New Web-based Amiga Icon Editor: DPaint.js - Page 2

AES DANA · 14 April 2023, 18:44

This project is quite interesting. I had been looking at various paint programs for ideas for my own, but separately I just stumbled across this post and this project.

I loved Deluxe Paint growing up. I think I had version two, because I don't remember having HAM mode in it. I used DigiPaint 3 for that. But even still Deluxe Paint had many more features so I didn't care about the extra colors.

The main features from Deluxe Paint that I don't see much in modern programs are, first indexed painting. Since we have 24-bit color pretty much universally, most paint programs are cavalier with their use of color, automatically anti-aliasing anything you put down on the canvas.

This makes other things less convenient or impossible. You can't do color cycling. You can't easily change the color of already painted areas (and include the shades of antialiased pixels in that change). It is hard to select areas of a certain color. How do you determine which pixels should be in the selection?

And this brings us to the other main feature I like about Deluxe Paint. You can grab any part of the canvas to use as a brush. The background color is automatically made transparent for the brush. So with a limited number of colors it is easy to know what part is going to be grabbed and which part isn't. Then, all tool operations can be performed with that brush, even keeping the colors preserved.

This second feature alone is quite powerful and very hard to find in other programs. When it is there it isn't as simple to use. Here you just click on the brush grab tool, drag out a square or lasso around what you want, and you're done. Maybe select a different background color depending on what part you want transparent.

In other programs the process is often not as easy, or obvious. Often you need to have a separate layer, with transparency, so that you don't get an ugly square for a brush. Also, the brush doesn't always work with all the program's tools.

I guess this has become a rant. Well anyway good luck to you and your project!

Steffest · 14 April 2023, 19:10

Thanks,

Quote:

Originally Posted by AES DANA

You can grab any part of the canvas to use as a brush. The background color is automatically made transparent for the brush.!

Yes, brush grabbing is present.
(Although I only realise now I have called it "selection to stencil" hmmm....
That's bad naming from my side.)

I hope to find a good mix between 24-bit and indexed colours.
While trying out ideas and doing compositions, it's very nice not having to worry about colours or size limits.
But when working towards a final pixel image, it should offer clean pixel and indexed colours too.

I mainly use it for working on Amiga Icon sets, but lately it has been my main pixel tool.

malko · 14 April 2023, 19:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffest

[...] There's a small demo video on the Amiga specific features on [ Show youtube player ] [...]

Such a great tool you have made here !!! Thanks a lot for your work.

EctoOne · 14 April 2023, 23:18

Nice project.

Maybe it's just me, but how does Reduce colors work?

I've tried to load a png which I use as workbench background image just to see if I maybe can shrink its size by reducing the colors. I can see the changes when I use the slider or select a different palette but the actual number of colors stays the same. And when I try to save it as iff, it says that I have to reduce the colors to maximum 32. Which I did, well the slider is at 32 (or less).

It almost looks like I'm missing a button to apply the changes.

Steffest · 14 April 2023, 23:45

Maybe you have an additional layer active?
Reducing colours is per layer.
To be sure you can first "flatten" the image.

You're right though that the colour reduction panel could use a big fat "apply" button.
Currently it "auto applies" but only if you change a setting.

I'll add it to the Todo for improvement.

EctoOne · 14 April 2023, 23:57

Hmm, I just looked again and it was only one layer. I mean I didn't do anything else besides loading the image and messing around with the color settings. And Flatten Image didn't help either.

I also noticed that I'm not getting anything in the info section anymore. It was showing the size and amount of colors before, now it's just empty.

Edit: OK, I just tried it in an incognito tab and it worked. Well, not quite. I've set the colors to 8, but the actual image seems to have 32.

Marcuz · 15 April 2023, 00:01

It is very nice, indeed! Kudos!

