Pixia is a freeware raster graphics editor program for Windows, created by . It was originally designed for the anime/manga community but has also been used in other branches of art. A successor to ART/fw, a full-color graphics tool developed for Windows 3.1, ver. 0 was released in the fall of 1998 and celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2013. The program is still being upgraded at a high frequency.
In addition to Pixia, other versions were developed under the names A/PIXIA and Phierha to enhance functions, but they were never officially released. After reviewing those versions, Pixia ver. 5 was released in 2009. Ver. 5 also features significant changes in interface design, among others.
Although ver.4 continues to be supported for users who prefer the conventional interface, the focus of development has shifted to ver.6, resulting in the existence of two series of Pixia.
Overview and features
Despite being freeware, the program boasts advanced features such as layer functionality, mask planes, transparency planes, and transparent color planes (requires filters). It supports external plugins, enabling functional expansions like adding data import/export formats and integration with other software. Filters and plugins are created and released by volunteers on numerous websites. A module allowing Adobe Photoshop plugins to be used in Pixia was also developed by users. Since December 2004, it has supported the PSD format, making collaboration with other software like Photoshop easier.
From the 2000s through the early 2010s, Pixia was the only free graphics software with such advanced capabilities. Consequently, it was adopted as bundled software for tablets, including those from Wacom. Paid OEM versions with added material data were also produced and sold in packages. Paid filters and support were also sold via download. Numerous instructional books were published, positioning it as the primary choice for beginners in digital drawing.
See also
- Comparison of raster graphics editors