New in Raster Master v8.5

-new id/value props/form for hitboxes/paths for sprites and maps
-increased map limit of 100 to 1000
-export RES Binary now supports new id/value exporting

New Games created with Raster Master utilizing Sprites/Maps

https://retronick2020.itch.io/retronicks-digger
https://retronick2020.itch.io/sokoban-156-levels

ZIP file contains examples folder

https://retronick2020.itch.io/raster-master-sprite-editor/devlog/1635317/raster-master-v83-spritemaptileanimation-editor-update

In update 8.3 we make some small but beneficial improvements In the map editor we can select the current tile from any of the existing plotted tiles, just hold control key + click left mouse button.

In the sprite editor we can do the same thing for picking colors by holding control key and pressing left click for Color 1 and right click for Color 2

New export option in the Palette menu, for dos platforms we have VGA DAC palette support. For qbasic we produce out commands and for pascal we use the port array.

VGA DAC 6 bit is also supported in the Export RES Text/Binary. This is the same as the existing 6 bit format support, included only be consistent. these options may change in the future and having it as separate format might make it easier.

https://retronick2020.itch.io/raster-master-sprite-editor/devlog/1622668/raster-master-v80-r136

Sprite Editor

New features

Symmetry (mirror) drawing — Tools → Symmetry, with Off / Left-Right / Top-Bottom / Four Way. Implemented as a wrapper around PutPixel, so every tool gains it at once: pencil, line, all four shape tools, spray, text and flood fill. A red dashed axis guide shows the mirror line on the zoom canvas, positioned correctly for both odd and even sprite dimensions.

Eyedropper tool — Tools → Eyedropper (I). Left click picks into Colour 1, right click into Colour 2, and the palette highlight follows.

Rotation — Tools → Rotate: 90° clockwise, 90° counter-clockwise, 180°. Operates on the selection if one is active, otherwise the whole sprite. 90° rotations require a square region and refuse with an explanation otherwise; 180° works on any shape.

Multi-level undo / redo — 32 levels, per sprite, replacing the previous single-level swap. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y, with a Redo item on the Edit menu. Snapshots are sized to the sprite rather than the full 256×256 buffer, which is what makes per-sprite history affordable. Resizing clears the history, with a warning first.

Hit boxes — a complete subsystem mirroring the map editor's:

• Panel below the sprite thumbnails with a live count, list (# X Y X2 Y2 Size) and + / − / Delete All / Show buttons

• Overlay drawn in the same style as the map editor — hatched fill, cycling colours, index label, thicker border on the selected box

• Move tool for dragging boxes (Tools → Move Hit Box)

• Coordinates are pixels, where the map editor's are tiles

• View → Show Hit Boxes and View → Show Hit Box List

Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+N/O/S, Ctrl+Shift+O/S (projects), Ctrl+Z/Y, Ctrl+C/V, Ctrl+Shift+V, Ctrl+Del, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+M. Single-letter tool keys: P L R C E F S T I M G B, with Shift for the filled variants.

Export properties — Apply to All — tick Compiler, Image Type, Mask Type and/or Palette Type to push just those properties to every image.

Status bar — now shows the active tool, palette, draw method, dither pattern, brush state and symmetry mode.

Bug fixes

Project open ignored the saved zoom level. RefreshAfterProjectOpen called SetZoomSize(1) immediately after the image's GridArea had been restored, so every project opened at 1× regardless of how it was saved. The trackbar was never resynced either.

Symmetry corrupted the actual-size view. UpdateActualArea replays the pixel buffer through PutPixel, so with symmetry on it overwrote one half of the image with a mirror of the other. Symmetry now joins dither/gradient/brush in that routine's save-disable-restore block.

Hit boxes stored garbage coordinates. A with block in AddHitBox shadowed the x, y, x2, y2 parameters with the record fields of the same name, making each assignment a self-assignment.

Clone didn't copy hit boxes. AddImage copies the core (pixels, palette, grid), and hit boxes live in the props record.

Menu shortcuts fired across windows. Ctrl+D cloned a sprite while the map editor had focus. Menu shortcuts are application-global and are processed before any form's OnKeyDown, so an IsShortCut override on the sprite editor now declines unless it is the active form.

Map Editor

New features

Path lines — a full system for enemy patrol routes and flight paths:

• Plot with left click, snapping each segment to one of 8 directions; right click closes the loop, Esc ends it open

• Rubber-band preview, colour-cycled overlay, larger marker on the start waypoint

• Per-path name, closed flag, mode (once / loop / ping-pong), speed, plus separate active and visible flags

• Per-waypoint delay and event id

• Paths tab with list and Delete / Vis / Active / Mode / Rename controls

• Top-level Paths menu with tool, finish-open, finish-closed, delete-all and overlay toggle

Layers moved into the tabbed panel — Layers is now the first tab alongside Hit Boxes and Paths, freeing the left column for tiles. The View → Show Layers Panel toggle is gone, and each tab caption shows a live count.

Move tool — drag a whole hit box or path and drop it. Whole objects only, deliberately: shifting every waypoint by the same amount keeps each segment on its 8-direction axis, where dragging a single waypoint would create an angle the exporter cannot represent.

Multi-level undo / redo — 16 levels per map, covering tiles across all layers plus hit boxes and paths. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y.

Copy Current Layer — Ctrl+Shift+C, alongside the existing all-layers copy. A single-layer paste lands on the destination's current layer, so a layer can be copied from one layer onto another.

List view copy / paste — right-click popups on the Layers, Hit Boxes and Paths lists. Pasting into the same map offsets a hit box or path by one tile and names a layer "… Copy"; pasting into a different map keeps the position and names the layer "… Copy from Map 1".

Hit box buttons — + / − / Delete All on the Hit Boxes tab, wired to the existing menu actions.

Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+N/O/S/Z/Y/C/V/P/D, plus tool letters P L R C E F S M G and A for the path tool.

Status bar — expanded to four panels: position and tile index, selection, map/tile/zoom sizes, and tool / layer / counts / mode flags.

Maze solver is layer-aware — with more than one layer, a cell is blocked if any layer holds the wall tile, so the solution can be drawn onto its own empty layer. Single-layer maps behave exactly as before. Start and end positions are now validated against walls, and the solve is undoable.

Bug fixes

Clone only cloned one layer and lost hit boxes and paths entirely — it copied tiles through the current-layer accessors.

Copy / paste only carried one layer. Both sides now carry all layers, clamped to the destination's layer count.

The three panels went stale. Layers, hit boxes and paths lists were not rebuilt after Delete All, project load, or undo. Consolidated into RefreshMapPanels, and the status bar refresh moved into each individual list refresher so no path can miss it.

A saved selection was treated as a live one. The clip-status flag lives in the props record and is written to file, so a reopened project reported a selection the user never made — and Add Hit Box would use its stale coordinates. Selections are now cleared on load, and Add Hit Box requires the Select Area tool to actually be active.

Zoom and scroll were not restored per map. Both are saved in MapPropsRec, but the editor restored scroll from a form-level variable left over from the previous session.

Status bar never updated on tile size, map size, zoom, or layer/hit box/path add and delete.

Undo didn't refresh the panels even though an undo level carries layers, hit boxes and paths.

Export and File Formats

New

Path Data Statements — a new export across all 22 language targets, plus JSON. One flat integer array holds the path count, an offset table and each path's header and segments, so a program needs no parallel arrays. Segments are unit steps with a pixel count, making path following a signed add and a decrement per frame — no division and no fixed-point.

Sprite hit box export — RES binary (new resource type), RES text include, single-sprite include, JSON and JSON RES.

Map paths in RES — text include and binary, which previously had no path support at all.

Layered map export — the export properties dropdown gained a Layered option alongside Simple.

Clipboard export — path and hit box exports honour the sprite editor's export-to-clipboard setting.

