Graphics Editor of Choice?

[Eamonn]

In my opinion:

Windows: Gimp
Mac: Gimp
Linux: Gimp

If you have the money and want to make amazing graphics, then all I can think of it for Mac use Photoshop Elements(like £60). No idea about Windows or Linux. I personally hate Windows, so I tend to use Mac or Linux most of the time.

But yeah, for a free and open source product Gimp is FAN-TAS-TIC. I'm sure if you've ever used it you can agree. Sometimes it's a little bit sluggish on my Mac, but it's great for being free. I guess maybe Pixen if you want retro style graphics, and I hear good things about Pixelmator but have never looked into it personally. Gimp seems to be great for open source indie hobby games. I remember hearing Mojang use Gimp for Minecraft, but I can't confirm this though.

[jjmafiae]

i do not agree with you eamonn i think paint.net is best for normal game textures on windows and some other graphic editors for art.

[Eamonn]

I've never used paint.net, but I have heard good things about it. I think Gimp is still pretty awesome.

[jjmafiae]

I've never used paint.net, but I have heard good things about it. I think Gimp is still pretty awesome.

Paint.net is generally easy to use, but of course there is a few tricks you can do in it.

[Jasoco]

PhotoShop CS3.

That old girl has survived on my computer for about half a dozen OS X updates now. I trimmed it down to half its original size by deleting unused utilities, the help files and removing its PPC binary and it still runs like a trooper.

One of these days I might have to upgrade to something more modern though. CS3 doesn't support Fullscreen or Retina. One day. One day.

Never did like Gimp. I really hate using Linux apps on OS X through X11. They aren't made for OS X at all and feel clunky. If I needed to switch from PhotoShop, I'd switch to Pixelmator. Now that's an app that makes use of OS X's amazing features. And it's cheap. But it's not a complete clone of PS yet.

[DaedalusYoung]

I never liked GIMP either when I started using it, because I was used to some other program. But then when I got my Mac, I couldn't use that program anymore, so I had no choice but to sit and endure GIMP. And now, I don't want to go without it anymore. Somebody gave me a copy of Photoshop, but I still haven't installed it.

[Eamonn]

If you have Photoshop, by all means use Photoshop. If you don't want to spend money, Gimp/Paint.net are probably your best alternatives. At my school, we have Photoshop(latest version AFAIK). I've used it and while it's amazing, it's overkill for me at least. Everything we were told to do, I kept thinking "I could do this in Gimp with the same amount of effort". If you want to spend money on an amazing and 100% worth it image editing program, go ahead. But if you're making simple 2D games, maybe consider a free alternative. Fun Fact: All of MBG's assets(except the character spritesheet and font) were made in Gimp.

I actually don't mind the Linux apps ported over, maybe that's because I prefer Linux(I use OS X more because that's what I'm defaulted into when I boot up, and I'm too lazy to boot into Ubuntu), I don't know.

Yeah, if you want to spend money, get Photoshop(Elements on a Mac, unless you need all the bells and whistles), but if you want a free editor, Pixen, Gimp or Paint.net.

I've seen what Photoshop can do. If I get a chance, I might edit in a photo that my brother made for me in Photoshop. Basically, I hated Mario games. Because of this, my brother drew the photo using a Wacom tablet he got for Christmas to draw me a picture of Sonic squishing Mario. It was amazing. It took him a week, but it was still excellent. So Photoshop would be worth the money that you pay for it(I think CS3 is like 6 grand or something).

It's all down to what you need. Do you need a super fancy image? Probably Photoshop is what you're looking for. Looking for simple graphics? Gimp, Paint.net or Pixen is you're best bet.

Just my 2 cents

[DaedalusYoung]

I've seen what Photoshop can do. If I get a chance, I might edit in a photo that my brother made for me in Photoshop. Basically, I hated Mario games. Because of this, my brother drew the photo using a Wacom tablet he got for Christmas to draw me a picture of Sonic squishing Mario. It was amazing. It took him a week, but it was still excellent. So Photoshop would be worth the money that you pay for it(I think CS3 is like 6 grand or something).

But did Photoshop make the drawing or did your brother make it? The tool can help make good art, but in the end, it's the artist that does all the work. What features does Photoshop have, so that images made with it could not have been made with any other program?

[Eamonn]

I've seen what Photoshop can do. If I get a chance, I might edit in a photo that my brother made for me in Photoshop. Basically, I hated Mario games. Because of this, my brother drew the photo using a Wacom tablet he got for Christmas to draw me a picture of Sonic squishing Mario. It was amazing. It took him a week, but it was still excellent. So Photoshop would be worth the money that you pay for it(I think CS3 is like 6 grand or something).

But did Photoshop make the drawing or did your brother make it? The tool can help make good art, but in the end, it's the artist that does all the work. What features does Photoshop have, so that images made with it could not have been made with any other program?

I can't name any feature's, but for 6K there better be, haha. My brother drew it with his Wacom tablet. He coloured it with Photoshop and added some more effects. Then printed it and got in laminated. So basically, Photoshop better have a lot more features then Gimp, if Adobe can change £6000 for it :O

[DaedalusYoung]

Well, I can see Photoshop has Pantone colours and a certification you can get for it, but GIMP is easier to use and uses much less disk space: [link]. So really, for advanced professional usage, you'd need Photoshop, but if you're not directly working with a printer to absolutely get the precise colours you need, I'd say GIMP is by far a better piece of software.