MyPaint and PyGI

Got several emails from mypaint users who want to know the progress of windows version. I have tidying up what I left last weekend. I hope you could participate as I lack of time nowadays.

Several days ago a user of gramps (gramps-project.org) put his interest on my PyGI build which motivated me to look at it again after I failed to get it work with mypaint. Last sunday I put new PyGI build which better than previous one (read the comments here), in short it's "somewhat" working but I still find many non-crashing errors and warnings when run Gramps 4.0a3 though. Later I tried it on mypaint and it started! but gave me loads of fatal error messages and crashes. This make me unmotivated again :(

The important thing with GTK 3.6.4 is pressure-sensitive tablet apparently working.

Downloads:
So what we got here?
GTK 3.14.8 = OK
GTK 3.10.x - 3.14.7 = completely broken (no pressure, no lag, just mouse-like) errr
GTK 3.8.x = laggy and imprecise  please compare with gtk 3.6?
GTK 3.6.x = somewhat OK
Reported working tablets = Mostly wacom tablets, Samsung ATIV SmartPC SPen, P-Active XPC-1910A LCD Tablet, Genius Mousepen, Monoprice (need latest driver, see Aroidzap's comment), LE1700 Motion Tablet
Known incompatible = Genius G-Pen

For those who want to use UC-Logic drivers see https://gna.org/bugs/?21864

mypaint-1.1.1a.7z (GTK 3.14.9 + Anti-Art's experimental brush settings + brushpack , March 7, 2015)
mypaint-1.1.1a-debug_win32.7z  (GTK 3.14.8 debug, February 11, 2015)
mypaint-1.1.0+git-823aa882.7z (GTK 3.8.9, October 8, 2014)
mypaint-1.1.0+git-e06d414_rev2.7z (GTK 3.8.9, March 25, 2014)
mypaint-1.1.0+git-e06d414.7z (GTK 3.8.9, March 21, 2014)
mypaint.exe (GTK 3.6.4, December 14, 2013) Single exe, Can be manually associated wih ora, Missing icon fxed, Try tahoma font (unicode compatibility?), Enable lot more file formats to import (gdk-pixbuf testing)
mypaint-171113_3.7z (GTK 3.6.4, December 05, 2013) Try to optimize more
mypaint-171113_2.7z (GTK 3.10.4, November 17, 2013) Confirm that tablet doesn't work?
mypaint-171113.7z (GTK 3.8.6, November 17, 2013) MRU and lag workaround
mypaint-161113.7z (GTK 3.8.6, November 16, 2013)
mypaint-121013.7z (GTK 3.6.4, October 12, 2013)
mypaint_270113git_dbg_rev2.7z (old)

Please give comments at http://forum.intilinux.com/mypaint-general-discussion/mypaint-1-1-for-windows/

Some info that might be useful when reporting bugs:

blockers:
lag+break bugreport (if you find something new please post at the bugtracker to let mypaint devs know)
zoom bug, currently unreported as this is a packaging issue (will be irrelevant)

specs:
mypaint 1.1.0+git
python 2.7.5
pygtk 2.24.0
pygobject 2.28.6
pycairo 1.10.0
psyco 2.0
numpy 1.8.0rc2
pygi/pygobject 3.4.2
gobject introspection 1.34.2
gtk+ 2.24.14
gtk+ 3.6.4
atk 2.6.0
cairo 1.12.10
pango 1.32.6
glib 2.38.1
gdk-pixbuf 2.26.4

Inside the 7zip file contains:
mypaint_gtk2.bat -> run mypaint in GTK2/PyGTK mode
mypaint_gtk2_debug.bat -> run mypaint in GTK2/PyGTK mode under GDB session
mypaint_gtk3.bat -> run mypaint in GTK3/PyGI mode
mypaint_gtk3_debug.bat -> run mypaint in GTK3/PyGI mode  under GDB session

How to help?
- Report your tablet name, pressure sensitivity status, not just "it works" or "it doesn't work" or "it slow". Read comments below here, someone may give direction which driver to download.
- If you're user who use both Linux and Windows, try GTK2 and GTK3 and tells mypaint's devs if you spot a misbehaving of Windows' version.
- Tell mypaint's devs your suggestion to make Windows' version better.