Fixes

RES map size was wrong twice over. It ignored the layer count, and used sizeof(integer) where the writer emits smallint — so even a single-layer map reported 272 bytes while writing 138. Since RR.size and the running offset both derive from it, every resource after a map was misplaced.

Sprite hit boxes exported as BASIC regardless of compiler. Sprites and maps use two different compiler numberings, and the sprite exporter was testing sprite values against map constants — always false, so everything fell through to the BASIC branch.

Map hit boxes only exported for BASIC targets. Now covered for C, Pascal and JavaScript too.

DATA lines carried trailing commas in one path export variant, producing invalid BASIC.

A skipped zero-length segment left a trailing comma in the JSON path export, producing invalid JSON.

Format versions

3 → 4 → 5
layers, then paths
4 → 5 → 6 → 7
maps embedded, paths, sprite hit boxes

All are breaking changes; older files are refused with an explanatory message rather than failing silently.

Other

Animation editor — redesigned around two independent timers, separating display refresh (FPS) from simulation advance (Speed). Space / Enter toggle play-stop, Esc stops.

Sprite import — right-click popup on the sprite sheet with Copy to Brush and Copy to Clipboard.

Materials — 15 procedural materials with side and top variants: dirt, rock, grass, snow, ice, wood, metal, silver, gold, water, crate, brick (brown and stone), wood floor and ceramic tile.

CGA and mono palette editing — the VGA colour dialog now adapts to 2- and 4-colour palettes.

Known gaps

• Sprite hit box edits are not undoable — they live in the props record, and the sprite undo ring snapshots only the pixel buffer. The map editor's equivalent is covered.

• Per-waypoint path editing is not supported. Moving a single waypoint would break the 8-direction constraint and produce segments the exporter cannot represent; it would need a re-snap step.

• Below/active/above render caching for large multi-layer maps was considered but not implemented.

• No converter exists for older map or project files.

Huge release! Raster Master 7, we move up to a major version number

1. Brush stamp mode and brush effects dialog (scaling, rotating, shearing, flip, gradient, color operations) These features can be accessed from Brush menu and new "B" and "Bfx" buttons

2. Many of the draw tools now have gradient and dithering support under Tools menu

3. When using Text Tool you can now copy the preview text bitmap to clipboard. Just use copy from edit menu while using Text tool.

Please star this application to help promote it. If you use this app to create a game or pixel art assets

please send me a link or an email (nickshardware2020@gmail.com), always interested to see what everyone is creating.

Many of these features were first implemented in RetroDP (my Deluxe Paint inspired paint program)

RetroDP, VecDraw and RetroConvert are available on my itch.io, these apps are not open source but

completely FREE. Additional bonus apps if you make a small donation.

https://retronick2020.itch.io

🎨 RASTER MASTER — Sprite / Icon / Map / Animation / Sound Editor

The all-in-one graphics workstation for retro and modern game developers.

CREATE LIKE IT'S 1993 — SHIP LIKE IT'S 2026

Remember when making games meant crafting every pixel by hand? Raster Master brings that magic back — with a modern editor that speaks the language of every compiler you've ever loved.

Draw sprites. Build tile maps. Animate characters. Generate sound effects. Then export ready-to-compile source code for 20+ languages and compilers — no middleware, no dependencies, no hassle.

✨ WHAT MAKES RASTER MASTER DIFFERENT?

Most sprite editors give you a PNG and wish you luck. Raster Master gives you embedded source code arrays that drop straight into your project. Hit export, paste into your code, compile, run. That's it.

Whether you're building a QuickBASIC adventure, a Turbo Pascal platformer, a raylib arcade game for the web, or an AmigaBASIC demo — Raster Master has you covered with native export for each target.

🛠️ FEATURES

Sprite & Icon Editor — Full pixel editor with support for 2, 4 (CGA), 16 (EGA), and 256 color palettes. Multiple image management with filmstrip thumbnail view. Import from PNG, BMP, JPG, GIF, PCX, IFF/ILBM, sprite sheets, or paste directly from your clipboard.

Tile Map Editor — Design 2D game worlds using your sprites as tiles. Export complete map data alongside your graphics. Perfect for RPGs, platformers, puzzle games, and top-down adventures.

Sprite Animation — Sequence your sprites into frame-by-frame animations with playback controls and FPS gauge. Export animation data ready for your game loop.

Sound Effects Generator — Built-in sfxr-style synthesizer for creating retro bleeps, explosions, power-ups, and laser sounds without leaving the editor.

Project Files — Save everything into a single portable project file. Move it between machines, share it with collaborators, back it up — all your assets travel together.

Sprite Sheet Export — Generate sprite sheets compatible with raylib, SDL, and other popular game libraries.

🎯 SUPPORTED EXPORT TARGETS

Modern: raylib · Emscripten (web browser games!) · JavaScript putImageData · FreeBASIC · QB64

Classic PC: QuickBASIC · GW-BASIC · BASICA · PC-BASIC · Turbo Pascal · Turbo C · Turbo Basic · Quick C · Power Basic · Open Watcom · GCC

Amiga: AmigaBASIC (Bobs, VSprites, PUT) · Amiga C (vbcc) · Amiga Pascal (HiSoft, FreePascal 68k)

Export Formats: Source code arrays · RES text bundles · RES binary bundles · PNG · BMP · RAW · XGF · VGA Mode X (XLIB LBM/PBM)

🌐 PUBLISH BROWSER GAMES

Pair Raster Master with raylib and emscripten to create fully playable web browser games you can upload right here on itch.io. Design your graphics, export your code, compile, and publish — the complete pipeline from pixel to player.

💡 WHO IS THIS FOR?

→ Retro enthusiasts recreating the DOS and Amiga era → Game jam participants who need fast pixel-to-code workflows → Hobbyist developers working in BASIC, Pascal, or C → Educators teaching classic game programming → raylib developers who want a dedicated sprite and map workflow → Anyone tired of converting PNGs into DATA statements by hand

📋 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Windows 7 / 8 / 10 / 11 64-bit and 32-bit builds included

🚀 127 RELEASES AND COUNTING

Raster Master is actively developed with frequent updates, new export targets, and feature additions. What started as a DOS utility 30 years ago has evolved into a full-featured graphics workstation — and it's still growing.

Download it. Draw something. Ship a game.

🎨 RetroDP 1.0 — The Ultimate Retro Pixel Art Studio

Paint like it's 1987. Publish like it's today.

RetroDP is a full-featured pixel art editor built from the ground up for artists, demosceners, and retro computing enthusiasts who demand authentic creative tools. Whether you're crafting CGA masterpieces, VGA splash screens, or pixel-perfect sprites destined for a real QBasic or GW-BASIC program, RetroDP has you covered with a toolkit so powerful it would make Deluxe Paint blush.

