Twisted Brush
(Version 3.5 : 1792kb)
Type: Paint program with some image processing features too.
Company: Pixarra Company
Released as freeware 06-10-03
Freeware (closed source, proprietary, probably not redistributable, but
otherwise perfect freeware, no time limit, no limitation in functions,
no ads. Free to use for anybody.
http://www.pixarra.com/download.html
(The freeware version is below the commercial version.)
System Requirements:
Windows 95/98/me/2000/NT/XP
20mb disk space
256mb ram
16, 24, or 32 bit display mode. Will not run in 256 color modes
Languages: English
Description: Twisted Brush is a very good paint program. The freeware
version has no limitations or time limits, it is a fully enabled
earlier version of the commercial program.
New program to Pricelessware.
Requires installation, but after being installed it runs from its own
folder irrespective of changing operating systems or changes in
registry.
I installed it and a few weeks later my operating system crashed. I
installed win 2000 pro again, and this program ran without any
complaints in the new operating system. So it is of the same type as
Opera browser and Pixia, it runs happily from its own folder in any
environment after the initial installation.
It is not dependent on registry entries, so it would probably run from
an usb-memory too.
.........
As this is the discussion thread, let me add that I am very impressed
by the smoothness of the brushes, how the paint is laid on when you
move a brush. One of the best paint programs in that respect I have
ever tried. And that is the most important function in a paint program.
The user interface is the best I have ever seen in a paint program, it
is very easy to understand and control the brush size, density,
luminence and opacity, nice big sliders which are easy to move with the
mouse.
The color is also very easy to change with big sliders for small
changes in the nuance, one slider for each of the three colors red,
blue and green, plus a color selector for big changes, like from red to
blue.
The settings for brush type and subsettings for brushes are easily
available under the canvas settings. The author of this program has
really thought a lot about the user interface and has created the best
user interface I have seen in a paint program.
Something I often miss in other paint programs is the ability to
quickly save a brush with all its characteristics, like size, type and
color. That is very easy to do in Twisted Brush.
5*12 saved brushes are immediately available, and you can easily switch
between 8 such sets of 60 saved brushes because the save box has 8 tabs
you can click on to switch to another set of 5*12 brushes.
The first 7 sets of saved brushes are already preset to a multitude of
different brushes of many different types, the number 8 tab has 60
empty unset brush places.
You can rightclick on a saved brush mark to set the color to the one
you are using.
In the filter menu it has image processing filters and adjustments
which is similar in function and numbers to the image processing
functions in Photofiltre.
The most amazing and mindblowing feature of this program is when you
start to explore the brush effects panel. Last icon in the toolbar,
toggle effects panel off or on.
You can apply one or more effects to a brush, in addition to the basic
settings, and it can produce the most strange and fantastic effects.
If you turn on too many effects on the same brush it will become slow,
but it also starts behaving like a psychedelic screensaver all on its
own. It is simply mindblowing how many different effects and
combinations of effects that can be applied to a brush.
I know enough about math to understand that all these possibilities
multiplied with each other make the possible variations of brush
effects into a huge number, like a billion different combinations or
more.
You can save the painting in bmp, jpg, and png formats.
You can import pictures in TIF, TGA, BMP, JPEG, PNG formats.
The program has many more features like scripting, saving art sets,
masks, having several paintings open simultaneously organized in pages
and books, different canvases.
Zooming in and out is easy with menu selections and keyboard shortcuts.
The right mouse button can be used for different functions, for example
as color picker.
....
about the GIF format:
Twisted Brush (freeware) cannot import or write to gif format, probably
because gif is a format which you have to pay licences to use. I just
checked with Pixia (freeware), it has even more import formats but not
gif.
I checked in Paintshop pro 7 (payware), and it can import gif files. So
Psp has probably paid for using gif files.
I checked Artweaver (newly updated freeware), and it can open gif
files.
Maybe the status of gif files have changed lately, so older freeware
programs have not used it but newer paint programs have started using
the gif format.
Yes, a quick search confirms my hunch, from a web page:
"1. We were able to search the patent databases of the USA, Canada,
Japan, and the European Union. The Unisys patent expired on 20 June
2003 in the USA, in Europe it expired on 18 June 2004, in Japan the
patent expired on 20 June 2004 and in Canada it expired on 7 July 2004.
The U.S. IBM patent expired 11 August 2006, The Software Freedom Law
Center says that after 1 October 2006, there will be no significant
patent claims interfering with employment of the GIF format."
--
Roger J.
