, rather than from the center (allows to draw them with an even width or height)
  • New sample factory scripts: ThomsonConstraints, FontConverter, CodenetSend, various picture converters taking color clash constraints into account
  • Allow factory scripts full access to our widget/window system, for more comple UIs: sliders, textboxes, and more.
  • Android and GCW Zero platforms now supported.
  • New file format: PCH for Amstrad CPC "Perfect Pix" editor (load only)
  • Implement saving of palettes in GPL format (GIMP compatible).
  • New 3:4 pixel aspect ratio
  • Gamma-correction of palette (when using less than 256 steps, for example to replicate the Thomson palette)
  • Support for more constrained drawing modes: Thomson, ZX spectrum, "EGX" modes for Amstrad CPC.
  • Fast zoom in/out shortcuts (default: shift + mousewheel or shift +/-)
  • Support ICO and CUR files (Windows icons and cursors).
  • Ability to load/save palettes directly from the Palette window (no need to use the spare page and then copy/remap anymore).
  • When saving and reloading a brush from disk, the transparent color index is autmatically restored.
  • Support loading of more fileformats using the RECOIL library (optional)

Improvements

Fileformats

  • Autodesk FLI/FLC loading
  • Amiga icon (in .info files) loading
  • PI1/PC1 format now can save color cycling information
  • More complete support for IFF files in several formats
  • Better color matching algorithm for C64-multicolor and FLI converters.
  • Don't save *.C64 pictures in FLI format, use plain C64 format instead.
  • C64 file saving will tell which cell has a color clash when it cannot convert the picture.
  • Ability to save "fullscreen" CPC/SCR pictures (more than 16K of video RAM)
  • Optimized GIF file compression: use less than 8 bits per pixel when possible, store only changed parts of the canvas for animation frames.
  • New algorithm for reducing true color images to 256 colors.
  • Support OS/2 and Windows CE BMP files.
  • Support CGA and 3-plane PCX files.
  • IFF: support CAMG, TINY, DPPV, SHAM (Sliced-HAM), CLUT, ANNO (file comment is saved/loaded here), PCHG (Palette Change), BMHD, ANIM/ANHD,DLTA (animated ILBM), DPAN (Deluxe Paint Animation), BEAM (multi-palette), DYCP, CTBL, RAST chunks, set aspect ratio when loading images, support 24bit images, support ACBM subtype, EHB palette, various unusual file formats, better compatibility with malformed files.
  • Use the ILBM thumbnail if there is one, instead of doing our own preview.
  • Set a default greyscale palette for IFF files without a palette.
  • More compact saving of XPM files when few colors are used.
  • Proper preview for "Mode 5" Amstrad files.

Scripting

  • Factory scripts only create a backup step when they actually modify the picture
  • matchcolor2 in lua script has better accuracy.
  • API to get the count of layers in main and spare page

User interface

  • Reworked palette look to make the transparent color visible.
  • Right click on "add layer" duplicates the current layer.
  • Added "sort by histogram" in palette editor.
  • Reworked layout of effects and palette windows.
  • Right click on drawing mode button now has a menu to directly select the new mode.
  • Animation bar shows total number of frames.
  • Right click on a layer toggles between SOLO and previous state.

Other

  • On X11 based platforms (Linux, *BSD), use fontconfig to get ttf fonts instead of the X11 API. (issues 305 and 525)
  • Limited unicode support (handle cyrillic and extended latin characters in filenames and text clipboard)

Fixes

  • Loading of IFF files from Atari ST version of Deluxe Paint (#38)
  • Freeze when palette is vertical and number of rows isn't a power of two (issue 539)
  • PC1 files saved in GrafX2 were not loadable in Degas Elite (issue 535)
  • Improve choice of colors for the XOR highlight on low-color images.
  • Crash when saving CPC pictures in SCR format.
  • Possible crash when opening the file selector.
  • Crash when using contour fill and grid at the same time.
  • On Haiku, the status bar text was not working as expected.
  • On OS X, sometimes the native cursor would not be hidden.
  • BMP loading was broken on big endian systems.
  • Fix cursor glitch and palette corruption when there was an error while previewing a file.
  • When trying to load a bookmark that doesn't exist, the filename would be lost.
  • Program would crash if the file format dropdown would be larger than the available space on screen.