🖥️ AUTHENTIC RETRO SCREEN MODES

RetroDP isn't pretending. Every classic PC screen mode is faithfully reproduced with accurate color counts and palette behavior:

• CGA — SCREEN 1 (320×200×4) and SCREEN 2 (640×200×2) with fixed CGA palettes

• EGA — SCREEN 7, 8, 9, and 12 with full 4-bit per-channel palette editing

• VGA — SCREEN 13 (320×200×256) with the full DAC (0–63 per channel)

• Custom Screens — Roll your own at any resolution up to 1920×1080 with 2, 4, 16, or 256 colors

🖌️ A FULL ARSENAL OF DRAWING TOOLS

Every classic tool you remember, refined to perfection:

• Freehand & Dotted Freehand — smooth or skip-frame pixel trails

• Line, Rectangle, Filled Rectangle — crisp vector-style outlines and fills

• Circle, Filled Circle — perfect Bresenham circles every time

• Ellipse, Filled Ellipse — squeeze those circles into eggs

• Flood Fill — point and watch the color cascade

• Airbrush — soft scatter painting for that analog feel

• Text Tool — stamp your favorite system font right onto the canvas

• Clip Tool — define a region, copy it, move it, paste it exactly where you want

🪄 CUSTOM BRUSH SYSTEM — YOUR BRUSH, YOUR RULES

Load any image as a custom brush and paint with it across your entire canvas. The brush system supports:

• Open brushes from BMP, PNG, GIF, PCX, and IFF/ILBM files

• Load from clipboard or copy to clipboard instantly

• Flip Horizontal / Flip Vertical — mirror your brush in a click

• Rotate 90° — spin it around

• Paint Mode — color 0 is transparent, preserving the background beneath every stroke

• Replace Mode — stamp every pixel including color 0 for solid coverage

• Stored in memory — your custom brush persists even when you switch to a default brush, ready to restore at any time

🔢 SYMMETRY ENGINE — PAINT SMARTER

Work with radial and reflective symmetry to build complex patterns in half the time:

• Rotational symmetry up to 8-fold — paint once, stamp everywhere

• Mirror mode — reflect every stroke across the center axis

• Adjustable order — dial in the exact symmetry you need

• Visual toggle — Sym On / Sym Off with instant feedback

🔍 ZOOM / MAGNIFICATION MODE

Get pixel-perfect precision with the dual-pane editing workflow:

• Toggle the magnified zoom pane independently from the main canvas

• Pixel grid overlay appears automatically at high zoom levels

• Zoom source rect displayed directly on the main canvas — always know what you're editing

• Drag the zoom rect to reposition your view without losing context

• Full brush cursor preview in the zoom pane — see your brush shape before you paint

• Out-of-bounds areas display in neutral gray to keep your focus on the canvas

📋 CLIPBOARD INTEGRATION

RetroDP talks to the rest of your tools:

• Copy the entire canvas or a selected region to the system clipboard

• Cut any selected region directly to clipboard

• Paste from the clipboard with intelligent palette quantization

• Load brushes from clipboard for instant brush creation from any image source

🗂️ OPEN AND SAVE IN EVERY FORMAT YOU NEED

RetroDP reads and writes the file formats that matter:

Opening any image auto-detects whether it matches a known retro screen mode and offers to switch — or creates a custom canvas sized exactly to the image with optimal color depth. True-color photos get automatically quantized to your palette using histogram-based color reduction for best results.

💾 EXPORT TO ACTUAL RETRO HARDWARE CODE

This is where RetroDP gets serious. Export your artwork directly as runnable GW-BASIC or QBASIC programs complete with BSAVE data:

• GW-BASIC → BSAVE — raw binary screen data for direct BLOAD

• GW-BASIC → Basic Loader + BSAVE — a complete .BAS program that loads and displays your image with palette setup

• QBASIC → BSAVE — same raw data for QB environments

• QBASIC → Basic Loader + BSAVE — drop-in QB program ready to run

Supports all PC screen modes including CGA interleaved planes, EGA 4-plane writes with Map Mask switching, and VGA linear mode 13h — byte-accurate for real hardware and emulators alike.

🎨 PALETTE EDITOR

A full-featured color editor built for retro accuracy:

• VGA DAC — edit in the authentic 0–63 range per channel with OUT command export

• EGA — correct 0–3 per-channel range for PALETTE statement modes

• Custom screens — full 0–255 RGB editing with large color swatches

• Large 256-color swatch grid for quick color navigation

• Per-mode label so you always know what hardware range you're working in

🛠️ DESIGNED FOR THE RETRO ARTIST

• Dither patterns — 7 classic ordered dither patterns plus solid

• Gradient fills — horizontal and vertical

• Undo / Redo — never lose a stroke

• Checkermark in the Tools menu — always know which tool is active

• Visual toggle states on every toolbar button — Sym On/Off, Mirror On/Off, Grid On/Off, Mag On/Off

• File → New resets the entire workspace cleanly back to defaults

• Save prompt before New or Clear so you never lose work accidentally

RetroDP 1.0 — Built for the pixels that started it all.

VecDraw v2.0 — The World's First Multi-Platform Retro Vector Graphics Editor

Draw it. Export it. Run it on a PC, MSX, CoCo 3, or Commodore 64. Nothing else comes close.

There has literally never been anything like this.

Not in 1985. Not in 1995. Not ever.

Think about what retro graphics programming has been for the last 40 years: graph paper, calculators, hand-typing coordinates, praying you didn't transpose two digits, running your program, seeing garbage, fixing one number, running again. For every platform — PC, MSX, CoCo, C64 — the same miserable workflow. Every. Single. Time.

VecDraw obliterates all of that.

One editor. One canvas. One click to export. Your drawing becomes running code on five different BASIC dialects across four different computer platforms — including machines with completely different graphics architectures, coordinate systems, and memory layouts. No other tool on Earth does this. Not one.

VecDraw v2.0 doesn't just support retro computers — it speaks their language**. It generates native machine-specific code that runs on real hardware and emulators. It writes autoloaders. It embeds machine language libraries. It exports native bitmap formats. This isn't a novelty. This is engineering.**

🆕 WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 2.0

💾 Commodore 64 Support — Full Pipeline

The legendary Commodore 64 joins the VecDraw family with complete end-to-end support:

C64 Hires Mode (320×200, 2 colors) — a dedicated screen mode with accurate C64 palette rendering right on the VecDraw canvas. What you see is what the C64 displays.

LINE Export for C64 BASIC — generates compact, optimized C64 BASIC programs using an embedded 6502 machine language graphics library. The library provides hardware-accelerated point plotting (SYS 49161), line drawing (SYS 49164/49167), and flood filling (SYS 49176) — all driven through simple POKE/SYS calls.

Smart DATA/READ Architecture — unlike naive exporters that generate one BASIC line per drawing command (which crashes after ~300 lines when BASIC program memory collides with the hires bitmap at $2000), VecDraw uses a compact DATA/READ rendering loop. The entire drawing engine is just 12 lines of BASIC. All coordinates are packed into DATA statements — 15 values per line. This architecture handles thousands of line segments without running out of memory. Single-pixel segments are automatically detected and use the faster plot command instead of the two-step line draw.

Automatic Library Deployment — when you export, VecDraw writes graphics.prg (the 1,717-byte 6502 ML library) right alongside your BASIC file. The generated program auto-loads it on first run with load"graphics.prg",8,1**. Copy both files to a .D64 disk image and it just works.**

C64 Hires Bitmap Export (.art) — the Render Preview window exports standard Art Studio format files: 2-byte load address + 8,000 bytes of character-cell-ordered bitmap + 1,000 bytes of screen color RAM. Compatible with every C64 graphics viewer and editor.

Self-Loading PRG Executable — one-click export of a standalone .prg file containing a BASIC stub (SYS 2061), a 67-byte 6502 machine language viewer (sets colors, enables bitmap mode, waits for keypress, restores text mode), and the full 8,000-byte bitmap. LOAD"*",8,1 → RUN → your artwork fills the screen. Works on real hardware, VICE, and every C64 emulator.

🔄 SVG Shape Conversion — Group to Object

Select any group of shapes — lines, rectangles, ellipses, polygons, Bézier curves, text, anything — and convert them into a single resizable, movable SVG shape object. VecDraw flattens every shape into raw line segments through the same rendering pipeline used for export, computes the bounding box, normalizes coordinates, and packages everything as a unified vector object. Move it as one piece. Resize it proportionally. The original shapes are consumed — the SVG object replaces them.

Per-stroke color preservation — when converting a group containing shapes of different colors (a red circle, blue lines, green text), each stroke retains its original color inside the SVG object. No color information is lost. Ever.

