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[Indiana-Jonas]

I've been using a software I found on the App store called "Pixen". It's been working out okay but it is very buggy/glitchy and it's clumsy as hell. A lot of important features is missing such as color adjustment options and hex codes etc.
I'm looking for something more user friendly.

Photoshop would be perfect but it's expensive.
I'd appreciate some tips and I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong thread.

[BBreakfast]

I believe GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/) shows the HEX codes when you use the color picker tool and it is a free program. Another great pixel art program I use is PyxelEdit (http://pyxeledit.com/) and you can get it for really cheap.

[jay43k]

I believe GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/) shows the HEX codes when you use the color picker tool and it is a free program. Another great pixel art program I use is PyxelEdit (http://pyxeledit.com/) and you can get it for really cheap.

this pretty much.

Get GIMP if you want a photoshop-like.  Get Pyxel Edit if you want a dedicated and amazing pixel art tool.  It has stuff such as really easy tile based editing, a cool tile based animation system, you can pick a color and get shading, list goes on really.

[superflat]

PXL by PRDXCL

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40368.0

[austinbreed]

You can get a copy of Photoshop CS2 from Adobe. I've never used it, but it should be able to do everything you'd like. If you're a student, the Creative Cloud is can be affordable, however there may be better choices if you're not going to use PS for everything.

[oahda]

I used to use GIMP too.

[Indiana-Jonas]

Thank you all for the tips!
I looked through all the suggestions but I'm not quite pleased yet so I will keep looking for something I find comfortable.

I really appreciate the help! <3

[SpeakUpGames]

It may be a little simple for what you're looking for, but I use piskel for simple stuff

[Mixer]

I vote pyxel edit. I have been using it and it has served me well.

There are certain things I don't like, but they are so minimal it has worked virtually flawlessly.
It does cost money, but it's cheap for what you get, and look prettier than gimp

[xchen]

For pixel art there is Aseprite

http://www.aseprite.org

free trial/$10 to buy - it's worth it, he regularly updates the software and sends out new version notifications

[Kritta]

For pixel art there is Asperity

http://www.aseprite.org

free trial/$10 to buy - it's worth it, he regularly updates the software and sends out new version notifications

IIRC you can still get the older versions for free on their website.
I've used Aseprite before, it's pretty good actually. I'd highly recommend it to anybody wanting an easy way to make pixel-art on OS X or GNU/Linux. You have to build it manually on GNU/Linux for it to work properly though, otherwise the window can't be resized. If you don't want to build it manually then run the windows version with Wine. It works perfectly.

I've used the GIMP before, but I find the UI to be very confusing and sometimes annoying to use. The default keyboard shortcuts aren't very useful either.

Paint.NET is my favorite image editor for doing spriting/pixel-art. While I prefer Photoshop for more advanced stuff, Paint.NET creates a perfect middle ground between simplicity and complexity for image editing. The default keyboard shortcuts are great and I've become pretty speedy with it over the years. The only disadvantage obviously is that it's Windows only. The only alternative I know of is GIMP if you want something that actually works.

Pinta is kinda good, but it's insanely buggy. It's basically an incomplete clone of Paint.NET which lacks some of its best features and crashes a lot. I've only used this on GNU/Linux though, I haven't tested it on OS X or Windows (granted if you're on Windows you'd just use Paint.NET anyway). While the functionality is exactly the same as Paint.NET, its buggy-ness is what makes it such an awful editor.

Photoshop is kinda self-explanatory. It's good for basically everything but a bit overkill when doing basic pixel-art to be perfectly honest. I've had people tell me stuff like GIMP and Paint.NET aren't 'real' image editors but the reality is that it just depends on the type of game you're making. I've found that in Ludum Dare events Paint.NET and Aseprite are what get the job done best for me, though I stick with Photoshop and Illustrator if the game I'm working on doesn't use pixel-art. So yeah, it's good provided the games you're making require it for the art style.

I also thought about making my own image editor some time. Just an idea though.

[kriyo_funions]

grafx2 brah