XPaint
Encyclopedia
XPaint is a free
open source
image editing
program for bitmap
images on the X Window environment
on Unix-like
operating system
s. Its main goal is to be a lightweight and simple to use raster graphics editor.
, PPM
, XPM, XBM
, BMP, ICO, JPEG
, JPEG2000, PGF
etc. It can also read and import certain vector formats such as PostScript
, PDF, SVG, as well as plain text or TeX, LaTeX files (whenever a TeX
system and PostScript/PDF utilities are installed).
XPaint is divided into a toolbox area, for selecting the current paint operation, and paint windows for modifying/creating images. Each paint window has access to its own color palette and set of patterns.
Recent versions have support for advanced image manipulations (image zooming and resizing, filters, color modifications, separation of RGB channels), scripting, layers, edition of alpha channel and of transparent images, vector formats import, truetype fonts and anti-aliasing, geometric transformations of such fonts, etc. …
The scripting capabilities include programmable filters, batch processing, creation of 2D and 3D images, etc. XPaint also recently acquired a built-in editor which can be used to produce posters containing text and images.
The user interface relies upon Xaw
-based interface toolkits. However, the source code includes the "Xaw3dxft" variant of Athena widgets which has a more modern look and feel, and makes use of UTF8 and antialiased fonts in the menus.
The scripting capabilities are achieved through compilation of scripts in plain C language, which should conform to XPaint's internal APIs.
and was then extended by Torsten Martinsen from 1996 to 1999 (versions 2.2.x to 2.5.7) based on Davids last version 2.1.1. Since around 2000, it is maintained and developed by Jean-Pierre Demailly.
Current version is 2.9.8.3 (October 2011).
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
image editing
Image editing
Image editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they be digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any...
program for bitmap
Bitmap
In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of memory organization or image file format used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped array of bits. Now, along with pixmap, it commonly refers to...
images on the X Window environment
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
on Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s. Its main goal is to be a lightweight and simple to use raster graphics editor.
Features
XPaint features a substantial number of standard (and less standard) paint operations. It allows for editing and browsing multiple images simultaneously, and supports most of the common bitmap formats, including PNG, GIF, TIFF, TGATruevision TGA
Truevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display...
, PPM
Portable pixmap
The phrase Netpbm format commonly refers to any or all of the members of a set of closely related graphics formats used and defined by the Netpbm project....
, XPM, XBM
XBM
In computer graphics, the X Window System uses X BitMap , a plain text binary image format, for storing cursor and icon bitmaps used in the X GUI.XBM files differ markedly from most image files in that they take the form of C source files...
, BMP, ICO, JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, JPEG2000, PGF
Progressive Graphics File
PGF is a wavelet-based bitmapped image format that employs lossless and lossy data compression. PGF was created to improve upon and replace the JPEG format...
etc. It can also read and import certain vector formats such as PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
, PDF, SVG, as well as plain text or TeX, LaTeX files (whenever a TeX
TeX
TeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
system and PostScript/PDF utilities are installed).
XPaint is divided into a toolbox area, for selecting the current paint operation, and paint windows for modifying/creating images. Each paint window has access to its own color palette and set of patterns.
Recent versions have support for advanced image manipulations (image zooming and resizing, filters, color modifications, separation of RGB channels), scripting, layers, edition of alpha channel and of transparent images, vector formats import, truetype fonts and anti-aliasing, geometric transformations of such fonts, etc. …
The scripting capabilities include programmable filters, batch processing, creation of 2D and 3D images, etc. XPaint also recently acquired a built-in editor which can be used to produce posters containing text and images.
Technology
As XPaint only uses the basic image libraries (PNG, JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF) along with the X11, Fontconfig and Freetype libraries, it has a very small memory footprint and very few dependencies. As a consequence, it can be compiled on most Unix systems.The user interface relies upon Xaw
Xaw
Xaw is short for the X Window System Athena widget set, which is a set of widgets to implement simple user interfaces based upon the X Toolkit Intrinsics...
-based interface toolkits. However, the source code includes the "Xaw3dxft" variant of Athena widgets which has a more modern look and feel, and makes use of UTF8 and antialiased fonts in the menus.
The scripting capabilities are achieved through compilation of scripts in plain C language, which should conform to XPaint's internal APIs.
History
XPaint was originally written by David Koblas around 1993,and was then extended by Torsten Martinsen from 1996 to 1999 (versions 2.2.x to 2.5.7) based on Davids last version 2.1.1. Since around 2000, it is maintained and developed by Jean-Pierre Demailly.
Current version is 2.9.8.3 (October 2011).
See also
- List of raster graphics editors
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...
- Windows Paint
XPaint at Freshmeat
(through September 2005; the above-referenced SourceForge pages are current)- http://freshmeat.net/projects/xpaint/