I switched to 100% Linux not long time ago (Serenity + 5) but I'm struggling with the replacement of the last but seemingly simple workflow, that I have used an overpowered photoshop for when on windows.
I'm an 'ol game dev and I love firing up some compiler or IDE or game engine and have fun, today its Godot ππ . Long live FOSS!
I'm doing about everything in 2D pixel graphics, mostly because I have a stock of unused and also because I like it the most I guess.
So to the workflow!
Modifying pixel graphics:
The pipette must take only one value, not some mix of say 2x2 pixels
The pen writes 100 percent to pixels, or zero (so no smoothing stuff).
Possibility so make selections with 100% hard edges, and the possibility to erase (so creating transparency).
Saves with transparency to .png.
Bonus:
Resize without smoothing
Changing the hue in a selection
Aand that's it!
Is there a such simple soft out there?
BRW. Tried Gimp, it's just not working out for me.
The top contenders I have experience with is:
-Aesprite. It's paid. It's good. Built solely for pixel art.
Free stuff:
-LibreSprite- this is the open version of aesprite before it went paid. I don't know it It's still maintained or updated, but it may suit your needs.
If you don't mind retro looking for something reminiscent of older paint programs for Amiga, I suggest Grafx2.
The website says it's a "bitmap paint program inspired by the Amiga programs βDeluxe Paint and Brilliance. Specialized in 256-color drawing, it includes a very large number of tools and effects that make it particularly suitable for pixel art, game graphics, and generally any detailed graphics painted with a mouse."
I am not good at digital art, so I don't use it often, but it is pretty interesting to me at least. It might be in your package manager, might not, depending on the used repositories. Otherwise they link to their gitlab page for nightly builds.
They have a link to a 3rd party distribution appimage, but it seems like you'd need to get it through something like the Wayback Machine if you want the appimage. I personally don't recommend that because it seems like it's gonna be an older file based on the site hosting it redirecting to a February 2021 post saying the repository holding it is read-only.