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Pick color from Reference picture

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:13:59 +0000

Load your picture as a Background (Effect / Background / Open)
Go to the Palette [p]. Use the button with the RGB pipette.

You can now pick up colors from your background picture.

background-pick.png Size: 243.31 KB Downloads: 3

Not to be confused with the regular "Pick color" with [?] or CTRL short key or a click on the current color in the toolbox.
Those are only color selector for the colors you already have in the Palette and drawn in your current project.

Fill type short key

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:21:54 +0000

Sometime you need to go back to standard fill (no gradient):
SHIFT-F2

You can browse most Fill Type using :
SHIFT-F1 - Pattern
SHIFT-F2 - Solid
SHIFT-F3 - Circular
SHIFT-F4 - Vertical Fit
SHIFT-F5 - Linear
SHIFT-F6 - Horizontal Fit
SHIFT-F7 - Fit Both
SHIFT-F8 - Smooth

Some of my pixel paintings

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 06:20:54 +0000

inbound3133243032032015584.png Size: 5.7 KB Downloads: 1

I've been streaming on Twitch for a while now and I went through a phase of making pictures in PyDPainter on-stream. (I would like to get back to that). I have also used it to make graphics for the channel including the avatars for my robot cohosts.

inbound8067126920182470731.png Size: 6.63 KB Downloads: 2

inbound8374350940902299704.gif Size: 56.96 KB Downloads: 2

inbound6275879489969531794.png Size: 10.45 KB Downloads: 3

inbound3647076125986295597.gif Size: 6.06 KB Downloads: 2

Ressources for PyDPainter (iff, brushs, anim files etc)

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 14:14:42 +0000

Lots of pictures, pictures with Color Cycles as GIF or iff files (original Amiga files) :
https://amiga.lychesis.net/index.html

ThorstenSchlueter_AmigaMonitor.gif Size: 152.94 KB Downloads: 2

I re-command to Download the iff file clicking on the IFF icon on top right of the picture if available. Just load or drop it into PyDPainter. Hit TAB for switching Color Cycles on.

Amiga-cycle.gif Size: 326.93 KB Downloads: 2

Lot of Amiga, Atari St and PC animation with ANIM5 files compatible with PyDPainter !

https://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/index.html

SeaCastSiege.ilbm.png Size: 47.96 KB Downloads: 1

I highly recommand on the Amiga section, the works and animations of
[*]Don Bluth
[*]Eric Graham
[*]Eric W. Schwartz
[*]James M. Robinson
[*]Jim Sachs

ANIM5 files has to be loaded as animation, use the Anim / Load menu. ANIM7 or later are not compatible with PyDPainter at this time.

Magnetic Scrolls - The complete artwork
https://msmemorial.if-legends.org/artwork.php

Lot's of bitmap artwork from Amiga games ! Can be download as png pictures.

(Yesterday, 11:14 AM)Stephane Wrote: Lots of pictures, pictures with Color Cycles as GIF or iff files (original Amiga files) :
https://amiga.lychesis.net/index.html

I re-command to Download the iff file clicking on the IFF icon on top right of the picture if available. Just load or drop it into PyDPainter. Hit TAB for switching Color Cycles on.

Lot of Amiga, Atari St and PC animation with ANIM5 files compatible with PyDPainter !

https://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/index.html

I highly recommand on the Amiga section, the works and animations of
[*]Don Bluth
[*]Eric Graham
[*]Eric W. Schwartz
[*]James M. Robinson
[*]Jim Sachs

ANIM5 files has to be loaded as animation, use the Anim / Load menu. ANIM7 or later are not compatible with PyDPainter at this time.

Magnetic Scrolls - The complete artwork
https://msmemorial.if-legends.org/artwork.php

Lot's of bitmap artwork from Amiga games ! Can be download as png pictures.

[*]
Collection of bitmap fonts pulled from various demoscene archives over the years !
https://github.com/ianhan/BitmapFonts/bl...reviews.md
Can be used as brushs to compose your own text / titles. I made a tutorial about this !

It's in French, but English subtitles has been reviewed.

Lot of graphics from Demoscene competitions and parties.
Some of them are pixel art graphics compatible with PyDPainter.

Here are Amiga AGA 256 colors or less picture for example. Unzip the files and open the .png or others graphics files into PyDPainter.
https://demozoo.org/graphics/?platform=6...on_type=23

You may found nice pictures on MS-DOS or Amiga OCS/ECS or Atari GRAPHICS competitions too.

demozoo.png Size: 225.12 KB Downloads: 1

ALT - Fill : the tip nobody know !

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:12:28 +0000

I personnaly found this usefull hotkey in DPaint 3 manual and Mark add it to PyDPainter.

Blog Archive

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:03:08 +0000

I'm discontinuing posting on the blog site and will use this forum instead.

However, you can still access all previous the posts here:
https://pydpainter.org/blog/all.php

Blog Archive

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:02:08 +0000

I'm discontinuing posting on the blog site and will use this forum instead.

However, you can still access all previous the posts here:
https://pydpainter.org/blog/all.php

MultiCycle Prefs

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:47:05 +0000

Using the Cycle mode (F7), each brush is drawn on a plain color of the current (gradient) colors cycle.
(see first lines)

When MultiCycle Prefs is ticked / on, each color of the brush cycle if inside the current (gradient) colors cycle.
(see seconds lines)

multicycle.png Size: 183.72 KB Downloads: 1

See doc for more.