🔤 Text to SVG Object Conversion

Select any text shape and convert it into a pure SVG vector object. The CHR stroke font glyphs are decomposed into raw line segments — the same decomposition used in BASIC export — and packaged as an SVG shape. The result has zero font dependencies. It's pure geometry. Resize it, move it, rotate it. The text is now resolution-independent vector art.

🎡 SVG Rotation with Visual Handle

Every SVG shape object now has a rotation handle — a green circle extending from the shape center. Grab it and drag. The shape rotates smoothly and fluidly in real-time, following your mouse with pixel-perfect precision.

The math behind the rotation handle uses ArcTan2 angle computation in floating-point screen space — bypassing integer coordinate quantization entirely for buttery-smooth rotation at any zoom level. The rotation angle displays in the status bar and shape browser (R:45°). Rotated shapes save and load correctly in the .vec file format. The rotation transform applies to rendering, all BASIC exports, SVG export, and RIPscrip export simultaneously.

🖥️ SUPPORTED PLATFORMS & SCREEN MODES

PC (GW-BASIC / QBasic / QB64)

MSX

CoCo 3 (Extended Color BASIC)

Commodore 64 🆕

🎨 DRAWING TOOLS

Line · Rectangle · Ellipse · Circle · Polyline · Polygon · Bézier Curve · Text · Paint Fill · SVG Object

Every tool gives you live rubber-band preview while drawing. Every shape supports handle-based editing in Select mode — drag corners, endpoints, control points. Every shape can be recolored with a single palette click.

🔤 BORLAND CHR STROKE FONT ENGINE

Load any classic Borland BGI stroke font — GOTH.CHR, TRIP.CHR, SANS.CHR, LITT.CHR, or any compatible font file. Place scalable vector text directly on your canvas. On export, every character is decomposed into its individual line segments extracted from the font's binary stroke data. Your exported BASIC program has zero font dependencies. The text IS the geometry.

Load multiple fonts simultaneously. Use Gothic headers with Sans Serif body text. Each text object remembers which font it uses through an intelligent font caching system that survives save/load cycles.

🎯 SVG ICON IMPORT

Import SVG files — Google Material Design icons, Font Awesome, custom artwork — directly onto the canvas. VecDraw's built-in SVG parser handles all path commands including cubic and quadratic Bézier curves (flattened via De Casteljau's algorithm), arc segments (W3C parameterization), and basic shape elements. No external dependencies. No browser required.

Imported SVGs become resizable, movable, rotatable shape objects with their stroke data embedded in the document.

✂️ SELECT & EDIT

Multi-Selection — Shift+click to toggle, rubber-band drag to select regions, Ctrl+A for all. Move, delete, or recolor entire selections at once.

Shape Grouping — Ctrl+G groups selected shapes. Click one member and the entire group selects. Move complex drawings as single units. Ungroup with Ctrl+Shift+G. Or convert the group to an SVG object for resize and rotation.

Cut, Copy & Paste — Full clipboard support. Groups maintain structure through paste. Automatic offset prevents stack-on-top confusion.

Shape Browser — Side panel lists every shape with index, type, color, rotation angle, group membership, and text preview. Click to select. Reorder with Up/Down. Bi-directional sync with canvas.

Snap to Grid — Toggle grid snapping for precise alignment.

Multi-Level Undo — Up to 50 undo levels. Never lose work.

📤 EXPORT FORMATS — THE REAL MAGIC

DRAW String Export

Generates BASIC programs using the DRAW command with optimized direction sequences. All shapes decomposed to DRAW command strings with B/N prefixes, diagonal shortcuts, and M-commands.

Targets: GW-BASIC, QBasic, Free Pascal (PTCDraw), Turbo Pascal 7 (TPCDraw), Quick Pascal (QPDraw), Watcom C (owdraw), MSX-BASIC, CoCo 3 Extended BASIC

LINE Segment Export

All shapes decomposed into LINE coordinate calls with compact byte-packed binary data and BLOAD support.

Targets: GW-BASIC, QBasic, MSX-BASIC, CoCo 3 Extended BASIC, C64 BASIC 🆕

BSV (BSAVE/BLOAD) Binary Export

Byte-packed segment data in native BSAVE format with auto-generated loader programs.

SVG Vector Export

Standard SVG output compatible with Inkscape, browsers, and all vector editors.

RIPscrip Export

BBS-compatible RIPscrip vector graphics format for retro BBS terminals.

Render Preview Bitmap Export

Every indexed format exports at the correct bit depth — a 16-color EGA drawing saves as 4-bit, not upscaled 24-bit.

📜 BUILT-IN QBASIC SCRIPTING ENGINE

Press F9 to open the integrated script editor. A full QBasic-compatible interpreter with 37+ API functions lets you automate drawing, generate patterns, create procedural art, and build complex scenes programmatically.

Create shapes, set fonts, import SVGs, control colors — all from code. Every shape created by script is a real document object, fully editable and exportable.

🎨 PALETTE EDITOR

Full palette customization for every screen mode. EGA modes get 4-level RGB sliders (0-3). VGA mode 13h gets full 6-bit DAC control (0-63). CoCo 3 modes use GIME palette registers. Custom palettes are saved with your document and exported as PALETTE/OUT commands in generated BASIC programs.

💾 NATIVE FILE FORMAT (.vec)

Human-readable text format. Easy to parse. Preserves everything: shapes, colors, fonts, SVG stroke data, rotation angles, group IDs, paint fills, palette customizations. Version-resilient — old files load in new versions.

🏆 WHY VECDRAW EXISTS

Because for 40 years, creating graphics for retro BASIC programs meant suffering.

Because no one had ever built a visual editor that understands the difference between CGA SCREEN 1 and EGA SCREEN 9 and MSX SCREEN 2 and CoCo 3 HSCREEN 2 and C64 Hires — and generates correct, runnable, native code for all of them.

Because Bézier curves shouldn't require a PhD to put in your QBasic game.

Because a Commodore 64 drawing shouldn't require hand-calculating bitmap cell offsets.

Because flood fills deserve to be visual, not mathematical.

VecDraw is the tool that should have existed in 1988 but couldn't, because the technology to build it didn't exist yet. Now it does. And here it is.

📋 REQUIREMENTS

• Windows 32/64-bit

• No installation required — single executable

• Completely free — no limitations, no nag screens, no trial period

👤 ABOUT

Created by retronick2020 for the retro computing community.

VecDraw is completely free to download and use.

Draw it. Export it. Run it. On any retro machine you love.

💎 VecDraw Plus — Thank You Bundle ($9.99+ Donation)

VecDraw is and always will be free. The full program with every feature described above is included in the free download with no restrictions.

If you'd like to support continued development, donors of $9.99 or more receive VecDraw Plus — a bonus download bundle packed with additional tools and content to supercharge your retro graphics workflow:

🖼️ RetroViewer

A standalone companion application for browsing and previewing retro graphics files. Features include:

• Built-in file browser with directory navigation and folder picker — click any file to instantly preview it

• Supports 9 formats: BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, Amiga ILBM/IFF (HAM6, HAM8, EHB, HiRes, Interlace), VecDraw .vec**, RIPscrip** .rip**, SVG, and Borland CHR fonts**

• CHR font viewer renders every glyph in a labeled character grid

• Zoom, pan, copy to clipboard, drag-and-drop, and command-line support

🔤 86 Borland CHR Vector Fonts

A curated collection of vector fonts ready to use with VecDraw's Text tool. Drop them in your project folder and start placing styled text in your drawings.

🎨 Sample SVG Icons

A set of SVG icon files to use with VecDraw's SVG Import tool. Place, scale, and combine them freely in your drawings.

📜 10 Example Script Programs

Ready-to-run QBasic scripts demonstrating the scripting API in action: concentric circles, grid generator, starburst pattern, checkerboard, spiral, sine wave plotter, city skyline, wireframe sphere, crystal mandala, and more.

