Pixia is a comprehensive digital painting program developed and published by Isao Maruoka. Maruoka allows users to create digital works of art. The program offers various functions for editing images. By right-clicking on the canvas, the color of the selected area can be captured. On the other hand, if you hold down the Shift key and drag the mouse, the area is captured as an image. When drawing freehand, pressing the Shift key draws only the first stroke and suppresses mouse dragging. After selecting an area, right-clicking a submenu appears. Colors can be selected or registered using the palette. Both single colors and bitmaps can be used. There are two types of gradients: rectangular and linear. In the case of linear gradients, dragging from the “>” button to the right adds a color, while dragging a color pointer towards the “>” button removes a color.

In the palette, a figure can be added by clicking the mouse and removed by right-clicking. Shapes can be changed by dragging the lines directly in the palette, while right-clicking draws the lines in the direction of the mouse pointer. Holding down the Ctrl key and dragging with the mouse can move the top layer, while holding down Ctrl and Shift moves the current layer. When inserting a new layer, the Tone Filter and Transparency Control settings are taken into account. The Tone Filter is also taken into account when filling in color. A layer consists of three layers: image, mask and transparency. When copying a layer, all three layers are copied to the clipboard. When pasting, the transparency and selection of the original image are taken into account. When pasting into the mask or transparency, only the contrast of the image is pasted. When an existing layer is copied to a new layer, all three layers are retained. Registering bitmaps in the palette creates duplicates of the original images in the “Palette” folder. If many large images are registered in the palette, this can consume a lot of storage space.

Alternatives to Pixia: With the freeware StudioLine PhotoBasic you can manage and optimize your digital photos. The software offers you all the necessary functions. Fotor is a free image editor that offers professional functions, filters and effects in addition to the usual functions. The user-friendly software focuses on one-click filters that can be used to automatically improve images, leading to quick results. The free image editing software DigiFoto provides you with all the basic functions for editing and optimizing digital photos. The software scores with a wide range of useful tools and features.