Hi, I'm using paint and i've been drawing some sprites and things ill need in this game I'm trying to make. So I save the file, then open it, and there are all these random mixed up pixels of weird colors all over my drawing. How do I fix this because it makes the drawing look weird and it's very hard to fix and I'm worried I didnt remove all the excess colors. Its also very time consuming... And also, I'm using Allegro, what file type am I supposed to save my images as? [Edited by - Chocolate on June 29, 2009 9:24:38 AM]

Visual Arts is probably a better place than Game Design for this question, so I'll move this there.

Don't save images as jpeg use a format that employs lossless data compression like png, bmp or tga.
I think Allegro can load bmp, lbm, pcx, and tga files.

I would go with png: files are compressed, support alpha channel and it is one of the most supported formats (java, .net and most libraries support it natively)...

If you're using ms paint, just save it as a bmp. Use the bmp file to work from and make changes. When you're happy with all of your changes, save it as a gif or png. You might want to choose a different program to save the final images with, as ms paint isn't really that great at saving/compressing various file formats. (except bmp)

Using a bmp as your work file is sort of like using a psd as your photoshop work file. You aren't going to end up saving your final image as a bmp or a psd file... you will end up saving it in a png, jpg, gif, or whatever format works best for your situation. But while you're working with the image, you want to have a "work only" version.

I hope this makes sense, good luck. :)

Do yourself a favor and upgrade to Paint.NET. It's free, it has a lot of features, it supports layers, it's not as complicated as Photoshop or the GIMP, and it has seamless support for tablet input under Windows Vista and newer. (It supports tablet input under XP Tablet Edition only.)

png file format is deff the way to go, lossless image compression with an alpha channel and pretty darn well standard in all applications.

It's a great format

PNG is a good final output format. Given the right parameters, JPEG can be a great final output format, too. But for intermediate work, none of them is quite right. (As a quick aside, Adobe Fireworks will use gaps in the PNG specification to create a file with layers, vector and raster data and more that renders as a normal PNG in other software.)

The advantage to embracing a true image manipulation tool like Paint.NET (.pdn), the GIMP (.xcf) and Photoshop (.psd) is precisely that you can continue to edit and tweak your images while generating output versions in any simple image format. Say you're creating a tile for a game and you've broken the foreground and background data into different layers. You create the PNG and put it in your game, but then decide you want to change the color of the foreground elements. With just the PNG, you may be facing a very time-consuming task where you try to match and shift hues, especially if your image contains lighting effects. With an image manipulation format, you simply modify the layer in question and re-generate the output file.

Good luck!

Call me crazy, but I like MS Paint! I also use PSP and Paint.NET for more complex tasks such as coloring/shading and alpha channels. But when it comes too simple pixel-art Paint is underestimated. It loads in 1 second, putting lines, cutting/pasting and drawing single pixels feels right, and no tons of options to get lost.