REXPaint (now at v1.0!)

[getter77]

http://rexpaint.blogspot.com/    Latest and greatest:  http://www.gridsagegames.com/rexpaint/index.html

There are a number of ASCII art editors available on the web, but most suffer from poor usability or small feature sets (one notable exception being eigenbom's awesome fork of ASCII Paint). For development of my own projects (see X@COM), I needed an application equipped with a wide range of tools for quickly drawing and manipulating ASCII art, as well as the ability to easily browse the images created as stored in their native format. Thus REXPaint was born.

Hopefully it will also find use as a general purpose ASCII art editor. I'd love to see what people can create with this program, so send me a link/copy if you've made something cool!

At launch the major features of this editor include:

    -Edit characters, foreground, and background colors separately
    -Draw shapes and text
    -Copy/cut/paste areas
    -Undo/redo changes
    -Preview effects simply by hovering the cursor over the canvas
    -Palette manipulation
    -Image-wide color tweaking and palette swaps
    -True-color RGB/HSV color picker
    -Create multi-layered images
    -Zooming: Scale an image by changing font size on the fly
    -Browse art assets and begin editing at the press of a button
    -Images highly compressed
    -Export PNGs for use in other programs or on the web
    -Skinnable interface


(Check out the features page for some screenshots.)

I say features "at launch" because REXPaint can still be considered a work in progress and will continue to receive updates as necessary. Some features on the to-do list that went unimplemented since I don't really need them yet and I don't know how much demand there would be: lasso selection for copying, image-wide glyph swapping akin to the color swap feature, tool tips on mouse hover, layer color blending, type to search/filter through browseable assets.

The X@COM RL project continues to manifest all sorts of nifty bits.   

[guest509]

That is kinda neat. I didn't know anything like that really existed.

[Kyzrati]

Ah, yes, I should've posted this here, too, but I guess if I don't move fast enough getter77'll always handle it for me ;p

It's good for making roguelike mockups, or perhaps even art for use in roguelikes themselves (my own intention, aside from some UI planning).

I just released a new version today and the manual documents the file format's specifications, so you could also create art with REXPaint and import it directly into your own game. It's got better compression than PNGs of the same image, and you don't even have to use the code page 437 font--use whatever spritesheet you like by dropping it in the fonts directory and adding it to the fonts/_config file (alpha transparency is supported, too, but I didn't use it--see the manual).

BaconSoap's working on an as-yet unreleased roguelike and is doing just that--he already wrote an open source library in C# for importing .xp files (GitHub page).

[getter77]

R6

REXPaint beta v0.95r6 (130903)

* NEW: Export to .ans for ANSI art
* NEW: ANSI mode (see manual)
* NEW: Added ANSI VGA palette
* NEW: Duplicate images through browser
* NEW: Rename images through browser
* NEW: Delete images through browser
* MOD: Lifted 25-character limit on filename input
* MOD: REXPaint.cfg specifies default canvas view size rather than console dimensions

REXPaint beta v0.94r5 (130726)

* NEW: Copy/Cut modes also display area dimensions in info window (like Rect/Oval mode)
* NEW: Resize canvas dialogue supports hotkeys ('w'/'h')
* NEW: Force a specific FPS cap in the config file (default was 60)
* FIX: Glyphs now shown properly in menu when GUI & Art using different fonts

Extra resources:

For Game Devs:
If you'd like to use (or at least reference) some pre-existing code for reading .xp files into your own game and converting them to an easy to use format, BaconSoap has generously open-sourced his C# library for importing .xp files. Check out RexReader on GitHub here. Many thanks to BaconSoap.

Additional Palettes (download txt -> drop in data/palettes directory):  #1

Additional Fonts (download image -> drop in data/fonts directory and list in _config.xt, a text file):  #2

If you've created a resource you would like to share with the community, feel free to submit it so I can add it to this list for other users to make use of.

[Kyzrati]

I'll just post this here update before Getter gets to it... 

Released R7 today:

REXPaint beta v0.97r7 (140206)

* NEW: Export pure text (Ctrl-t)
* NEW: Export to CSV (Ctrl-k)
* NEW: Export to XML (Ctrl-m)
* NEW: Export to XPM (Ctrl-p)
* NEW: Image-wide swapping of glyphs (Ctrl-LMB in font window)
* NEW: Toggle highlighting of already-used glyphs ('u')
* NEW: Multiple paste modes, added to support flipping/rotation of clipboard contents
* NEW: Set the grid glyph manually via config file
* NEW: Change grid resolution in program (Shift-Wheel)
* NEW: Hold Alt key while hovering over a glyph in font selection window to highlight all uses in current layer
* NEW: Grid can by set to appear under image (i.e. in undrawn areas only) (Alt-g)
* NEW: Text tool supports multiple lines (Ctrl-Enter), started directly below current line
* NEW: Text tool can recall any previously entered text for later use (Up/Down to cycle through history)
* NEW: Additional command for viewing previous/next image in browser (Shift-Wheel)
* NEW: Non-filled rects drawn with a single/double line glyph automatically draw a properly oriented ASCII box
* MOD: Ovals drawn from centerpoint by default (switch to corner mode via Alt-o)
* MOD: "File" menu renamed to "Image"
* FIX: Alt-key commands no longer cause system beeps (Windows)

[getter77]

Heh, well done! 

