Chrome Apps: Pixlr Editor

Have you ever wanted to edit your photos or draw a picture with your digital tablet but couldn’t afford Photoshop or paint sai tool? Now you can with the Google chrome app “Pixlr Editor.”  This application isn’t the best of its kind, but works for the basic use much like MS-paint. Granted this application is much more powerful than MS-paint, but let’s go down the line of things it could have done better, and why the application may be good for you.

The interface will remind you of Photoshop right off the bat if you have used it before. It offers a navigator that allows you to see what your image looks like at a micro view (which some digital artists use the most to get a faraway distance view. It’s to make sure that it catches the audience’s attention.) It also has the layers panel so you can stack up multiple images or color over the lines of your drawing to ensure it doesn’t mess up the picture. The tool bar, although it doesn’t contain anything spectacular; other than the pencil tool, which we will get into later. Last but not least the adjustments layers and filter effects. This in itself is a pretty advance feature in a free application.

When you start a new project you normally have the option to choosing a custom pixel size. Well in this application the highest you can go is 4000x4000px with no option of choosing your dpi. Dpi means dot per inch, which in this case the higher the pixel size the higher the dpi. In Photoshop or Paint sai this isn’t the case, you have the option of choosing a higher resolution with no problem, I like to work in a 9000x9000px layout so I have a wider work space with a high dpi. In this case you cannot do that. But to my knowledge this works the dpi with the size of the canvas, so I think it automates it for you so that you don’t have to understand it yourself. Which I guess is good for beginner’s out there who don’t understands this kind of things.

Let’s talk about the adjustment layer and filter effects in this tool. First of all, although you can adjust the image with the adjustment layers you cannot fully tweak the image without permanently changing the image. In other words once it’s done, it’s done. In Photoshop you can always adjust the image with no problem what so ever. However in this case it doesn’t give you and layer for the adjustment. So this is just an adjustment option instead of a layer. This is much like Photoshop’s Filter effect where it does nothing except permanently alter the image until you can either undo it or restart the project. The only thing about the effects option that this application has that is similar to Photoshop is the filter options which does the same thing.

I wanted to save the best for last, the pencil tool. At first it wouldn’t seem like much, just a typical pencil. But one of the settings for this tool is called “Shaded” and let me tell you, this is the best thing this program has offered me next to opening up images through a URL to save them directly to your computer. When you draw close to the lines that you have just created it starts to shade it with this very light grey, creating a shadow effect to simulate what pressure does with a normal artist pencil. The picture at the bottom shows what I mean if you don’t understand that. Compared to the Photoshop or Paint sai pencil tool, this tool is much better. Although this may not be the best of applications it does do the job it was meant for. The best part about this entire app is that it is free. What could be better than that? Oh, maybe a free copy of Paint Sai for those digital artists out there. But hey, we can’t win them all.

 

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