There are a couple of things I've noticed, that prolly you know already, taking in the account the alpha state:

freehand drawing has no continuous mode (it prints the brush in dot mode)
undo doesn't work with the straight line mode
all three selection modes don't work (or, if they do, I don't understand how)
---
the box mode selects an area without the red overlay the other modes use, but then it's not excluding the area without the box;
the polygon and the magic wand selections do have a red overlay but again no exclusion
all three modes are automatically exited with no selection when you draw something, or make the background non draweable, depending on what tool you try to use on the selection
---
image > clear option doesn't delete the first "batch" of straight lines drawn on the canvas, if after them you switched to a different tool to draw anything else

Probably there is more, but even so, it's a very promising start!

LaBodilsen · 15 April 2023, 10:37

Feature suggestion:
When reducing color to indexed palette, a feature to set palette bit depth would be nice.
e.g. 4bit for each RGB channel = 4096 colors amiga palette. and keep the optimized palette in 4/12bit format.

Steffest · 15 April 2023, 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcuz

It is very nice, indeed! Kudos!

There are a couple of things I've noticed, that prolly you know already, taking in the account the alpha state:

Thanks! Super usefull feedback.
Adding to the Todo.

Yes, the selection stuff is thrown in quite rapidly and needs work (adding/subtracting to an existing selection is also not there yet)

aZtOcKdOg · 05 June 2023, 11:46

Hey great work @steffest I thought I should drop in on this thread!

I also wondered how much (if any) original information is retained in an info file once imported / edited followed by using ‘ColorIcon’ export?

Would a small suite of ‘icon tools’ (afore mentioned coords for the icon and the window, drawer type etc) be on the roadmap?

Amazing tool and much needed indeed

Great to be following the Git repo too Thanks

Aulapatchuc · 05 June 2023, 13:28

I like this tool and all the colour reducing algorithms. Very nice job!

A500 · 06 June 2023, 18:21

Just when I was looking into how to make icons on the Amiga, I find this thread. Kudos to you, site bookmarked!

saimon69 · 06 June 2023, 22:40

If you implement indexed colors then you can have all the features as color cycling back - am still using dpaint 4 in emulation because for creating sprites is excellent and things like stencil and lighttable are invaluable tools
(and also because i know how to use it almost as the back of my hand)

gimbal · 06 June 2023, 22:47

Ah color cycling. So much fun back in the day

Don't know how I ever learned how to do that, I guess there was an instruction in Amiga Format somewhere.

Steffest · 07 June 2023, 09:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by saimon69

If you implement indexed colors then you can have all the features as color cycling back - am still using dpaint 4 in emulation because for creating sprites is excellent and things like stencil and lighttable are invaluable tools
(and also because i know how to use it almost as the back of my hand)

Guess what feature will be in the next release!

https://user-images.githubuserconten...3786b63e92.mp4

Steffest · 07 June 2023, 09:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by aZtOcKdOg

Hey great work @steffest I thought I should drop in on this thread!

I also wondered how much (if any) original information is retained in an info file once imported / edited followed by using ‘ColorIcon’ export?

Hey aZtOcKdOg!
Thanks.

I've looked into it and all the icon information does get read out and mostly saved back when you save a coloricon, but ...

I notice I don't save the default tool and the tooltypes back when writing, which is kind of a capital offence :-/
I'll put it on the roadmap to fix that.

I must say, up to now, I always create icons outside the amiga and then use Amiga tools to apply them to files/folders/drives but yeah ... now that you mention it, it would make sense to be able to directly edit them without loosing any info.

So for now: nope, it doesn't retain ALL info when writing back to colorIcon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aZtOcKdOg

Would a small suite of ‘icon tools’ (afore mentioned coords for the icon and the window, drawer type etc) be on the roadmap?

Yep, it is now!

mfilos · 07 June 2023, 09:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by PascalDe73

Is someone can create a nice WHDLoad icon for the game Maria renard's revenge ?

https://hol.abime.net/6936

https://z-team.itch.io/maria-renards-revenge

Many Thanks,

Pascal

Is there an WHDLoad version of the game? I wasn't aware.