[Kyzrati]

For anyone who wants to play with palettes and fonts from legacy systems, those resources are now available for download (compatible with earlier versions of REXPaint--they don't come with the program).

Palettes from Atari 2600, Apple II, Commodore 64, NES, Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum, and more:


Fonts from Aquarius, MSX, Phillips VG 5000, ZX81, and more:


New version of REXPaint coming soon.

[Kyzrati]

R9 (beta v0.99) just released.
Notes here.
Download here.

Quite a few improvements this time around:
* NEW: Image-wide single-color swapping (Shift-LMB in palette window)
* NEW: Scroll image up/down with Shift-Wheel
* NEW: Switch between current/previous image with Ctrl-Tab
* NEW: Separate undo history maintained for each image, making simultaneous editing of multiple files easier
* NEW: Expanded undo support to include image resizing and layer manipulation (all possible edit actions can now be undone)
* NEW: Active layer and layer hide states are now stored for inactive images
* NEW: Set default image dimensions and background color in config
* NEW: Optional hex input/output in color picker
* NEW: Palettes/skins/configs can now specify hex color codes (in addition to RGB/HSV/named colors)
* NEW: Duplicate image names are allowed, provided each image is located in a separate subdirectory
* NEW: Images with changes are auto-saved after a certain duration (interval set in config)
* NEW: Left/Right arrows skip to previous/next directory in image browser
* NEW: File browser supports directory collapsing/expanding (click on folder name)
* NEW: Ctrl-Left/Right collapses/expands all subdirectories
* MOD: Cutting from bottom layer auto-fills area with default image background color (used to be transparent)
* MOD: Set-swap palette color command changed to Alt-LMB
* MOD: Grid resolution command changed to Alt-Wheel
* MOD: Image-wide glyph swap command changed to Shift-LMB (to match new color swap command)
* MOD: .xp files now begin with an internal format version number (will retroactively auto-update old files)
* MOD: File browser extends to full window height when config dimensions are greater than default
* MOD: Create image in image browser subdirectory command changed to Shift-LMB
* FIX: Palette color moving works again (borked in R7 by glyph swapping implementation)
* FIX: Failure to load an image could crash file browser
* FIX: Two mixed-line ASCII codes were inversed (only affected flip-paste orientation)
* FIX: Significant optimizations when processing massive images (render performance equivalent to small images)
* FIX: Undo/redo functionality was failing for image-wide glyph replacements in multi-layered images
* FIX: Undo/redo updates image unsaved changes indicator when applicable
* FIX: Copy tool retains transparency of content selected from non-base layers, rather than converting it to black on paste
* FIX: Skipping to previous directory in image browser via key command (Left/Ctrl-Up) selects first contained image rather than last

[Kyzrati]

No new release of REXPaint yet, but I've set up a new discussion board for REXPaint users over on my new forums. They're brand new (just opened with the launch of my new game, Cogmind), so it may take a little while for users to trickle in. Just mentioning as it will become an alternative and more inclusive avenue for discussion in the future. (RP users have been spread out over a lot of different forums...)

[Kyzrati]

I've posted an in-depth guide to how I use REXPaint for roguelike development--mockups, art, prefabs and more--including specific techniques and plenty of reference images. Check it out here.

[Avagart]

Great post, it's very helpful

[Kyzrati]

Thanks! I know there are a lot of devs using REXPaint, but might be using different methods and/or aren't always sure how to get the most out of it, so I thought a little summary of my own uses would be helpful.

Really wish I had more time to just doodle and make some recreational mockups and whatnot, but just so busy... More importantly I need to get a new version of REXPaint out, hopefully this year. It's about time for 1.0.

[Tzan]

I grabbed r9 last week, the program worked fine, but I couldn't Save or Export an image.
Today I realized I should try setting the compatibility mode to XP sp3 and that worked.
I use Win 7 64bit.
So disaster averted

[Kyzrati]

Hm, thanks for the notice, though I believe an inability to save or export should be caused by the exe not having admin access (b/c it tries to save files to its own directory). It's a 32-bit program, but should work fine in a 64-bit OS nonetheless (I use a Win7 64-bit that doesn't even have access to compatibility mode). Perhaps your compatibility mode change also changed the exe permissions?

[Tzan]

Yeah, that was it.
I turned off compatibility mode.
Selected Run as Administrator and it saved fine.

Never had to do that before, so I never thought of it.

The few times I really did have a compatibility problem the program wouldn't run at all.
That's why I never thought of trying that for a week.

Edit:
When in compatibility mode, click to run, it brings up a window to allow changes.
Thats how it happened. But just normal mode, no window comes up.