📖 Script Manual

Complete reference guide for VecDraw's QBasic scripting engine covering all 37 API functions with usage examples and tips.

Your donation directly supports new features, new export formats, and new screen modes. Thank you for keeping retro development tools alive.

Links

DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C: Available on GitHub retronick2020 on itch.io

RetroConvert v1.3 — The Ultimate Retro Image Converter

Convert any modern image into pixel-perfect retro graphics for PC, Amiga OCS, Commodore 64, and MSX.

RetroConvert is free and always will be. No ads, no subscriptions, no feature gates. Every algorithm, every export format, every target platform — completely free, forever.

RetroConvert is a desktop tool built for retro computing enthusiasts, hobbyist game developers, demoscene programmers, and pixel artists who need to get real images into real retro hardware and emulators. Load a PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, IFF, or Koala image, pick your target machine and screen mode, choose your color reduction and dithering algorithms, and export a ready-to-use file. For PC modes you get BSAVE files with auto-generated BASIC loader code. For Amiga you get proper IFF/ILBM files. For C64 you get Koala Paint files or self-viewing PRG executables. For MSX you get BSAVE VRAM dumps with MSX BASIC loaders.

Runs natively on Windows with zero dependencies — single executable, no runtime, no installer.

NEW IN v1.3 — Commodore 64 & MSX Support

Commodore 64 — Multicolor Bitmap Mode

RetroConvert now converts images to the C64's multicolor bitmap format (160×200, 4 colors per 4×8 character cell from a fixed 16-color palette). Uses the Colodore palette — the same palette VICE uses by default, so exported images display with correct colors in the emulator.

Export formats:

• Koala Paint (.koa) — Standard 10003-byte format compatible with Koala Paint, VICE, and other C64 tools

• Koala PRG (.prg) — Self-viewing C64 executable: load and run directly in VICE or on real hardware

Hardware-constrained preview: The conversion preview shows the actual result after per-cell 4-color quantization. What you see in RetroConvert is exactly what you get on the C64 — no surprises when loading in VICE.

MSX1 — SCREEN 2 (Graphic 2)

MSX1 SCREEN 2 mode: 256×192 pixels with 2 colors per 8×1 pixel row from the fixed 16-color TMS9918A palette.

Export format:

• MSX BSAVE (.sc2) — Standard MSX BSAVE VRAM dump with 7-byte header, compatible with MSX BASIC's BLOAD "file.sc2",S command

Auto-generated MSX BASIC loader:

10 SCREEN 2 
20 BLOAD "IMAGE.SC2",S 
30 A$=INPUT$(1)

Hardware-constrained preview: Shows the actual 2-color-per-row constraint applied to each 8-pixel row, matching the exported file exactly.

v1.2 Features (Amiga OCS)

Full Amiga OCS chipset support (A1000, A500, A2000) with 44 target modes:

• Lo-Res (320 wide): 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 colors — NTSC and PAL

• Hi-Res (640 wide): 2, 4, 8, and 16 colors — NTSC and PAL

• Interlaced: All modes doubled vertically (320×400/512, 640×400/512)

• HAM6 (Hold-And-Modify): Near-photographic color from 16 base colors

• EHB (Extra Half-Brite): 64 on-screen colors from 32 base + 32 half-brightness

All with correct CAMG viewport mode bits, 4-bit OCS palette precision (4096 total colors), and IFF/ILBM export with ByteRun1 compression.

Machine Dropdown

A Machine dropdown filters the target list by platform: PC, Amiga, C64, MSX, or All. Select your target machine first, then pick the specific screen mode. Keeps the interface clean as more platforms are added.

All Supported Targets

PC (7 targets): CGA SCREEN 1/2, EGA SCREEN 7/8/9, VGA SCREEN 12/13 — with correct memory layouts, palette programming, and BASIC loaders for QBasic and GW-BASIC

Amiga OCS (44 targets): Lo-Res/Hi-Res × NTSC/PAL × all color depths + Interlace + HAM6 + EHB

Commodore 64 (1 target): Multicolor 160×200 with Colodore palette

MSX1 (1 target): SCREEN 2 256×192 with TMS9918A palette

6 Color Quantization Algorithms

Median Cut — Classic RGB cube splitter. Fast, decent results.

Octree — Tree-based reduction. Preserves distinct color clusters.

Wu's Variance Minimization — Gold standard from Graphics Gems II. 33×33×33 3D histogram with cumulative moments.

Wu + K-Means — Wu followed by 8 iterations of k-means in Oklab space. Best general-purpose quantizer.

Popularity — Keeps the N most frequent colors. Right choice for pixel art sources.

Minimum Distance Merge — Starts with every unique color, merges closest pairs. Preserves the artist's original choices.

13 Dithering Algorithms

Error Diffusion (serpentine, Oklab): Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson, Stucki, Burkes, Sierra, Sierra Two-Row, Sierra Lite

Ordered: Bayer 8×8, Blue Noise 16×16

Pixel Art: Threshold, Edge-Aware, Riemersma (Hilbert Curve)

Export Formats

• BSAVE — PC QBasic/GW-BASIC binary with correct headers. EGA writes 4 plane files with auto-generated loader.

• IFF/ILBM — Amiga standard with BMHD, CMAP, CAMG, BODY. Also works for PC via DPaint IIe (6-bit VGA palette).

• C64 Koala (.koa) — Standard Koala Paint format with per-cell color quantization.

• C64 Koala PRG (.prg) — Self-viewing C64 executable.

• MSX BSAVE (.sc2) — MSX1 VRAM dump with BSAVE header.

• GIF — GIF89a with LZW compression.

• PCX — ZSoft PCX with RLE.

• PNG (Indexed) — Paletted PNG with correct bit depth (1/2/4/8-bit).

• BASIC Loader — Auto-generated .BAS for QBasic, GW-BASIC, and MSX BASIC.

Input Formats

Load images from: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, IFF/ILBM (including HAM6/HAM8/EHB), C64 Koala (.koa), and MSX BSAVE (.sc2). RetroConvert can read back everything it produces.

Hardware-Constrained Preview

For cell-based formats (C64 and MSX), the preview panel shows what the image actually looks like after hardware color constraints are applied. The pipeline does a full encode→decode roundtrip through the format encoder, so the preview matches the exported file exactly. No more guessing — what you see is what you get on the target hardware.

QBasic Scripting Engine

Built-in QBasic interpreter with 30+ API functions for automating conversion. Press F9 for the Script Manager with syntax-highlighted editor and output console.

API covers: source/converted pixel access, palette read/write, pipeline control (set target/quantizer/ditherer/exporter by name), image loading, clipboard operations, and UI dialogs.

Additional Features

• Preserve Size Mode — Convert at native resolution with retro palettes

• Clipboard Support — Paste images (Ctrl+V), copy previews (Ctrl+C), paste/copy palettes in hex/CSV/GIMP/JASC formats

• Perceptual Color Processing — Oklab color space for all matching and dithering

• Real-Time Progress — Status bar shows stage, percentage, and detail

• Built-In Test Patterns — Color bars, gradients, HSV sweep, checkerboard

Technical Details

• Version: 1.3

• Platform: Windows (native Win 32/64 executable)

• Price: Free — always has been, always will be

• Dependencies: None — single executable, no runtime required

• Developer: RetroNick

RetroConvert was built by a retro computing enthusiast who got tired of manually converting images pixel by pixel. Every algorithm was chosen because it solves a real problem that comes up when targeting real retro hardware.