Anyway, I made 3 icons using the pictures provided.
Tried to find a big icon from my WHDLoad collection (so I used same resolution and depth of the AlteredBeast icon - 120x96@8).
I attached 2 versions of the icons (one that works just fine with PeterK's icon.library, and one alternative that I tested with a stock OS3.9 and OS3.2.2 and works just fine there as well.

I hope it's ok for starters

Steffest · 07 June 2023, 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfilos

I made 3 icons using the pictures provided.

Nice!
Just out of curiosity: what tools did you use to make these?

(because they don't display on my system, but when i open/save them with dpaint.js, they do.)

mfilos · 07 June 2023, 10:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steffest

Nice!
Just out of curiosity: what tools did you use to make these?

(because they don't display on my system, but when i open/save them with dpaint.js, they do.)

I used my PC for creating them in final resolution and then used IconEditor by Paul E. Bloedel that can handle PNG files. After that I converted it using PeterK's IconConverter (https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php...27#post1620427) to create to a more newstyle smaller icon.
I guess the icon needs PeterK's icon.library but I edited the post to include an Alternative version (that I tested under a stock OS3.9 and OS3.2.2 system) that should work just fine.

aZtOcKdOg · 07 June 2023, 14:15

I know (as we all all likely do) the multi-app / multi-os workflow that creeps into otherwise very straight forward creative tasks… being able to do this in a portable web ‘app’ like DPaintJS has already sped things up dramatically… with the possible extra icon tools it will very much begin to take shape to be ‘that’ tool requested for decade/s

I look fwd to keeping an eye on dev… Plan to spend a bit of time with it again this weekend!

14 April 2023, 23:57	#26
EctoOne Registered User Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Germany Posts: 370	Hmm, I just looked again and it was only one layer. I mean I didn't do anything else besides loading the image and messing around with the color settings. And Flatten Image didn't help either. I also noticed that I'm not getting anything in the info section anymore. It was showing the size and amount of colors before, now it's just empty. Edit: OK, I just tried it in an incognito tab and it worked. Well, not quite. I've set the colors to 8, but the actual image seems to have 32. Last edited by EctoOne; 15 April 2023 at 00:10.

15 April 2023, 00:01	#27
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	It is very nice, indeed! Kudos! There are a couple of things I've noticed, that prolly you know already, taking in the account the alpha state: freehand drawing has no continuous mode (it prints the brush in dot mode) undo doesn't work with the straight line mode all three selection modes don't work (or, if they do, I don't understand how) --- the box mode selects an area without the red overlay the other modes use, but then it's not excluding the area without the box; the polygon and the magic wand selections do have a red overlay but again no exclusion all three modes are automatically exited with no selection when you draw something, or make the background non draweable, depending on what tool you try to use on the selection --- image > clear option doesn't delete the first "batch" of straight lines drawn on the canvas, if after them you switched to a different tool to draw anything else Probably there is more, but even so, it's a very promising start!

05 June 2023, 11:46	#30
aZtOcKdOg Registered User Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Australia Posts: 93	New Web-based Amiga Icon Editor: DPaint.js Hey great work @steffest I thought I should drop in on this thread! I also wondered how much (if any) original information is retained in an info file once imported / edited followed by using ‘ColorIcon’ export? Would a small suite of ‘icon tools’ (afore mentioned coords for the icon and the window, drawer type etc) be on the roadmap? Amazing tool and much needed indeed Great to be following the Git repo too Thanks Last edited by aZtOcKdOg; 05 June 2023 at 16:35.

