mtPixy is an image editing program for pixel art, palettes, and photos. It is designed for use on a traditional desktop PC using a keyboard and a mouse.
When you run mtPixy for the first time you should take the time to customize the preferences to suit your own way of working. Once you do this the preferences are stored in you home directory, such as /home/mark/.config/mtpixy-qt5/prefs.txt
Whenever you change the size and position of the main window these details are recalled for next time you use them. These preferences are usually stored in the file ~/.config/mtpixy-qt5/prefs.txt - However this can be changed on startup by using:
mtpixy-qt5 -prefs ~/.config/mtpixy/prefs_profile_A.txt
This is a useful way of having different profiles for different jobs, such as using a different font or having different recently used files in the File menu.
The menu bar contains many useful functions, with some having keyboard shortcuts next to them to speed up usage.
Different tools can be selected on the first half of the toolbar.
The second half of the toolbar contains brush information such as colour, shape, pattern and settings. Click on the button to edit the colour, shape, pattern or settings.
The tool bar can be detached from the main window and floated if the user prefers it. It can also be docked at the top, the bottom or either side of the main window.
Left click on one of the colours to change the brush colour A. Right click to change colour B. Doing this will change the brush preview on the toolbar. Holding the CTRL key and left clicking will protect this colour on the canvas from being over-painted. An 'X' is used at the centre of the swatch to display this.
To move a colour from one index to another, hold the shift key, then click and drag the colour around.
The palette can be detached from the main window and floated if the user prefers it. It can also be docked at the top, the bottom or either side of the main window.
Palette keyboard shortcuts are as follows:
[ | Change colour A to one less than the current. |
] | Change colour A to one more than the current. |
Ctrl + [ | Change colour B to one less than the current. |
Ctrl + ] | Change colour B to one more than the current. |
The status bar is useful for communicating several pieces of information:
Left click the mouse over the main canvas to commit the brush action.
To select a colour from the canvas hold the Ctrl key and left or right click for colour A or B.
Canvas keyboard shortcuts are as follows:
Arrows | Move the mouse cursor by one pixel. |
Shift + Arrows | Move the mouse cursor by more than one pixel. The setting is stored in the preferences as cursor.nudge.pixels |
In order to place an image on the clipboard you must:
If you wish to keep several images handy for later use you can use Ctrl+F1 (to F12) to save this clipboard to a temporary file, and then Shift+F1 (to F12) to retrieve it. This file is typically stored here:
~/.cache/libmtpixy/
This system also allows you to share clipboards between different mtPixy instances as they will all access the same temporary files.
You cannot place an indexed clipboard image onto an RGB canvas or vice versa.