Any grapic artists that work with retro games here?

[second exodous]

So I have asked this on the official GIMP and Linux Mint forums with no luck so I thought I'd try here. Basically I want to take a picture of a game running in an emulator at 1x resolution, so super tiny, and scale it up and take elements out of it to use as themes for my desktop and on twitch. The problem is no matter what program I import it into when I scale it up and then export it as either a bmp, png, or jpeg it gets all fuzzy.

Basically I want it to scale up and be have the pixels as sharp as they were originally so I can cut stuff out and re-use elements. I use Linux but if you're a Windows or Mac user if you describe the process I can probably figure it out with the equivalent programs on Linux.

This reminds me of high school and jr. high, I'd do this stuff but I think the thing was is the resolution of the PCs at the time were pretty much the same as what the 8 and 16 bit consoles were at the time so no scaling needed.

 

[TeDaDeS]

So, if I understand correctly, you want the pixels to stay pixels but just bigger?

I think you can use the original paint from win7, select the image and resize to 100%+ (like 200%).
What I remember it will not create fuzzy interpolated pixels.

 

[second exodous]

So, if I understand correctly, you want the pixels to stay pixels but just bigger?

I think you can use the original paint from win7, select the image and resize to 100%+ (like 200%).
What I remember it will not create fuzzy interpolated pixels.

So just a really basic program? Hmm, I'll look and see what I can find. . .

 

[TeDaDeS]

I don't have it available at the moment, I tried Pinta under linux but it creates the fuzzy pixels.
If I remember correctly Paint didn't do this, I used Gimp/Photoshop to scale my photos.

 

[second exodous]

I don't have it available at the moment, I tried Pinta under linux but it creates the fuzzy pixels.
If I remember correctly Paint didn't do this, I used Gimp/Photoshop to scale my photos.

Yeah, when I scaled it in GIMP it seemed to work but when I went to export it no matter how I exported it would make it fuzzy. I want to scale it in GIMP and then export it to Inkscape to pull out the elements I want.

So, the first thing I want to do take the borders of a chat box and make those windows boarders for my xfce desktop and use the same graphics for boarders in my twitch steam/longplays on youtube. If that makes any sense.

 

[levi]

I've just tried scaling an image in GIMP, and if I set the scale type to 'None' rather than the default 'cubic' and blew it up to 800% then it seems to work. I've saved that out and viewed it in an external program and it still looks pixellated, which I assume is what you want.

Edit: To be clear, I had to export is as jpg from GIMP. Using the save as dialogue always results in a gimp format which retains all the history and layers and things. I actually used a plugin called saver which in practice did the export for me in reality, but doing an export should be identical.

 

[Ian J]

Paint Shop Pro allows this I use v9, upload the images somewhere and I'll do it for you.

 

[second exodous]

I think probably the easiest way is scale it up to 720p height in Gimp, zoom in one to one, take a picture of THAT and then import it. Kinda a weird way to do it but I think that is the only way I can figure out. I haven't messed with graphics programs since High School so this is all coming back to me very slowly.

 

[elvissteinjr]

Inkscape is still a vector graphics program. You can probably get the job done with it, but it's not ideal.
Heck, you can set the scaling mode in Inkscape to nearest neighbor as well if you want to get your pixels there. Pre-scaling to get around a smooth scaling filter would be unnecessary then.

Also, for the love of the pixels, please scale to whole multiples, not just blindly to 720p... and don't export pixelart as jpeg. Use a lossless format like png.

 

[second exodous]

Also, for the love of the pixels, please scale to whole multiples, not just blindly to 720p... and don't export pixelart as jpeg. Use a lossless format like png.

I thought this, scaling in multiples, but I never scale the emulators that way, I just drag the window until it is the size I want

Also, I'm doing this for my own use, if I was uploading it for others to use I'd make it more accurate.

 

[ible]

I've just tried scaling an image in GIMP, and if I set the scale type to 'None' rather than the default 'cubic' and blew it up to 800% then it seems to work.

this is how i'd do it...

 

[second exodous]

I've just tried scaling an image in GIMP, and if I set the scale type to 'None' rather than the default 'cubic' and blew it up to 800% then it seems to work. I've saved that out and viewed it in an external program and it still looks pixellated, which I assume is what you want.

Edit: To be clear, I had to export is as jpg from GIMP. Using the save as dialogue always results in a gimp format which retains all the history and layers and things. I actually used a plugin called saver which in practice did the export for me in reality, but doing an export should be identical.

Somehow I missed your post. I just scaled it in Gimp and am making the windows in Gimp. I'll export them in a new Gimp Window when done and then export them. I'll need to export them though.

 

[Binky]

Edit: To be clear, I had to export is as jpg from GIMP. Using the save as dialogue always results in a gimp format which retains all the history and layers and things.

Why jpeg? Wouldn't a lossless compression scheme be more appropriate for pixel art?

 

[levi]

Mainly force of habit. Also, it was only a test piece, so jpeg was probably the smallest way of saving it (it was also fairly large as it came from a photo; I'd cropped out the usb port from the back of the pyra prototype photo). But yeah, if you're doing it for real then something lossless should be more optimal.

 

[FBnil]

You can also resize from the commandline using ImageMagick

For example, for just bigger pixels:
convert storm.gif -scale 300% storm_scaled.gif

Also take a look to the Magnify option

For more options, like the 2x super sai, see here

 

[Yori]

You can give paint.net a try https://www.getpaint.net/ and scale it with the "pixelated selection quality"

I know its 'windows only' but I had it running in wine once on my Ubuntu setup

Hopefully this helps out, if not I hope it at least worth a try.

 

[HelenF]

KolourPaint is a bit like paint.net (actually more like the old MS Paints). But should be possible to do this in Gimp.

 

[Autian]

I find @levi's solution to be the best.
But if you want to save the picture as png/gif/etc. you have to right click the edit area and select "File" -> "Export As..." (not "Save as..." - for some reason they splitted that up to two different actions).
By default, the file type is determined by the extension. You can also define the type explicitely by expanding the spoiler on the bottom edge of the "Export Image..." window.

 

[flowen8]

If you decide to use paint.net to resize it, make sure that you select nearest neighbor.

 

[HelenF]

^ Pretty much any image editor will have similar options, though they can have many different names. The paint.net one is funny because Best Quality isn't really the best quality for pixel art.