DPixed: Features and Hassles Explained
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26196
Printed Date: 11 September 2025 at 11:48pm
Topic: DPixed: Features and Hassles Explained
Posted By: hseiken
Subject: DPixed: Features and Hassles Explained
Date Posted: 26 March 2018 at 4:06pm
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I noticed it's very difficult to find anyone using Dpixed (or even Grafx2 or ProMotion for that matter) and largely, I think, it's due to it's age and frankly the fact there's only one place to get a translated copy of it, since it's origin language is Japanese. I, being adventurous and never satisfied with anything (people call me contrarian, I say I'm just looking to always find an improvement if possible!) first picked up this software in 2006 and ever since then it's been in my collection of tools I always use when it comes to low color and low resolution stuff (i.e. pixel art) and so I thought I'd share a little bit about it and where to get it.
Just a quick run through of the features:
You can snag a translated version here: http://flat2d.com/dpixed_en.aspx - Dpixed Translations From FLAT2D.COM I personally like some of the plugins that didn't get translated and you can find those here: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA009437/dpixed/addin.html - Dpixed EXTRA (Drop the .dll files into the Dpixed directory to install) 
Keep in mind, this software hasn't been updated or altered in 18 years which means Microsoft has had 18 years to (very successfully) break it BUT it's still useable, albeit with some minor headaches/workarounds. However, I still recommend it because it can do a lot of things that newer software still won't implement or even think about. The ratio of hassle to features puts me squarely in 'worth the hassle' opinion but your mileage may vary. Should you choose to use it, here's what you need to know:
I personally have two shortcuts set up with the different compatibility modes. Because I'm just a gif-dork, I have the GIF edition set to WinXP so I can export and load gifs and the International version is set to Win98 mode so that it's primarily for drawing and sketching. If anyone has questions or needs translation on the untranslated plugins/addins, just hit me up. I've been using this software for ages now and know how most of it works and continue to use it even when Mr. Gates team of crackhead engineers does everything in their power to tear me apart from my favorite software with meaningless updates. Good luck and I hope this tool helps someone out there! There's nothing wrong with more choices! P.S. Speaking of choices, the successor to DPixed is EDGE and EDGE2, but from what I've read and in my own experience, it's a little more cluttered and missing some of the features I love in Dpixed, but again, someone out there may dig it. It does have the best 'pixel perfect' pen I've ever used (better than Pro-Motion!) and so I keep it around for doing outlines now and then. You can find EDGE here: http://takabosoft.com/edge - EDGE HOMEPAGE (Sorry, I cannot answer any questions about EDGE or EDGE2 since I'm not especially familiar with it!) |
Replies:
Posted By: CritiqueMyWork
Date Posted: 27 March 2018 at 2:54am
| How does it compare to grafx2 ? |
Posted By: hseiken
Date Posted: 27 March 2018 at 8:45am
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Originally posted by CritiqueMyWork
How does it compare to grafx2 ? It compares fairly favorably. Personally, I find stylus pressure sensitivity, easy shade and ordered dither handling to be far more fluid since they are handled within a floating menu that never goes away, whereas in Grafx2, you have to use shortcut keys. I personally use just a stylus and when the stylus is out, I'm not really wanting to have a keyboard around also and prefer to just use the mappable buttons on the tablet of which there's only 4. Dpixed is controllable completely from 4 buttons and pen quickly wheras Grafx2 relies far more on keyboard controls to feel 'fast' and dithering/sieve along with Shade/QuickShade effects/modes are handled much better in Dpixed than Grafx2 for my style of working. I think the real advantage grafx2 has is that it's tile functions are a little more developed than Dpixed, but otherwise, masking, color masking, etc. are also in Dpixed. To put it another way, Dpixed seems to be designed for artists; it's brushes/pens can do things simultaneously that Grafx2 can't (like smooth, transparency and shade all at once)...however Grafx2 can do things that Dpixed cannot do like image-based brush shapes and feels more like it's for people who are just in general more comfortable with 'keyboards and computers and stuff'. I would never say that Grafx2 replaces Dpixed or vice versa even though they have a lot of overlap in features because the 'feel' of each of them is wildly different so it's likely Dpixed does what you want, but with a different workflow arrangement...again except for tiles; afaik it doesn't do automatic tiling functions, but it does have tile-editor window which is setable to any width/height proportion and whatever drawn in it can be used to stamp into a changeable grid; but it will not take an image you drew with grid assistance and calculate how many tiles you made or any of that cool stuff Grafx2 does. I guess to put it another way, Dpixed is like if Japan made their own Grafx2 without trying to be influenced by the same things Grafx2 was...you get a lot of the same, but it's all arranged differently but because of the different influences, some things that some people might depend on in Grafx2 could be missing or hidden in odd places (and if anyone uses Dpixed, I would tell them the same thing...that Grafx2 is like Dpixed except with different influences!) Oh and obviously one leg up on Dpixed; you can extend Grafx2 with Lua, whereas Dpixed uses .dll extensions which aren't as easy to implement (I'm not even sure what was used to compile the ones already available, to be honest). One feature that is nice that I don't recall Grafx2 having that dpixed does within the palette management is being able to keep a picture loaded and simply load a palette out of another png or gif and apply it to the image already loaded which is nice; you can keep a folder of images made up of just color arrangements and quickly load them in to test your artwork. Oh, one more thing: no color cycling in Dpixed; that's a Grafx2/promotion/deluxe paint only trick still... :( |
Posted By: CritiqueMyWork
Date Posted: 27 March 2018 at 1:02pm
| Thanks. For some reason I said grafx2 instead of graphicsgale, the other japanese software. But I have used grafx2 in the past too. |
Posted By: hseiken
Date Posted: 28 March 2018 at 1:20pm
| I haven't used GraphicsGale too much, but between the two, I think GraphicsGale is far more suited for animation than Dpixed. Dpixed handles animation a lot like Grafx2 actually: layers and animation frames are one in the same and a preferences dialogue switches between treating the layers like layers or animation. |
Posted By: Kato
Date Posted: 06 June 2018 at 2:21am
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I'm working on the last update of D-Pixed, this time all plugins will be translated in english and available in D-Pixed 2.15 and 2.17, no more install setup file, it will be portable zip file with both D-pixed 2.15/2.17 also a lot of typos fix, SDK plugins and more, this will be available soon on my homepage. Remember D-Pixed it's not open-source, i just fix and add more stuff inside the D-Pixed folder, the wrong thing about this paint program, there is no multi undos, only one undo available when drawing, i never understand why the dev not include a proper undo feature because it's paint software.
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