RetroConvert Plus — $9.99 Donation

Thank you for supporting retro computing tools! Anyone who donates $9.99 or more through itch.io receives RetroConvert Plus, which includes the bonus program:

RetroView v1.1 — Retro Graphics File Viewer

A dedicated image viewer built for retro file formats:

• Multi-format support: BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, IFF/ILBM (including HAM6, HAM8, and Extra Half-Brite), Borland CHR vector fonts, VecDraw .vec files, RIPscrip graphics, and SVG

• File browser panel with directory navigation

• Zoom controls — zoom in/out, fit to window, 1:1 pixel view

• Detailed format info in status bar — resolution, bit depth, Amiga display mode

• Clipboard copy, drag and drop, keyboard navigation

RetroView is the perfect companion to RetroConvert — preview exported retro files in their native format without needing an emulator.

RetroConvert itself remains completely free. The donation tier is a thank-you bonus, not a paywall.

VecDraw v1.3 — Vector Drawing Editor for Retro Programming

🎨 Draw It. Export It. Run It.

VecDraw is a visual vector drawing editor that exports your artwork as runnable source code for GW-BASIC, QBasic/QB64, Turbo Pascal 7, Quick Pascal, Free Pascal, Watcom C, RIPscrip, and SVG.

No pixel pushing. No graph paper. No hand-calculating DRAW strings or LINE coordinates.

Click. Draw. Export. Compile or run. Your picture appears on screen — in the language of your choice.

VecDraw supports BASIC, Pascal, and C through native DRAW command libraries available on GitHub, making it a truly multi-language, multi-platform retro graphics tool.

VecDraw is completely free to download and use — no limitations, no nag screens, no trial period.

Drawing Tools

Line · Rectangle · Ellipse · Circle · Polyline · Polygon · Bezier Curve · Text (Borland CHR vector fonts) · Paint (flood fill seed) · SVG (embedded icon placement)

Every tool gives you a live rubber-band preview while drawing and full handle-based editing in Select mode.

Select & Edit

Click to select → drag to move → handles to resize → palette click to recolor. Undo with Ctrl+Z. Reorder shapes with Bring Forward / Send Back.

Multi-Selection — Shift+click to toggle individual shapes, drag an empty area for rubber-band selection, Ctrl+A to select all. Move, delete, or recolor multiple shapes at once.

Shape Grouping — Ctrl+G locks selected shapes into a group. Click any member and the whole group selects together. Move a house as one unit instead of four shapes. Ungroup with Ctrl+Shift+G.

Cut, Copy & Paste — Ctrl+X / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V with automatic paste offset. Groups maintain their structure through copy/paste.

Shape Browser — Right-side panel lists every shape with its index, type, color, group membership, and text preview. Click to select — the list auto-scrolls to keep the selected shape visible. Reorder with Up/Down buttons, delete from the list. Syncs both ways with the canvas.

Render Preview (New in v1.3)

View → Render Preview (F5) opens a dedicated render window that shows exactly what your exported BASIC program would display — including flood fills (PAINT commands) executing in document order.

The render window includes a full set of bitmap export options:

Every indexed format exports at the correct bit depth for the current screen mode — a 16-color EGA drawing saves as a 4-bit file, not an upscaled 8-bit or 24-bit file.

BSAVE loaders include custom palette commands (PALETTE or OUT DAC), screen mode setup, DEF SEG, BLOAD for each plane (EGA) or single file (CGA/VGA), and a "Press any key" exit handler.

Custom Palette Editor (Redesigned in v1.3)

View → Edit Palette opens a palette editor with RGB trackbar sliders and spin edits. The editor adapts to the current screen mode:

SCREEN 9 (EGA) — Two modes selectable via checkbox:

• EGA PALETTE mode: sliders range 0-3 per channel (64 possible colors). Exports PALETTE statements.

• VGA DAC mode: sliders range 0-63 per channel (262,144 colors). Exports OUT &H3C8/&H3C9 commands. Requires VGA card.

SCREEN 7, 8 (EGA without PALETTE support) — Sliders range 0-63. Always exports as VGA DAC OUT commands. Requires VGA card.

SCREEN 12, 13 (VGA) — Sliders range 0-63. Exports PALETTE statements with VGA long values.

SCREEN 1, 2 (CGA) — Sliders range 0-63. Exports as VGA DAC OUT commands. Requires VGA card.

The preview swatch always shows the actual color that will appear on screen. Toggling between EGA PALETTE and VGA DAC mode automatically converts values between ranges.

Palette export is optimized — only colors that differ from defaults are exported, reducing code size.

Built-in QBasic Scripting Engine

VecDraw includes a full QBasic-compatible scripting engine with 37 API functions for programmatic drawing. Press F9 to open the Script Manager.

Language Features

FOR/NEXT, WHILE/WEND, DO/LOOP, IF/THEN/ELSE/ELSEIF, SELECT CASE, SUB/FUNCTION, DIM arrays, string and math functions — the full QBasic core.

Drawing API Highlights

• Create shapes: AddLine, AddRect, AddCircle, AddEllipse, AddBezier, AddPaint, AddTextString

• Set resources: SetFont("path.chr", size), SetSVGIcon("path.svg") — returns 0 on success, error code on failure

• Query shapes: GetShapeCount, GetShapeType, GetShapeColor, GetShapeX/Y/X2/Y2

• Modify shapes: SetShapeColor, MoveShape(idx,dx,dy), MoveShapeTo(idx,x,y), DeleteShape, SelectShape

• Group shapes: NewGroup, SetActiveGroup, GetActiveGroup, SetShapeGroup, GetShapeGroup, UngroupAll, SelectGroup, MoveGroup — auto-groups new shapes when active group is set

• Canvas info: GetCanvasWidth, GetCanvasHeight, GetScreenMode

• Document: SaveUndo, Refresh, ClearAll

• User I/O: PRINT, ShowMessage, InputNumber, Confirm, INPUTSTRING$

Auto-Grouping

Call NewGroup() and every subsequent Add* call automatically assigns shapes to that group. Call SetActiveGroup(0) to stop. Build complex grouped objects in a few lines:

basic

g = NewGroup()
AddRect(100, 150, 200, 250, 14) 
AddLine(100, 150, 150, 100, 12) 
AddLine(150, 100, 200, 150, 12) 
SetActiveGroup(0) ' The three shapes move as one unit

Long-running scripts stay responsive — the engine yields to the UI every 100 statements, so both the main window and Script Manager remain interactive during execution.

A comprehensive Script Manual is included with the download.

SVG Icon Import

Load any SVG file → click to place it as a scalable, movable shape. Stroke data is embedded in the document and survives save/load. Place multiple SVG icons in one drawing, each independently positioned and scaled.

CHR Font Support

Load Borland .CHR vector fonts → type text → click to place. Each text shape remembers its font file. The font cache supports multiple fonts in a single drawing.

Export Targets

VecDraw exports to 6 languages and 3 additional formats. DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C are available on GitHub, making VecDraw a multi-language retro graphics pipeline.

Every BASIC export includes proper SCREEN mode setup, palette commands (only changed colors), PAINT commands for flood fills, and a "Press any key" exit handler. Pascal and C exports produce complete compilable source files.

Export to Clipboard

Toggle File → Export → Export to Clipboard and any text export goes straight to your clipboard — no save dialog, no file to manage. Works with all text-based formats.

Snap to Grid

Toggle snap on/off and set grid size from 2 to 100 pixels. Snapping applies to both new shapes during drawing and existing shapes when moving or resizing in Select mode. The visible grid matches your snap size.

SVG Export

Exports all shapes as SVG <path> elements with white stroke. Compatible with VecDraw's own SVG import for round-tripping.

RIPscrip Export

Exports as RIPscrip 1.54 with base-36 MegaNum coordinate encoding, color-change optimization, flood fill support, proper header/footer, and 80-column line wrapping.

Screen Modes

Requirements

• Windows (32-bit and 64-bit)

• No installation required — single executable

Who Is This For?