GRAFX 2.4.2035 bugfix release (19/10/2012)

  • Palette changes that modify the pixels can't be undone (issue 514)
  • Opening a 24bit image in command-line gives wrong mouse cursor (issue 515)
  • On some non-x86 platforms, some changes can't be undone on animations > 32 frames (issue 516)

GRAFX 2.4 (01/10/2012)

svn revision: r2024

Improvements

  • Support for animation : load, edit and save animated GIFs. (issue 31)
  • Tilemap effect (issue 195)
  • Mouse panning when holding 'space' key by default (issue 233)
  • Preview layers when the image has several layers and you hover the layer buttons
  • Support for saving actual LBM files for Deluxe Paint 3. The previous format is renamed to PBM. (issue 505)
  • Improved brush rotation using rotsprite algorithm (r1789)
  • Lua bindings: matchcolor2(), getfilename(), run()...
  • Saving a layered image or animation in non-GIF format now prompts the user to save flattened copy or current layer/frame.
  • Can paste text in any text field (from system clipboard. not available on all OSes at the moment)
  • Palette reduction: use DawnBringer's improved color selection
  • Grid size limit is now 999*999 (up from 80x80)
  • Improved the color reduction algorithm. New one also consumes less memory and has 24 bits of precision instead of 19
  • Skins window: font preview (issue 450)
  • Flood-fill icon now has a specific mouse cursor, (issue 457).
  • Add XOR-line helper when drawing circles and ellipses
  • Can load RIFF palette file format
  • Lua script selector displays current directory
  • Support for Lua 5.2
  • Specialized editing mode for Amstrad CPC Mode 5 (In Effect menu: 8-bit)
  • C64 file formats
  • Virtual keyboard can be enabled on all platforms, useful for Tablet PCs (issue 453)
  • Right 'Windows' key can be used as a keyboard modifier for shortcuts, unless reserved by your OS.

Fixes

  • Fix crash when browsing drives that have no 'parent directory' entry (issue 477)
  • Fix crash when loading 24bit images as brushes
  • Crash when activating magnifier while hovering layer bar (Issue 480)
  • Fix a crash that happened in Palette screen when right-clicking near top of screen (r1938)
  • Fix a memory corruption in Lua's 'setpicturesize' when using multi-layered images.
  • Fix an error when loading layered image that used a transparent color different from zero ,which resulted in corrupted image.
  • Fix disappearing cursor when using brush rotation tool (issue 473)
  • Resizing not precise enough on small pictures/brushes (issue 435)
  • IFF (ilbm/pbm) loading: fix a slight imprecision in loading the palette (last 2 bits of the RGB channels)
  • Default 'load' directory was the program's directory instead of the one from loaded image (issue 448)
  • Lasso-ing a brush with right mouse button wouldn't erase cleanly (visual)
  • Inconsistent directories in file selectors for image and brush. (issue 462)
  • Fix a graphical mouse bug that happened when toolbar was hidden and you moved the mouse from layer button to image.
  • Loading a GIF animation as a brush now loads first frame, instead of all images piled on each others
  • Previewing a GIF animation now displays first frame instead of all images piled on each others
  • Fileselectors: 'Parent directory' inserts the parent directory string (slash or ..) in filename (issue 498)
  • In file selectors, 'parent directory' was sometimes missing in some drives or subdirectories (issue 506)
  • After rotating a brush with the 180-degree button, following rotations and flips occurred as if the 180-turn never took place (issue 460)
  • Fix a bug in brush distort that often caused the brush to disappear entirely after distort (all color zero)

GRAFX 2.3.1781 bugfix release (19/04/2011)

  • Fixed: Mouse cursor deadzones in fullscreen mode, especially if you change the program's mouse sensitivity (issue 428)
  • Fixed: Removed a source of mouse cursor lag while drawing (issue 269), especially on X11, by speeding up the graphic redraw.

