SOFTWARE ARCHIVE / 1996
GrafX2
Retro Design and CreativityGrafX2, a 256-color paint program for MS-DOS: palettes, brushes and zoom. Its history, the manual and a download of the 1999 beta 96.5 release.
A window into the history of our computers.
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- Platform
- MS-DOS
- Year
- 1996
- Category
- Retro Design and Creativity
- Developer
- Sunset Design
- Language
- Multi (other languages)
Inside GrafX2
GrafX2 lets you draw with a palette of up to 256 colors, cut out part of the image to use as a brush and work in a magnified view while keeping a reference to the whole. Its interface gathers the tools around the canvas: the mouse changes function depending on the button used, and the palette is part of the drawing work.
Guillaume Dorme and Karl Maritaud, of Sunset Design, developed the program for DOS. The history file included in the distribution places the public presentation of GrafX 2.00 beta 90% at the Wired meeting of 1996. This page records that origin; the selected download is later: GrafX 2.00 beta 96.5%, released on December 23, 1999.
What the 1999 download includes
The file gfx2b965.zip keeps GFX2.EXE, the configurator, and configuration and documentation files in English and French. DOC_ENG.TXT explains the tools and the requirements; HISTORY.TXT lets you follow the changes between versions. The formats cited in the distribution include GIF, LBM, BMP, PCX and PKM.
This edition runs on DOS. The project later continued with other versions and systems, but its current features should not be assumed to be in the 1999 package.
Palettes, brushes and two work pages
The palette control is used to change the colors of an indexed image. Brushes can be taken from a selection of the drawing itself, and the auxiliary page lets you keep another piece of work or a copy to operate on. These are useful tools for preparing low-resolution graphics, where the choice of each color has a visible effect.
The archive screenshot in the gallery shows GrafX2 beta 98.0%. It helps you recognize the interface, although it is not a screenshot of the beta 96.5 offered as the download. The cover is an editorial composition by CLABA, identified as such in the attachment.
A look at the program
See screenshots ↗
That's how it looked.
Full screenshots of the program. Tap to enlarge and move from one to the next.
Back to the desktop.
01Setting up the DOS edition+
Extract the whole ZIP into a folder and keep GFX2.DAT next to GFX2.EXE and the configuration files. Read README!.1ST before choosing a video mode. The program includes GFXCFG.EXE and TESTVESA.EXE; the documentation explains the differences between the available modes and what each one needs.
To work from a current computer, use a DOS environment suited to this edition. The download is not a native installer for modern Windows.
02Making a drawing with few colors+
Start with a small canvas and a limited palette. Select the foreground color and try the pencil in the magnified view. Then check how the drawing looks at its normal size: a line that looks clean at high zoom can turn out too thick in the whole.
The manual distinguishes the foreground and background colors according to the mouse button. Try both on a copy before applying a tool to the drawing you want to keep.
03Saving and keeping the colors+
Use the Save picture control and choose a format supported by the application you will continue the work in. Save a copy before changing the palette or doing conversions. If the destination has color restrictions, check the resulting file in that program.
DOC_ENG.TXT describes the palette menu and the saving options; TECH_ENG.TXT documents the PKM format for anyone who needs to study its structure.
Downloads and resources
Sources and documentation3
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