Enjoy and Thank You!
More info about participating MyPaint development can be found at http://mypaint.intilinux.com/?page_id=18

A Peek at MyPaint on Windows...

Not exactly what I want to write, but I have skipped the whole month now. Last weekend I tried latest mypaint and things are out of my reach. I couldn't build it normally at all and quite lost in the scons scripts but nonetheless I managed to made it. Still http://gna.org/bugs/?19948 (I'd personally call this release blocker for Windows) is here to stay. I try read the commits which trigger this windows specific bug but it seems to be a part of larger internal changes in mypaint.

So guys it would be nice if someone step up and fix this annoying bug, your help is greatly appreciated!

mypaint

Sorry about the lame void in the shot (gosh that's XP still living?), I have made some nice technical sketches but when I hit F10 (resize to fir) all my drawing has lost in space. Current MyPaint get basic pseudo-vector ability which great for prototyping, symmetry mode and more supported colorspace. Actually there is several performance-related experimental features that can be enabled but I'm not getting there at the moment.

About the future of MyPaint well this is just an opinion, a speculation from experience. With MyPaint migrate to gtk-3 thus using pygi (and possibly python-3), It would be most tedious migration I've ever seen before for Windows platform, I meant where is PyGI now? Not even a release yet... and GTK-3? usable but not ready. Lets just hope Windows get some priority in the upstream sooner.

The dreaded question is how gtk-3 handle tablet this time? with gtk-2 there are many users complaining about their tablet which likely gdk<->wintab issue and since gtk is a gnome project (a dominant linux GUI), priority for other platform is somewhat lower than other cross-platform GUI. In the past decent releases has been fewer too. From interface point of view, last time I checked (gtk 3.4.4), it's already native themed but I can't made it work with mypaint since my experimental pygi build can't deal with gtkbuilder (maybe because I use 64bit off_t and time_t which is ABI breaking?). Anyway it still a bit early for pygi in windows...

This build here is a manual build and unlikely I will maintain that build environment anymore.

MyPaint_011212git.7z

Test and report bugs! your reports are very valuable in the release process, I believe the lag bug is workaround-able.

A call to MyPaint 64-bit users

Hi all,

This is my second attempt to port 64-bit MyPaint. There still a problem with either my tablet or 64-bit GTK that trigger startup crash (mypaint died when gdk load wintab32.dll)

Therefor I need your reports :-)
1. Whether pressure works or not, because no pressure = your tablet treated as mouse = no fun
2. Overall impression, how it compared to 32-bit version and such

Please mention your tablet name, thanks
download here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2554170/mypaint-1.0.0-win64.7z released : )

Building PyGTK for MyPaint

Continued from here. MyPaint require that PyGTK (GDK) to support numpy otherwise mypaint won't run. The debate is people said that the proper way to build python module is by using MSVC compiler since that's what python windows used with. While there is officially a library for GCC named libpythonXY.a some argue how stable a mixed build is.

IMHO gtk binding is bridging python and GTK, so what's the point using MSVC if GTK Runtime was build with GCC(MinGW)? Nah that's just my excuse because I don't know how to build it with MSVC :)

I've tested that I can use MinGW's pygtk with MSVC's pygobject with MinGW's GTK with MSVC's Python 2.6 and MinGW's MyPaint.... errr

Alright lets make it all MinGW's except for python shall we:

Building GTK2 for MyPaint Windows

This post explain more detailed Windows port of MyPaint situation. I hope my english is understandable :)


MyPaint, the package

• In windows mypaint use py2exe for bootstrapping and bundling with minor change in favor mypaint's builtin logging.
• Mypaint is currently targeted only for win32, win64 is in experimental stage
• Mypaint consist of a small portion of C++ library (which is why it need to be compiled) and the rest is in pure python. Mypaint require pygtk (with numpy support), numpy, GTK and optionally a particular version of psyco (a python accelerator)
• Mypaint is squeezed! I kind of proud with this :) I have made mypaint stay around 8MB since version 0.7. All executable is packed with UPX at brute level. Furthermore brushes preview images have been pngcrush'ed.
• Mypaint installer use NSIS with solid lzma compression. I believe this should be changed to msi

First facial sketch

Friday MyPaint Sketch #3

My first attempt to sketch a random face. Not much to show, but I started learn many tricks. Maybe next time I should depict a model photograph?

