Pixia is a translation of a Japanese pixel-based image editor originally developed for anime and manga creators, but its abilities stretch beyond that, with features that lend itself to image enhancement.
The project appears due to be replaced by Phierha, but while that is currently in its alpha stage, I've concentrated on Pixia. Stable versions of free software can have their fair share of foibles, so I personally prefer to avoid alpha software unless it does offer a genuine sea-change.
Highlights of Pixia
Pixia is a relatively snappy performer with a fairly clear user interface, though it could be better arranged. It isn't a heavyweight application, but considering its roots in anime and manga production, it packs some powerful image enhancing tools.
Some of the highlights of Pixia include:
- Good range of powerful image enhancement tools
- Bezier line tool for making selections
- Easy access to a range of different brush effects
- Small selection of Filters for more dramatic image editing
- Calender utility to produce blank calendars that an image can be added to
- Basic text editing controls
- Layer blending modes for creative combinations of layers
- Simple brush creation process
Why Use Pixia?
As mentioned, Pixia appears to have outgrown its more specific beginnings as a tool for graphic artists to create anime and manga style artwork. However, it's obviously still a tool well suited for this kind of work, especially those who feel more comfortable with pixel-based image editors, rather than vector tools like Inkscape or the proprietary Adobe Illustrator.
Beyond that, photographers looking for a powerful and free image enhancement application may find Pixia is well-suited for their needs. If you look at the Image menu, some of the command names may not be familiar, but once you click on them, the tools that open are fairly recognizable as standard image editor features. For example, Color Adjustment is a curves tool and Tone Balance is basically a levels tool. A maximum brush size of 100 pixels, combined with a lack of a gradient tool will make it a little limited for users who regularly fine tune layer masks by hand, but it does at least allow basic localized corrections, which is more than the first version of Photoshop Lightroom.
The Limitations of Pixia
Beyond the points mentioned in the last paragraph, there are some other limitations that users should be aware of. I'm always moaning about applications that don't offer keyboard shortcuts for their main tools and this seems to be one of them, though I didn't notice it as keenly using Pixia as I often do. That may be a result of me finding the interface less intuitive than I'd like, so slowing my flow a little.
Pixia also, in common with most other free pixel-based image editors, lacks support for non-destructive image editing through the use of adjustment layers. However, Pixia is meant to offer support for opening Adobe Photoshop PSD files, though in practice this is a little patchy, particularly with more complex files, such as those containing sets and adjustment layers.
System Requirements
The version of Pixia that I've been using for this article is V4 and this is reported as suitable for use on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7. I've been using it on an average specification laptop with 2GB of RAM installed and found it pretty stable and responsive.
Support and Training
As with most other pixel-based image editors, the power and complexity of some of the features means that new users can face a steep learning curve. Even experienced pixel-based image editor users may find they need some time to acclimatize to Pixia, such as the fact that the Layers palette is stacked in reverse order. This isn't helped by the fact that Pixia's Help files, which are available as a separate download, are not comprehensive and fail to cover many aspects. When I searched online for suitable Pixia resources, I also found very little information on working with the application.
Pixia can be downloaded for free at this Pixia website.