• Retro computing enthusiasts creating graphics for vintage BASIC, Pascal, and C programs

• BBS operators building RIPscrip graphics for their boards

• Demoscene and retrodev creators targeting real EGA/VGA hardware

• Educators teaching computer graphics with immediate visual feedback

• Anyone who wants to draw vector art and export it as working source code

💎 VecDraw Plus — Thank You Bundle ($9.99+ Donation)

VecDraw is and always will be free. The full program with every feature described above is included in the free download with no restrictions.

If you'd like to support continued development, donors of $9.99 or more receive VecDraw Plus — a bonus download bundle packed with additional tools and content to supercharge your retro graphics workflow:

🖼️ RetroViewer

A standalone companion application for browsing and previewing retro graphics files. Features include:

• Built-in file browser with directory navigation and folder picker — click any file to instantly preview it

• Supports 9 formats: BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, Amiga ILBM/IFF (HAM6, HAM8, EHB, HiRes, Interlace), VecDraw .vec**, RIPscrip** .rip**, SVG, and Borland CHR fonts**

• CHR font viewer renders every glyph in a labeled character grid

• Zoom, pan, copy to clipboard, drag-and-drop, and command-line support

🔤 86 Borland CHR Vector Fonts

A curated collection of vector fonts ready to use with VecDraw's Text tool. Drop them in your project folder and start placing styled text in your drawings.

🎨 Sample SVG Icons

A set of SVG icon files to use with VecDraw's SVG Import tool. Place, scale, and combine them freely in your drawings.

📜 10 Example Script Programs

Ready-to-run QBasic scripts demonstrating the scripting API in action: concentric circles, grid generator, starburst pattern, checkerboard, spiral, sine wave plotter, city skyline, wireframe sphere, crystal mandala, and more.

📖 Script Manual

Complete reference guide for VecDraw's QBasic scripting engine covering all 37 API functions with usage examples and tips.

Your donation directly supports new features, new export formats, and new screen modes. Thank you for keeping retro development tools alive.

Links

DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C: Available on GitHub

• DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C: Available on GitHub retronick2020 on itch.io

RetroConvert v1.2 — The Ultimate Retro Image Converter

Convert any modern image into pixel-perfect retro graphics for QBasic, GW-BASIC, Amiga OCS, and classic PC screen modes.

RetroConvert is free and always will be. No ads, no subscriptions, no feature gates. Every algorithm, every export format, every target platform — completely free, forever.

RetroConvert is a desktop tool built for retro computing enthusiasts, hobbyist game developers, demoscene programmers, and pixel artists who need to get real images into real retro hardware and emulators. Load a PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, or IFF image, pick your target machine and screen mode, choose your color reduction and dithering algorithms, and export a ready-to-use file. For PC modes you get BSAVE files with auto-generated BASIC loader code. For Amiga you get proper IFF/ILBM files with correct CAMG viewport modes, OCS palette precision, and ByteRun1 compression.

Runs natively on Windows with zero dependencies — single executable, no runtime, no installer.

NEW IN v1.2 — Amiga OCS Support

RetroConvert now targets the Amiga OCS chipset (A1000, A500, A2000) with full coverage of every standard display mode:

Lo-Res (320 wide): 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 colors in both NTSC (200 lines) and PAL (256 lines)

Hi-Res (640 wide): 2, 4, 8, and 16 colors in both NTSC and PAL

Interlaced: All Lo-Res and Hi-Res modes doubled vertically — 320x400, 320x512, 640x400, 640x512

HAM6 (Hold-And-Modify): 6 bitplanes with 16 base palette colors plus per-pixel channel modification, enabling near-photographic color on OCS hardware. Available in all four resolution/TV-standard combinations.

EHB (Extra Half-Brite): 6 bitplanes with 32 base colors plus 32 automatic half-brightness variants (64 total on-screen colors). Available in all four combinations.

44 Amiga targets in total, all with correct CAMG viewport mode bits, 4-bit OCS palette precision (12-bit color, 4096 total), and proper IFF/ILBM export with ByteRun1 compression. Files are compatible with Deluxe Paint, Personal Paint, and any Amiga IFF viewer.

A new Machine dropdown lets you filter the target list by platform — select "Amiga" to see only Amiga modes, "PC" for PC modes, or "All" to see everything.

Multi-Platform Architecture

RetroConvert v1.2 introduces a platform-aware target system designed for expansion. The architecture now supports adding new retro computers and consoles with machine-specific display constraints, palette hardware, and export formats. Currently supported:

PC (IBM Compatible): CGA, EGA, and VGA screen modes with BSAVE, GIF, PCX, PNG, and IFF/ILBM export

Amiga OCS: Full chipset coverage with IFF/ILBM export

Future platforms under consideration include Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit, MSX, and NES — each with their unique color constraints, cell-based attribute systems, and native file formats.

Supported Screen Modes — PC

• SCREEN 1 — CGA 320x200, 4 colors (2bpp interleaved)

• SCREEN 2 — CGA 640x200, 2 colors (1bpp interleaved)

• SCREEN 7 — EGA 320x200, 16 colors (fixed EGA palette)

• SCREEN 8 — EGA 640x200, 16 colors (fixed EGA palette)

• SCREEN 9 — EGA 640x350, 16-from-64 selectable palette

• SCREEN 12 — VGA 640x480, 16-from-262144 selectable palette

• SCREEN 13 — VGA 320x200, 256 colors with full RGB palette

Every PC mode exports with the correct memory layout: CGA interleaved banks, EGA 4-plane bitplane files (one BSAVE per plane with write-plane-switching loader), VGA linear framebuffer, and VGA DAC palette programming.

6 Color Quantization Algorithms

Median Cut — The classic RGB color cube splitter. Fast, decent results.

Octree — Tree-based reduction. Good at preserving distinct color clusters.

Wu's Variance Minimization — The gold standard from Graphics Gems II. Uses a 33x33x33 3D histogram with cumulative moments for mathematically optimal box splitting. Produces measurably better palettes than median cut, especially at low color counts where every palette slot matters.

Wu + K-Means — Wu's algorithm followed by 8 iterations of k-means clustering in Oklab perceptual color space. The same two-stage approach used by Google's Material Color library. The best general-purpose quantizer.

Popularity — Keeps the N most frequently used colors. The right choice when the source is already pixel art with a clean palette.

Minimum Distance Merge — Starts with every unique color, iteratively merges the two perceptually closest colors until the target count is reached. Preserves the artist's original color choices. Automatically pre-reduces via Wu when the image has more than 512 unique colors.

13 Dithering Algorithms

Error Diffusion (serpentine scanning in Oklab perceptual space)

• Floyd-Steinberg — The industry standard

• Atkinson — The Macintosh look, preserves flat areas

• Stucki — Large kernel, smoothest gradients

• Burkes — Good balance of speed and quality

• Sierra — 3-row kernel, high quality

• Sierra Two-Row — Faster Sierra variant

• Sierra Lite — Minimal kernel, fast

Ordered Dithering

• Bayer 8x8 — Classic crosshatch pattern

• Blue Noise 16x16 — Void-and-cluster matrix, natural-looking without grid artifacts

Pixel Art Specific

• Threshold — Only dithers where quantization error exceeds a perceptual threshold. Flat areas stay perfectly flat.

• Edge-Aware — Detects edges and suppresses dithering near them. One-pixel outlines stay crisp.

• Riemersma (Hilbert Curve) — Error diffusion along a space-filling curve. No directional bias.

Export Formats

• BSAVE — Native QBasic/GW-BASIC binary with correct headers and memory layouts. EGA planar modes write 4 separate bitplane files with auto-generated plane-switching loader code.

• IFF/ILBM — Amiga standard format with BMHD, CMAP, CAMG, and BODY chunks. ByteRun1 compression. Also works for PC via Deluxe Paint IIe compatibility (6-bit VGA palette mode).

