Pixel programs for mac

[Ryumaru]

I know this subject comes up quite a bit, but I just got news today that my dad is going to sell my old laptop that I did my pixels on( mspaint, ggale and promotion) and this of course leaves me in complete despair as these programs are not available on a mac. Why must this be so? I've searched google pages up to page 19 ( anything after that is just porn anyway) and I just get the usual gimp( that I find as un-catered to pixels as photoshop) and the horrible pixen where everytime I add a layer my color count goes up by 300,000. Does anyone know of anything better or could I possibly sell my soul to satan so that I can have a decent pixeling software?

[32]

You could try installing WINE, I've not tried it on a OSX but back when I was using Linux it ran Graphics gale and Promotion fine (albeit the command box for promotion was an indecipherable mess, but it shouldn't be a problem assuming you're used to the program already)

http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX/Installing
or
http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/

EDIT: also http://code.google.com/p/grafx2/

[blumunkee]

If you have an Intel Mac, just use Boot Camp. If it's a Power PC, you might look into getting a virtual machine. Virtual machines can get be pretty technical to set up, but there are some free ones.

Grafx2 is the only hassle-free way to get a native, up to date pixel editor running under OS X, but it has precisely zero animation features. (Which for me makes it useless for production work.)

[Ryumaru]

Sorry but I'm basically completely computer retarded. I downloaded Grafx2 for mac os x, but when I click on the app it doesn't load anything? I've downloaded it 3 times.
thank you for the comments guys, grafx2 looks like itd be a decent program if I could get it to work.

[blumunkee]

http://grafx2.googlecode.com/files/grafx2-2.00b98.0-svn503-macosx.zip

The latest build suffers from an issue with one of the libraries GrafX2 depends on being depreciated. This version is older but it should do until the issue is resolved. Just make sure to save early and often.

And yeah, GrafX2 is quite spiffy. The developers are talking about how they can integrate frames and layers into the next major release. I think with those two features it can become a real workhorse.

[Feron]

grafx2 is pretty decent.

you seem to dismiss photoshop, but i think with a few preferences change then it fine for pixel-art.  Yeah, it's not built with pixel-art in mind but it is a powerful program and can handle animation to.

pixen is rubbish.

or just install windows on your mac.

[Seele07]

I like GrafX2 too. It did run under DOSbox very well, until the developement on it started again, and you did not need DOSbox for the last DOS version, that came out.

Well, if you want animation too, you can try Deluxe Paint Animation or VGApaint too, running them in DOSbox, which is, you guessed right, a DOS Emulator. If you want the Frames to be a GIF Animation or something like that, then you - sadly - have to export the individual Frames as PCX or such, and import them into theGIMP as layers and save it as a GIF Animation - maybe you need to tweak the frame timing after that.

http://www.phatcode.net/downloads.php?id=201

or

http://www.phatcode.net/downloads.php?id=201&action=get&file=dpanim10.zip

http://www.bttr-software.de/products/vp386/


Hope it helps,
.Ingo.

[pstroffo]

Pixen for OSX is designed with pixel artists in mind, and I quite like it.
I've been using 3.0, but it appears a 3.1 update was recently released.

http://opensword.org/Pixen/

[Ryumaru]

pixen would be a great program except it's super faulty. It crashes on me repeatedly, adds colors whenever I add layers and sometimes the pencil decides to make marks all over my canvas.
Thanks for the help guys, grafx2 might turn out to be a winner, I need to pixel something with it :]

[Argyle]

It's a shame.  I was really digging Pixen when I first started getting into pixel art - I actually was happy to own a mac when I found the program.  After learning the ropes, however, it only became more and more frustrating.  It is a good program in theory, but the problem is that it has not been developed in 3 years so I'm assuming the group disbanded or got bored?  The eyedropper never picks the same color I'm selecting, it always changes it slightly, which gets changed even more slightly if later eyedrop that new color, and it goes on forever.  Even in restricted palette mode the eye dropper doesn't work, you have to move over to your palette window and choose from there. 

I would sincerely be happy with using the program if it were not for this huge misfire in programming.  Now I just don't bother pixeling on my mac except when I'm on the road and need to work on something I use Photoshop.

Since it's an old PowerBook G4 that came out when they still had PowerPC processors it gets overwhelmed too fast and runs slow/hot after about 10 minutes using Photoshop even.  I may have to check out Grafx2 sometime, but for now my mac's being relegated to a life of being my photo album manager.  Damned inability to run Boot Camp!  Damned VirtualPC for emulating too slowly!  Damn you for being a Mac at all!