GRAFX 2.3.1778 bugfix release (16/04/2011)

  • Fixed: Graphical glitch in Options screen (issue 432)
  • Fixed: Menu colors changed on reload, causing very often the cursir lines to be black over black (issue 433)

GRAFX 2.3 final (09/04/2011)

svn revision: r1770

Improvements

  • Added 2 virtual keyboards for portable console ports - one to easily enter filenames or text for text tool, another one for all numeric input.
  • Magnifier settings for Main page and Spare page are now synchronized, if the images have same dimensions (issue 327)
  • Many new Lua functions for scripting
  • Lua scripts can now be located anywhere on your disk (the window allos browsing).
  • Improved the color matching formula used in 'Copy to Spare' and 'Recolorize brush'
  • Rotating a brush while holding 'Shift' key now snaps to the closest 22.5° multiple)
  • Added color cycling animation (issue 365). Animation can be active even when drawing.
  • Color cycles (or gradients) are now saved in PNG and GIF formats.
  • Paintbrush window can be customized with your own brushes (issue 345). It also highlights the selected one.
  • The colorpicker cursor, (in zoomed view) no longer displays a preview pixel.
  • Fixed the bottom line of pixels in the magnifier: The bottom row can no longer be too thin.
  • Redesigned Settings window. Now contains all settings that were only available in gfx2.ini
  • Safety backups (after a crash or power failure) now remember the original file name and directory.
  • File sorting in file selector is case insensitive
  • New drawing workflow allowing to use right click as a colorpicker instead of drawing with the secondary color where it makes sense
  • Allow skins to redefine the "selected" button graphics
  • Real alpha transparent mode. Allows to properly use antialiased-text on a multicolor background
  • Copy and paste in the palette using ctrl C/ctrl V or right-click sub-menu.
  • Cleanup of the palette screen and added a way to input colors in hexadecimal.
  • Palette screen : Added a button to tag used colors
  • Palette screen : Added a color histogram
  • Palette screen : Reducing color count now removes duplicates
  • Palette screen : Added a merge tool
  • New shortcuts for brush resize and calling factory scripts directly
  • New algorithm for palette sorting
  • Support fonts in 'bitmap Font Writer' format.
  • Drag-and-dropping a file into Grafx2's window now opens it.
  • Drive list (in Load/Save? screen) now has icons for media type: HDD, CD, etc.
  • Allow saving XPM images
  • Hold Control and Click to perform a right-click : handy for tablets and similar devices. An option allows you to pick different keys (issue 400)
  • Text tool : With bitmap fonts, you can now enter carriage returns using Alt+Enter

