MS Paint Poll

[Stag]

i gave it a seven, because it's A: the most readily available computer image program to me B: pretty decent for basic stuff and C: something i have used since i was about 10.
It shouldn't matter what programs we use either, a lot of amazing artists use paint.
Slightly off topic but this thread reminded me of a time before i had paint, i had this bollocks 'game' called "paint and create", it shared a few similarities with ms paint, but the terrible 8-bit rendition of "teddy bears picnic" continuously playing in the background while i attempted to draw something would have driven any man to an early grave. Be thankful we're not using THAT anymore.

[Willows]

IMO using MSPaint is like opening a beer bottle on the edge of your coffee table because you're too lazy to go out and get a bottle opener.

And using Promotion is like opening it with your teeth because you are awesome.

LIES. Promotion is like opening it with a battery-powered bottle opener because you're a slave to efficiency!

MSpaint can do most of what can be done in pixel art, it just takes absurdly long even if you DO know shortcuts. I'd give it a five, but I'm really too lazy to vote.

[Rerg1]

I think MSPaint is good.
But thats cuz I nned to know how to use Pro Motion.
Anyone want to helo me? :X.

[Larwick]

Anyone want to helo me? :X.

Hello.

Haha, couldn't help it. There are lots of threads around discussing it, have a go with the search tool.

[Stwelin]

I haven't used Vista yet (thank GOD), but is there a better default paint app?

Also: i'm trying to stay booted into linux and minimalize my time spent under a microsoft OS... are there any good open source image editing programs preferable for pixel art?

[robalan]

I know several people use the GIMP for pixel art, but I'm not aware of any pixel-specific programs for Linux.

[pkmays]

I haven't used Vista yet (thank GOD), but is there a better default paint app?

No, there's only one default paint app, and that's the default. The Vista version of paint is marginally improved, but it's nothing to write home about.

Also: i'm trying to stay booted into linux and minimalize my time spent under a microsoft OS... are there any good open source image editing programs preferable for pixel art?

Linux is a terrible alternative to Windows for graphic artists. Fact of the matter is, the mass majority of any graphics software is going to be Windows only. A few will have a Mac version, even less will have a Linux version. And most software that has a Linux version usually has a Windows version that's better supported anyway.

[Meta|Fox]

I use MS paint... 








dont hurt me.

[ptepid]

There is mtPaint, specifically created for making pixel art under linux.
http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/

It has some pretty nice palette features, but I found it was missing a few key tools that I use (can't remember exactly what at this point, I should give it another shot and write a proper review ).

I use the GIMP, which works pretty well once you get a good layout, stick it into indexed mode and work out how to use the palette interface. It just lacks some of the nice palette features in other pixel/index specific programs (Deluxe Paint, Pro Motion, GraFX2, etc). Probably should write a plugin for it (or just fork the damn thing), but I doubt I could be arsed.

Anyhow, as for MS Paint... yeah, you can make pixel art with it. You can also make pixel art with NeoPaint for DOS, or a hex editor, or lego blocks. Very few paint apps are specifically designed with pixel art in mind, so if you're not going to use one of them then you might as well use something that has a decent feature set. Things like: layers, for example, or good configurable shortcuts, transparency support or any number of other things that will make your pixelling easier, none of which MS Paint has that I recall.

We pixel artists make things arbitrarily hard enough for ourselves as it is, we don't need to make it worse by having to fight to make the program do what we want. But hey, if you know how to fight MS Paint well, then use it. Do what makes you happy.

... that post was way too long.

[am_pm]

I like MS Paint. I enjoy the simplicity of it.

Why use the expensive paints when you can do just fine with the shitty acylics?