The Midship Wont Land

Friday MyPaint Sketch #2
Style? newform, proportion and composition (3 basic things I learn from my university days)
it's still far from finished as this drawing have infinite expansion possibilities.

Petals

Friday MyPaint Sketch #1

New PyGTK for MyPaint?

I've been playing PyGTK 2.22 for a while now, and I think it could make its way into next MyPaint, no more major bugs (of user interface) as far as I know and windows theme bugfixes already there. Finally a real successor of 2.16.x version after skipping 2.18 and 2.20

I'd like to see PyGTK team build this version with Numpy support though, but if not I will uploaded it here. Still waiting official binary...

edit:
Ah and the answer is absolutely NO, it turn out that pressure sensitive tablet has problem

edit:
gtk.Recentdocument assertion failed... my my I'm a bad tester am I? Folks of linux said it has something to do with specific Icon Theme! Well gtk win32 doesn't even have such! what should I do then? :)

Porting MyPaint for Mac OSX

There is an attempt to port MyPaint for MacOSX in this forum. So far binary has been succesfully made, with some (or yet to be found) problems.


Today MyPaint team is looking for a Mac developer and/or packager. If you are interested in helping them, send an email to their mailing list use IRC (#mypaint @ irc.freenode.net). 

It will be a cool port! :)

Open Source Graphics Suite Portable for Windows 32-bit

OK, I'm tired of waitin. Here is my test-release of Open Source Graphics Suite.
All applications are portable and efficiently share their dependencies.

Packages:

Portable GIMP 2.6.7 + GAP 2.6 + plug-ins + current Docs (Bitmap/Photo Editing and Creation)
Portable Inkscape 0.47 pre2 + PDF manuals (Vector SVG Creation and Editor)
Portable Dia 0.9.7 (Flowchart Creation)
Portable MyPaint 0.7.1 git 08-09-09 layermodes-branch (Digital Painting)
Portable MtPaint 3.31 (Pixel-Art Creation)
Portable RGBPaint 0.8.5 (MS Paint-like tool)
Portable Nip 2 (Hardcore Image Processing based on VIPS and ImageMagick)
Portable Phatch 0.1.5 (Batch Image Processing based on PIL)
Python 2.5.4
GTKmm 2.16 with theme selector
Bonus: GreenShot 0.7 (Powerful yet straight Screen Capture, need .NET 2.0 framework)
What's Not: Localisation, IMO that's big ass redundant!

I have tested it in Windows XP32 and Seven 32

Advantages:

- Space saving, both download size and installed size
- Unified theme for most apps, I have pack a lot of themes inside too
- Save your time for hunting GIMP's plugins and add that to GIMP's startup time :/
- Flexible and updateable, you may modify cmd files your own way and I'm not interested to make it executable loader.
- Python-Fu GIMP is enabled, unlike PortableApps (correct me if I wrong)

Usage:

- Extract file OSGS.7z using WinRAR or 7-Zip to a folder in Flashdisk or Harddisk
- Double-Click your desired command file... Enjoy
- To change Appearance and font, run gtk_theme.cmd and choose the theme you like. check "Apply for all user" and save. All apps should reflect the changes.

Download: updated here

Open Source Graphics Suite (Portable) broken

filetype: 7-zip archive
filesize: 70MB
installed size: 311MB

Troubleshoot:

- In case you want to change directory structure, like rename Userdata folder to your language. You will also need to modify the .cmd file accordingly.
- If some newer package need updated python (e.g. GIMP 2.7 need Python 2.6) add python2.6 there, update cmd file and look for my previous post about GIMP exception.
- This way hopefully I don't need to upload it again once Inkscape 0.47 and upcoming MyPaint released.

Building MyPaint in Windows

mypaint_build_env (both 32bit and 64bit) last update: June 02, 2012 [BROKEN]
older build environment  for 0.8-0.9.1 version

Consider this as very minimal (patched and precompiled) package to build MyPaint. As long as Mypaint doesn't introduce new dependencies this should be future-proof.

Extract it [somewhere], directory's name may not contain space.
Read the included README.txt

MyPaint source:
http://gitorious.org/mypaint/mypaint
June 02, 2012: temporary workaround for windows

Note: while you may try other than main branch, I do not support them. Do not report error of other than main branch.

