Pixia

Pixia

Pixia is a free and open-source raster graphics editor for Windows. It has drawing, painting, and image editing capabilities similar to commercial programs like Photoshop. Pixia is lightweight, easy to use, and good for basic image manipulation and digital art.
Pixia image
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Pixia: Free Raster Graphics Editor

Free and open-source raster graphics editor with drawing, painting, and image editing capabilities, ideal for basic image manipulation and digital art.

What is Pixia?

Pixia is a free, open-source raster graphics editor for Windows. Originally released in 2007 by Japanese developer Isao Maruoka, Pixia aims to provide many of the core image editing features of commercial software like Adobe Photoshop, but in a lightweight and easy-to-use interface.

Pixia allows users to open, edit, and save a variety of common image formats including JPEG, PNG, BMP, and PXD. It provides tools for drawing, painting, text, selections, layers, adjustments, filters, and more. The user interface has a simple, straightforward layout with palettes for brushes, colors, layers, and other functions.

While not as full-featured as Photoshop, Pixia has a decent range of image manipulation capabilities for basic photo editing, digital painting, logo design, etc. Its simplicity makes it good for beginners, students, hobbyists, and anyone wanting an accessible free alternative to complex paid software. Pixia is also extensible via user-created plug-ins.

As an open-source Windows application, Pixia is completely free to download and use without restrictions or ads. It receives periodic updates from developer Maruoka and a small community of contributors. Overall, Pixia makes an excellent free and lightweight Photoshop replacement for casual image editing and digital art.

Pixia Features

Features

  1. Drawing tools like brushes, pencils, eraser, etc.
  2. Image editing tools like selections, filters, adjustments, etc.
  3. Support for layers and masks
  4. Basic animation capabilities
  5. Import/export common image formats like JPEG, PNG, GIF
  6. Free and open source

Pricing

  • Free
  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Lightweight and fast

Intuitive and easy to use

Good for basic image editing and drawing

Cons

Limited features compared to paid alternatives

Windows only

Lacks advanced image editing capabilities

Small user community


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