Flying parrot animation

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:58:25 +0000

Here is the parrot animation I use for the PyDPainter 2.1 trailer

It's a pixel art version I converted in PydPainter from a green screen animation video. And used as an Animbrush. I will documente my process later !

perroquet-NTSC.gif Size: 17.18 KB Downloads: 2

My pixel art

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:09:25 +0000

Hi,

My name is Metin. I used DPaint on a daily basis from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, working on graphics for the demoscene, for games, and for commercial jobs like animated TV series. Loved those DPaint years, and the existence of PyDPainter makes me very happy.

Here are some of my old DPaint works, as well as two new works I made using PyDPainter…

metin-seven_isometric-pixel-artist-illustrator_hoi-aga-amiga-game-intro-picture.png Size: 123.91 KB Downloads: 5

metin-seven_isometric-pixel-artist-illustrator_moon-child-game-character-designs.png Size: 382.67 KB Downloads: 5

metin-seven_pixel-artist-illustrator-illustration_amiga-hires-philips-pc.png Size: 26.76 KB Downloads: 5

metin-seven_isometric-pixel-artist-illustrator-character-designer_grayscale-greyscale-robot.png Size: 50.95 KB Downloads: 4

metin-seven_minimalistic-pixel-artist-illustrator_science-laboratory.png Size: 38.18 KB Downloads: 4

Installation links

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:44:41 +0000

Here are the distributions for installing PyDPainter on Linux, PC Windows and Mac :
https://pydpainter.org/download.php PyDPainter installs

Please note than most Windows antivirus or "protection system" on PC may don't like the PyDPainter.exe. Check the file info and make sure it's signed from Mark Riale and choose to Run it anyway.

Please note than advanced user can run the lattest Beta version or Release as a python file on any system running Python and Pygame.
Make sure you have Python installed on your computer. https://realpython.com/installing-python/
1. log to your github account and go to : https://github.com/mriale/PyDPainter

github-code.png Size: 133.98 KB Downloads: 0

2. <> Code tab, in the right menu, choose master for last release or develop for last Beta version. Ignore the rest of the list.
3. go the Code green button on left and select "Download ZIP".
4. Save your .zip download on a folder, unzip it (Windows can do that with a right button menu on the file).
5. Enter the folder, locate the "install_pygame.bat" and run it.
6. If it need additional Python library, install them.
7. Run PydPainter.py

You can have a "beta" develop version and the last release in different folders, running at the same time, no problem.

Illustrated tutorial in doc (EN)

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:05:34 +0000

There are a few but instructive tutorial I made in the PydPainter documentation. Give them a look !

PydPainter tutorials

Especially if you are not familiar with powerfull DPaint tools like animpainting or animbrushs.

Stencils video tutorial (EN)

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:27:46 +0000

A video tutorial about color locking. You should watch this if you never use Stencils.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLTCsA8taAI

2.1.1 Lambo skywave picture

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:01:20 +0000

Hi ! Remember the PydPainter 2.1.1 launching picture I made ?

(08-20-2026, 12:01 PM)Stephane Wrote: Hi ! Remember the PydPainter 2.1.1 launching picture I made ?

I made it in two parts: first, the synthwave styled sky background.

skywave2.png Size: 2.92 KB Downloads: 2

I define the 16 first colors to maximise the use of the new gradients in 2.2.1

HorizonBar.png Size: 110.44 KB Downloads: 0

The Moon was drawn in second, as it is just a circle with another gradient.

Moon.png Size: 114.19 KB Downloads: 0

I use a photograph I found on Internet as ref picture for the Lambo Diablo.

Lamborghini Diablo1990-a.jpg Size: 108.63 KB Downloads: 2

After cuting out and align the car on another modern graphic app, I use it as Effect/Background and start creating the palette and drawing over it.

Lambo-background.png Size: 200.45 KB Downloads: 6

I define a brush above the Lambo, and import it as brush to check how it's fit on the skyline file.

Lambo-brush.png Size: 126.22 KB Downloads: 0

As we don't have layers at this time, I keep my files separated. I paste it at the end and add some details on the roadmarks and the car rear glass.

Then I prepare my text on the spare screen,

tagline.png Size: 185.33 KB Downloads: 1

and when ready I paste it on the sky, but with interface and menu ON, so that the text is fully readable AND we undertand it's a pixel app.

Pydpainter-2.2.1.PNG Size: 92.54 KB Downloads: 3

Pydpainter-2.2.1-HD.PNG Size: 8.09 KB Downloads: 1

Lazy Summer Days

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 03:13:28 +0000

Well, other than set up a forum, I really haven't done much coding on PyDPainter these past few months.

With a summer vacation at the beach, graduation parties, mowing the lawn, playing with my Commodore 64 Ultimate, and trying to fix my original Ms Pac-Man arcade machine I've kept busy enough.

I do have a roadmap for what I want to get done for PyDPainter 2.3.0:

These 2 are done:

I am working on this:

Various modern screen size (4:3 16:9 1:1)

These are the rest of the things I want to include in 2.3.0. The layer functionality is the biggest thing:

I'll keep you posted as I make progress.