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14 April 2023, 18:44	#21
AES DANA Registered User Join Date: Apr 2023 Location: USA Posts: 5	This project is quite interesting. I had been looking at various paint programs for ideas for my own, but separately I just stumbled across this post and this project. I loved Deluxe Paint growing up. I think I had version two, because I don't remember having HAM mode in it. I used DigiPaint 3 for that. But even still Deluxe Paint had many more features so I didn't care about the extra colors. The main features from Deluxe Paint that I don't see much in modern programs are, first indexed painting. Since we have 24-bit color pretty much universally, most paint programs are cavalier with their use of color, automatically anti-aliasing anything you put down on the canvas. This makes other things less convenient or impossible. You can't do color cycling. You can't easily change the color of already painted areas (and include the shades of antialiased pixels in that change). It is hard to select areas of a certain color. How do you determine which pixels should be in the selection? And this brings us to the other main feature I like about Deluxe Paint. You can grab any part of the canvas to use as a brush. The background color is automatically made transparent for the brush. So with a limited number of colors it is easy to know what part is going to be grabbed and which part isn't. Then, all tool operations can be performed with that brush, even keeping the colors preserved. This second feature alone is quite powerful and very hard to find in other programs. When it is there it isn't as simple to use. Here you just click on the brush grab tool, drag out a square or lasso around what you want, and you're done. Maybe select a different background color depending on what part you want transparent. In other programs the process is often not as easy, or obvious. Often you need to have a separate layer, with transparency, so that you don't get an ugly square for a brush. Also, the brush doesn't always work with all the program's tools. I guess this has become a rant. Well anyway good luck to you and your project!

14 April 2023, 23:18	#24
EctoOne Registered User Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Germany Posts: 370	Nice project. Maybe it's just me, but how does Reduce colors work? I've tried to load a png which I use as workbench background image just to see if I maybe can shrink its size by reducing the colors. I can see the changes when I use the slider or select a different palette but the actual number of colors stays the same. And when I try to save it as iff, it says that I have to reduce the colors to maximum 32. Which I did, well the slider is at 32 (or less). It almost looks like I'm missing a button to apply the changes.

14 April 2023, 23:45	#25
Steffest Registered User Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Antwerp / Belgium Posts: 189	Maybe you have an additional layer active? Reducing colours is per layer. To be sure you can first "flatten" the image. You're right though that the colour reduction panel could use a big fat "apply" button. Currently it "auto applies" but only if you change a setting. I'll add it to the Todo for improvement.

15 April 2023, 10:37	#28
LaBodilsen Registered User Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Denmark Posts: 179	Feature suggestion: When reducing color to indexed palette, a feature to set palette bit depth would be nice. e.g. 4bit for each RGB channel = 4096 colors amiga palette. and keep the optimized palette in 4/12bit format.

05 June 2023, 13:28	#31
Aulapatchuc Registered User Join Date: Apr 2023 Location: Sesimbra Posts: 116	I like this tool and all the colour reducing algorithms. Very nice job!

06 June 2023, 18:21	#32
A500 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Finland Posts: 361	Just when I was looking into how to make icons on the Amiga, I find this thread. Kudos to you, site bookmarked!

06 June 2023, 22:40	#33
saimon69 J.M.D - Bedroom Musician Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: los angeles,ca Posts: 3,528	If you implement indexed colors then you can have all the features as color cycling back - am still using dpaint 4 in emulation because for creating sprites is excellent and things like stencil and lighttable are invaluable tools (and also because i know how to use it almost as the back of my hand)

06 June 2023, 22:47	#34
gimbal cheeky scoundrel Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Spijkenisse/Netherlands Age: 42 Posts: 6,915	Ah color cycling. So much fun back in the day Don't know how I ever learned how to do that, I guess there was an instruction in Amiga Format somewhere.

07 June 2023, 14:15	#40
aZtOcKdOg Registered User Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Australia Posts: 93	I know (as we all all likely do) the multi-app / multi-os workflow that creeps into otherwise very straight forward creative tasks… being able to do this in a portable web ‘app’ like DPaintJS has already sped things up dramatically… with the possible extra icon tools it will very much begin to take shape to be ‘that’ tool requested for decade/s I look fwd to keeping an eye on dev… Plan to spend a bit of time with it again this weekend!

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