What are the best apps for creating artwork for GameSalad?

3

Options
Considered

5

User
Recs.

Aug 27, 2017

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

3 Options Considered

Best apps for creating artwork for GameSalad	Price	Platforms	Tethered capture
-- Pixelmator	-	OSX	No
-- Photoshop	$9.99/mo	Windows, macOS	via Bridge
-- Inkscape	-	Windows, Mac, Unix	Windows, Mac, Unix

Pixelmator

Top Pro

Beautiful, easy to use UI

Pixelmator's interface is pleasant to look at, easy to use and specifically optimized for OS X users, making it very intuitive for long-time Mac users. See More

Specs

Tethered capture:No

Top Pro

Sync works flawlessly using iCloud

You can work across macOS and iOS devices seamlessly. See More

Top Pro

Inexpensive

Pixelmator costs just $30 on the App Store. Additionally, it often comes bundled with other software that you might also find useful bringing the price down. See More

Top Pro

Feature rich

Not only does Piexelmator provide easy to use tools that you should expect in any image editor, it also has rare tools such as layer styles, liquify tools and OS X optimized, fast image manipulation engine among others. See More

Top Pro

Clean Interface

Easy to hide/show the few boxes used in the interface like Effects, Styles, Shapes, Colors, etc. See More

Top Pro

Loads quickly

Gives you common image editing capabilities almost instantly. See More

Top Pro

Powerful effects

Dozens of visual effects available, easily discovered from the visual Effects Browser, broken into categories. Effects have interactive dialogs and live preview. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Pixelmator's image engine is specifically optimized for use with Macs, providing one the best performance results available on OS X. See More

Top Pro

Supports layer styles

Layer styles allow non-destructively applying effects to a layer. See More

Top Pro

Multiple-display support

Pixelmator can be used across any number of monitors. See More

Photoshop

Top Pro

Packs a staggering amount of functionality

Photoshop is the most fully featured image editing software available today allowing you to perform highly advanced image manipulation. It has tools for RAW image adjustments, lens correction, retouching, image stitching, HDR, fixing framing. It supports most professional color modes and file formats. It includes extensive lists of filters, styles, effects, fonts as well as tools for painting, sketching and typography work. It understands both raster and vector graphics. It even includes tools for video editing, working with 3D objects and support for 3D printing. See More

Top Con

Asset management capabilities are lacking

In Photoshop asset management is done through a separate program called Bridge. As Bridge is supposed to be a file management tool for not just Photoshop's files, but for files generated by all of Adobe's applications it covers a breadth of capabilities, but not depth. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

Tethered capture:via Bridge

Top Pro

A cheaper, standalone version called Photoshop Elements is available

A stripped down version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Elements can be bought as a standalone application for $100. See More

Top Con

Expensive

The standalone version of Photoshop costs $19.99/month, though it can be leased as part of the Creative Cloud Photography bundle that includes Lightroom for $9.99/month. See More

Top Pro

Includes powerful content-aware tools

Photoshop includes content-aware tools such as content-aware fill that can fill in a select area based on what surrounds it. See More

Top Con

Latest versions of Photoshop are subscription-only

While you can still buy CS6 from 2012 without needing a subscription by contacting Adobe support or the cut-down Photoshop Elements, any full-version version of Photoshop past CS6 requires a subscription. See More

Top Pro

Creative Cloud Photography subscription includes Lightroom

Lightroom is another image editing software from Adobe that's specifically designed for photo editing and managing of large quantities of digital images. See More

Top Con

Batch editing of images is not straightforward

Photoshop is designed to work extensively on one image at a time and while batch editing support exists, it's not that intuitive to use. See More

Top Pro

Industry standard

Photoshop is used by professionals everywhere in a wide variety of fields including photography, graphic design and digital art. It is the de facto standard for image manipulation. If you've seen a magazine ad featuring a model, you've probably seen the effects of Photoshop. You won't be alone when using Photoshop. See More

Top Con

Learning it can take some time

While you can relatively quickly learn how to perform a few basic image editing tasks, understanding Photoshop's ins and outs can be difficult. It's partially due to the sheer amount of functionality that Photoshop packs (and understanding that some of the advanced functionality can take a while to understand on its own), and partially due to it being aimed at professionals with little hand-holding for novice users. See More

Top Pro

Mobile companion apps available

There's a free mobile app available for iOS, Android & Windows Phone. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with Creative Cloud

You can save all projects directly to the Creative Cloud allowing you to access them from any device and with any relevant Adobe software. See More

Top Pro

Trove of plugins that extend functionality are available

A wide variety of plugins that add new effects, improve existing functionality and simplify workflow are available. See More

Top Pro

Lots of tutorials

There's a huge number of both free and paid tutorials available online. Websites like Lynda.com offer premium high-quality, in-depth tutorials, but there are plenty of free alternatives to be found on YouTube, blogs and specialized sites on the Internet. See More

Inkscape

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Free and open source

Inkscape is GPL-licensed and maintains public repositories. See More

Top Con

Very slow startup on some systems

Depending on factors like how many fonts you have installed, Inkscape can take upwards of 30 seconds to launch. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Unix

Based On:Sodipodi

Imports:*.svg; .svgz; .ai; .pdf; .cdr; .vsd; .jpeg

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Pre-built binaries are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Inkscape can be built from source on additional platforms. See More

Top Con

No Gradient Mesh tool

Gradient Mesh or a comparable tool is not available in Inkscape. See More

Top Pro

Opens lots of file types

Inkscape supports many common formats for import (including SVG, Photoshop and Illustrator) and its plugin architecture allows more to be added. See More

Top Pro

It's really easy and fun

Edit and create vector graphics with Inkscape. See More

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