textual-paint/README.md

textual-paint
=============

What if MS Paint isn't retro enough?
You need Paint in your terminal.

This is a TUI (Text User Interface) image editor, inspired by MS Paint, and built with [Textual](https://textual.textualize.io/).


## Development

Install Textual and Stransi:
```bash
pip install "textual[dev]" "stransi"
```

Run supporting live-reloading CSS:
```bash
textual run --dev paint.py
```

Or run normally:
```bash
python paint.py
```


## License

[MIT](LICENSE.txt)


## Unicode Symbols and Emojis for Paint Tools

The first thing I did in this project was to collect possible characters to represent all the tool icons in MS Paint, to test feasibility.
In other words, I wanted to gauge how good of a recreation it would be possible to achieve, starting from looks.
Unfortunately, I haven't run into any significant roadblocks, so I'm apparently recreating MS Paint. [Again.](https://jspaint.app)

These are the symbols I've found so far:

- Free-Form Select:  ✂️📐🆓🕸✨⚝🫥🇫/🇸◌
- Rectangular Select: ⬚▧🔲
- Eraser/Color Eraser: 🧼🧽🧹🚫👋🗑️
- Fill With Color: 🌊💦💧🌈🎉🎊🪣🫗
- Pick Color: 🎨💉💅💧📌📍⤤𝀃🝯🍶
- Magnifier: 🔍🔎👀🔬🔭🧐🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️
- Pencil: ✏️✎✍️🖎🖊️🖋️✒️🖆📝🖍️
- Brush: 🖌️🖌👨‍🎨🧑‍🎨💅
- Airbrush: 💨ᖜ╔🧴🥤🫠
- Text: 🆎📝📄📃🔤📜AＡ
- Line: 📏📉📈⟍𝈏╲⧹\⧵∖
- Curve: ↪️🪝🌙〰️◡◠~∼≈∽∿〜〰﹋﹏≈≋～⁓
- Rectangle: ▭▬▮▯🟥🟧🟨🟩🟦🟪🟫⬛⬜◼️◻️◾◽▪️▫️
- Polygon: ▙𝗟𝙇﹄』⬣⬟🔶🔷🔸🔹🔺🔻△▲
- Ellipse: ⬭⭕🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣🟤⚫⚪🫧
- Rounded Rectangle: ▢⬜⬛

The default symbols used may not be the best on your particular system, so I may add some kind of configuration for this in the future.

### Cursor

A crosshair cursor could use one of `+✜✛✚╋╬`, but whilst that imitates the look, it might be better to show the pixel under the cursor, i.e. character cell, surrounded by dashes, like this:

```
 ╻
╺█╸
 ╹
```

## See Also

- [JavE](http://jave.de/), an advanced Java-based ASCII art editor
- [Playscii](http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/), a beautiful ASCII/ANSI art editor
- [cmdpxl](https://github.com/knosmos/cmdpxl), a pixel art editor for the terminal using the keyboard
- [pypixelart](https://github.com/douglascdev/pypixelart), a pixel art editor using vim-like keybindings, inspired by cmdpxl but not terminal-based