The Mana World Forums

This is a top quality thread, I would like to recomend Aseprite as a pixel art tool to pixel art newbies, free if you compile it yourself.
Here's something I made recently:

Nice. It's not in the style used for TMW, but I wonder if Aseprite could work well for that too, maybe?

Aseprite is not open source / free software.
Also it non free in money.

I dont think what tools like this can be usable

It seems to be open source. There is a (quite hidden) github link on the homepage. It is still not free software though.

Reading the EULA (https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/bl ... r/EULA.txt):

You may only compile and modify the source code of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT for your own personal purpose or to propose a contribution to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

That doesn't sound free to me, since you may not distribute it yourself. You may only look (and play) with the source code, and contribute to it, but in the end David Capello would keep the copyright, and may earn money with it.

That aside, I do think it might be a useful tool for artists, however I wouldn't suggest it to new artists because of the EULA, and because it is less known. I would problably suggest Gimp (free in every way) or Paint.net (free as in free beer, but not freedom). I personally use Paint.net.

Free to use as long as you don't share the compiled source with people over the Internet, plus it's quite cheap for what it does. And it's way better than Photoshop or Gimp.

Yes and this named non free.
But you writing this on free software game forum.

Aseprite is non-libre software, and I strongly recommend against using it. However, if you do wish to give up your freedom, then please see if you can get the program without paying for it, as not to support the author’s unethical endeavours with money.

This program used to be libre, but the licence has been changed. A copy of the last libre version is still available here (at least in source code form). Other libre software which pixel artists may find useful includes GrafX2 and Piskel. In addition to GIMP (which focuses on photo-manipulation), I would like to mention Krita (which focuses on drawing).

4144 wrote:Yes and this named non free.
But you writing this on free software game forum.

Note that (the majority of) TMW Team does not support the idea of libre software. Non-libre software is even used for development, and recommended to contributors; so I don't think the project is against this kind of endorsement or promotion.

Note: I use and recommend using “libre” for “free as in freedom”, and “gratis” for “free of cost”. This can prevent confusion and misunderstanding.

I'd like to point out once again (at risk of derailing this topic, which I will try to avoid) that using non-libre software does not automatically equate to not supporting libre software. It is still supported and preferred where possible and when it's deemed most efficient.

Feel free to revive the appropriate thread for this discussion if you would like to discuss it further and not in relation to Aseprite.