Fixes

  • Keyboard shortcuts are now exclusive by default (you can change option if needed). This avoids the need to unset a shortcut when you need the key for something else.
  • Fixes aevere image corruption when scrolling image while some layers are hidden (issue 417).
  • Palette screen: Undo is now much more reliable (issue 354)
  • Better control of brush palette (issue 362)
  • Text tool with bitmap font now works much better with colored fonts, especially if you use 'Get brush colors'.
  • Fix the Saturation slider in HSL mode that would make greyscale colors red (issue 396)
  • Menu size (depending on UI scale) doesn't change when Pixel Scaler changes, when it's possible (issue 338)
  • Fix a bug where closing the Magnifier moved the view to random place (issue 380)
  • Lua : too many fixes to list
  • Fix important bug where resizing an image or using any transformation resets transparent color to zero
  • Fix imprecise RGB sliders when RGB scale is lower than 256 (issue 384)
  • Skin DPaint: Fix the icon 'unslected layer 6'
  • Skin DPaint: Fixed the hotspot of the standard mouse cursor, it was not in top left corner.
  • Skin Modern: Fix the button for palette scroll arrows
  • The image preview in Load/Save? window now uses a web-safe palette, if the previewed image has a low color count.
  • Fixed the 'Copy to Spare / palette and remap' : It wasn't fully undoable.
  • Improved mouse handling. Should fix many cases mouse cursor was choppy or lagging for no reason, taking lots of CPU.
  • Modified the method for picking GUI colors in the current palette. This solves many cases where the menu was difficult to read.
  • Fix using fullscreen mode with a tablet (issue 317).
  • Fixed the format of gfx2.ini, which was sometimes causing the loss of the "scroll up" shortcut.
  • Fixed a few typos in Keyboard Shortcuts help.
  • Fixed crash on loading PNG24 pictures if they contain transparency data.
  • Fixed inaccurate picking of color in the menu palette and improved its ergonomy (issue 340)
  • The gradient rectangle tool can no longer leave construction lines (issue 339)
  • Fixed the "Zap unused colors" funtion, in some cases it would affect wrong colors.
  • Fixed compilation problem for Linux (Issue 336)
  • F1 key in settings screen didn't open the right help files
  • Better compatibility in the GIF file loader (1bpp GIFs and other things)
  • Trying to use a font bigger than 99 and some bitmap fileformats would crash the program
  • Keyboard click emulation was broken since 2.1

GRAFX 2.2.1430 bugfix release (27/03/2010)

  • Fixed Text window which never closes when opened by 'T' (Issue 333)

GRAFX 2.2 final (22/03/2010) - Dragon's Layers Edition

New features

  • Layers
  • Lua binding to generate and alter picture and brush with scripts
  • Two new skins by Jamon and iLKke
  • GIF and PNG transparency
  • Shortcut keys can be bound to multiple actions
  • Load more image formats when SDL_image can handle them (jpeg, tga, ...)
  • Show number of pixels used by colors in the selected range in palette window
  • Preview skins in the skin dialog. Move more settings there. Load prefered menu colors from the skin. Fix changing to a screen that use different color indexes for its menu colors
  • Save Amstrad CPC pictures in .SCR format.
  • Menu toolbars can be separately shown or hidden
  • Safety backups are made automatically about every minute, and reloaded after a crash or program halt

Improvements

  • Zoom-on-mouse, also when changing the zoom factor
  • More zoom levels are available for the magnifier (up to x32)
  • Help message when running in console with /? or similar switch show some more options and a readable list of fullscreen modes
  • Only show recognized file extensions and not all files by default in save/load screen
  • Shade window selects the foreground color by default when opened, and if you close it with only one color selected either in the palette or the range filer, this color is selected as foreground
  • Added more space for filename in status bar
  • Better command line handling, allowing more options and possibility to load an image for the spare page too
  • Menu zoom is now maximum x2 by default. Avoids having a really big menu on modern screens
  • Rewrite of the save and load system to avoid a risk of corrupting the picture in some special cases
  • Program remembers the pixel scaler you used last

Fixes

  • Fix a possible crash when using grad rectangle with shift key
  • Load and save palettes in "jasc" format and with the full 0..255 range
  • Removed deprecated setting "mouse correction factor"
  • Reset quicksearch when entering a directory in load/save dialog
  • Rotating a brush 180° was broken if the height was even since r763
  • Fix BMP saving again
  • Help page for Contour fill had a line too long
  • Fix potential endianness and packing problem in all file formats.
  • The homepage address on the splash screen was wrong !
  • Crash if you enable mask with 2 pictures of different size in main and spare
  • Mask and Stencil shortcuts were reversed in the FX window
  • Joystick is now disabled by default to avoid mouse drifting
  • Text tool: Bitmap fonts painted in "color 0" now work
  • Fix a wrong shortcut (filled circle) in helpscreen
  • Fix the loading of some C64 format files
Classified in : History - Tags : none