MyPaint and Genius MousePen 8x6 Tablet

Its Cheap!! just $45 (direct). Personally this is my first time using a tablet. So everything seems just as expected too lol. A few distraction to note however:

- Surface was rather scratchy
- There were bumps in some place
- Strangely I can't draw a straight diagonal line even after using ruler. Odd

I don't know how to tell you technically but this tablet rocks!!

my very initial draw:

Don't know what this thingy called.. just doing random dabbler

MyPaint Git Build for Win32

MyPaint

I'm no longer offer git build of mypaint from 1.0 onward please use build environment below
Build instruction for Windows (there is a build environment package too)

Now Mypaint support localisation, In case you want to help us by becoming translator.

Install Instruction:
- download and install 7-zip here (you may also use recent WinRAR)
- download your preferred git version archive, and extract to somewhere e.g C:\mypaint-210908
- double click on mypaint.exe
- to hack MyPaint just extract library.zip to somewhere, edit py files (inside gui & lib folder) once you done, zip it again as library.zip

- report to http://gna.org/bugs/?group=mypaint if you found bug

note:
don't extract this archive over your stable version folder (official build).


Tablet Problem
When you want to report bug, please be specific about windows version, tablet's product name and if  possible the driver version. A screenshot will be helpful, also visit mypaint forum first just in case someone have the workaround for you.

Git build archive (dd-mm-yy) :

Since version 0.7.1:
mypaint-git-130110.7z
mypaint-git-271209X.7z
mypaint-git-111109-portnov.7z
mypaint-git-260909-portnov.7z
mypaint-git-300809.7z

Since version 0.8.0:
mypaint-git-021010.7z
mypaint-git-130710.7z
mypaint-git-260610.7z
mypaint-git-040410.7z
mypaint-git-160310-wacom.7z [w/ updated wacom driver]
mypaint-git-060210P.exe
mypaint_0.8RC.7z [SSE2 Optimized]

Since version 0.9.0:
mypaint 0.9.0rc1P.7z
mypaint-git-071210P.7z
mypaint-git-170111.7z [pen hotkey mapping]
mypaint-0.9.1P.7z [Portable with brushpack]

mypaint-git-061111.7z [revision 2]

MyPaint 1.0.0 released!
Download at http://mypaint.intilinux.com/?page_id=6 (if you can't launch mypaint at startup please re-download)



Troubleshoot:

Recover corupted ora file. This is unlikely happen in version 0.8 as the bug (also windows-specific) that cause it is already fixed. So just in case this happened to you, keep in mind that ora is a zipped container of individual PNGs (each layer) which arrangement is ruled by xml file. Thus you could examine the content of ora file (even the corrupted) using your archiver (mine is 7-zip) by just use open with.. and choose 7-zip manager. Inside, you will see "data" folder (contain individual PNGs), mimetype (a descriptor) and stack.xml (probably missing on corrupted file). You may extract your PNG files or even reproduce stack.xml and resave  it from 7-zip. FYI a normal ora also contain [Thumbnails] folder which contain a small preview file (intended to be shown in filemanager but not explorer).

MyPaint is based on python (interpreted language). If you know about it, feel free to experiment with its source code. To do this, extract library.zip (make a backup first) to somewhere, inside it you will find mypaint source code under "brushlib", "gui" and "lib" folders. Once you done editing py files, save your work and zip it again as library.zip overwrite older library.zip and try your new MyPaint.

MyPaint 0.7.1 for Windows XP 32-bit Released

MyPaint 0.7.1 screenshot

MyPaint 0.7.1 is released, visit their website mypaint.intilinux.com and download here.

Taken from their sites:

MyPaint is a fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it.
features :

• exists for several platforms
• supports pressure sensitive graphics tablets
• extensive brush creation and configuration options
• unlimited canvas (you never have to resize)
• basic layer support

MyPaint comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate real media, but the highly configurable brush engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-natural painting.

In my opinion this software has great potential to complement GIMP, an alternative to Autodesk Sketchbook though not gonna be Corel Painter-like. Especially due to its dynamics brush system that wired through fast paced keyboard shortcut.

brush settings

I currently made the official windows build, so you can visit here and get informed for next bleeding-edge unofficial build.