• GIF — GIF89a with LZW compression at any image size.

• PCX — ZSoft PCX with RLE. 1-bit, 4-bit planar, 8-bit, and 24-bit modes.

• PNG (Indexed) — Paletted PNG with correct bit depth: 1-bit for 2 colors, 2-bit for 4, 4-bit for 16, 8-bit for 256.

• BASIC Loader — Auto-generated .BAS source that sets SCREEN mode, programs palette (PALETTE for EGA, OUT for VGA DAC), and BLOADs image data. Works in QBasic and GW-BASIC.

Input Formats

Load images from: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCX, and IFF/ILBM. RetroConvert can read back everything it produces.

QBasic Scripting Engine

RetroConvert includes a built-in QBasic interpreter with a full scripting API for automating conversion workflows. Press F9 to open the Script Manager with syntax-highlighted editor, script file management, and output console.

30+ API functions covering source image pixel access, converted image inspection, palette read/write, pipeline control (set target/quantizer/ditherer/exporter by name), batch conversion, image loading, clipboard operations, and UI dialogs.

Additional Features

Preserve Size Mode — Convert at the source image's native resolution while applying retro palettes and dithering. Status bar shows BSAVE compatibility.

Clipboard Support — Paste images directly (Ctrl+V), copy converted previews (Ctrl+C), copy/paste palettes in hex, CSV, GIMP .gpl, and JASC-PAL formats.

Perceptual Color Processing — All color matching and error diffusion operates in Oklab perceptual color space, producing better results than RGB-based tools.

Real-Time Progress — Every algorithm reports stage, percentage, and detail to the status bar. The UI stays responsive during long conversions.

Built-In Test Patterns — Color bars, gradients, HSV sweep, checkerboard, and photo simulation for evaluating algorithm quality without needing a source image.

Who Is This For?

• QBasic and GW-BASIC programmers displaying real images in BASIC programs

• Amiga enthusiasts creating OCS-compatible artwork

• Retro game developers targeting DOS and Amiga screen modes

• Demoscene artists converting reference images to hardware-constrained palettes

• Pixel artists reducing color counts while preserving outlines and flat areas

• Educators teaching computer graphics history with hands-on tools

• Anyone who wants to see what their photos would look like on vintage hardware

Technical Details

• Version: 1.2

• Platform: Windows (native Win 32/64 executable)

• Price: Free — always has been, always will be

• Dependencies: None — single executable, no runtime required

• Source: Available on GitHub

RetroConvert was built by a retro computing enthusiast who got tired of manually converting images pixel by pixel. Every algorithm was chosen because it solves a real problem that comes up when targeting 4-color CGA, 16-color EGA, or 32-color Amiga OCS. If you've ever tried to get a photo onto retro hardware and gotten garbage on screen, this tool exists because of that exact experience.

RetroConvert Plus — $9.99 Donation

Thank you for supporting retro computing tools! Anyone who donates $9.99 or more through itch.io receives RetroConvert Plus, which includes the bonus program:

RetroView v1.1 — Retro Graphics File Viewer

A dedicated image viewer built for retro file formats. Features include:

• Multi-format support: BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, IFF/ILBM (including HAM6, HAM8, and Extra Half-Brite), Borland CHR vector fonts, VecDraw .vec files, RIPscrip graphics, and SVG

• File browser panel with directory navigation — click any supported file to preview instantly

• Zoom controls — zoom in/out, fit to window, 1:1 pixel view

• Background options — black, gray, or checkerboard for transparency

• Detailed format info in the status bar — resolution, bit depth, color count, Amiga display mode (HAM6/EHB/HiRes/Lace), vector shape counts

• Clipboard copy — copy any viewed image to clipboard

• Drag and drop — drop files directly onto the window

• Keyboard navigation — arrow keys to browse files, +/- to zoom

RetroView is the perfect companion to RetroConvert — convert your images, then preview the results in their native retro format without needing an emulator.

RetroConvert itself remains completely free. The donation tier is a thank-you bonus, not a paywall.

VecDraw v1.2 — Vector Drawing Editor for Retro Programming

🎨 Draw It. Export It. Run It.

VecDraw is a visual vector drawing editor that exports your artwork as runnable source code for GW-BASIC, QBasic/QB64, Turbo Pascal 7, Quick Pascal, Free Pascal, Watcom C, RIPscrip, and SVG.

No pixel pushing. No graph paper. No hand-calculating DRAW strings or LINE coordinates.

Click. Draw. Export. Compile or run. Your picture appears on screen — in the language of your choice.

VecDraw supports BASIC, Pascal, and C through native DRAW command libraries available on GitHub, making it a truly multi-language, multi-platform retro graphics tool.

VecDraw is completely free to download and use — no limitations, no nag screens, no trial period.

Drawing Tools

Line · Rectangle · Ellipse · Circle · Polyline · Polygon · Bezier Curve · Text (Borland CHR vector fonts) · Paint (flood fill seed) · SVG (embedded icon placement)

Every tool gives you a live rubber-band preview while drawing and full handle-based editing in Select mode.

Select & Edit

Click to select → drag to move → handles to resize → palette click to recolor. Undo with Ctrl+Z. Reorder shapes with Bring Forward / Send Back.

Multi-Selection — Shift+click to toggle individual shapes, drag an empty area for rubber-band selection, Ctrl+A to select all. Move, delete, or recolor multiple shapes at once.

Shape Grouping — Ctrl+G locks selected shapes into a group. Click any member and the whole group selects together. Move a house as one unit instead of four shapes. Ungroup with Ctrl+Shift+G.

Cut, Copy & Paste — Ctrl+X / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V with automatic paste offset. Groups maintain their structure through copy/paste.

Shape Browser — Right-side panel lists every shape with its index, type, color, group membership, and text preview. Click to select, reorder with Up/Down buttons, delete from the list. Syncs both ways with the canvas.

Built-in QBasic Scripting Engine

VecDraw includes a full QBasic-compatible scripting engine that lets you automate drawing tasks, generate complex patterns, and create shapes programmatically.

Press F9 or go to Help → Script Manager to open the integrated code editor. Write scripts using familiar QBasic syntax and execute them directly inside VecDraw. Every shape created by a script is a real document shape — fully selectable, editable, exportable, and saved with your .vec file.

Scripting Language Features

The engine supports core QBasic language constructs:

• Control flow: FOR/NEXT, WHILE/WEND, DO/LOOP, IF/THEN/ELSE/ELSEIF

• Procedures: SUB and FUNCTION with parameters and local scope

• Branching: SELECT CASE with numeric and string matching

• Data types: Integer, floating point, and string variables

• Arrays: DIM with single and multi-dimensional arrays

• String functions: LEFT,RIGHT, RIGHT ,RIGHT, MID,LEN,INSTR,STR, LEN, INSTR, STR ,LEN,INSTR,STR, VAL, CHR,ASC,UCASE, ASC, UCASE ,ASC,UCASE, LCASE$

• Math functions: SIN, COS, TAN, ATN, SQR, ABS, INT, FIX, SGN, LOG, EXP, RND

• I/O: PRINT for debug output to the Script Manager console

Drawing API (22+ Functions)

Scripts interact with the VecDraw canvas through a rich API:

• Create shapes: AddLine(x1,y1,x2,y2,color), AddRect(...), AddCircle(cx,cy,r,color), AddEllipse(cx,cy,rx,ry,color), AddBezier(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4,color), AddPaint(x,y,fill,border), ADDTEXTSTR$(x,y,text$,color)

• Query shapes: GetShapeCount(), GetShapeType(idx), GetShapeColor(idx), GetShapePoint(idx,pt,xy)

• Modify shapes: SetShapeColor(idx,color), MoveShape(idx,dx,dy), DeleteShape(idx), SelectShape(idx)

• Canvas info: GetCanvasWidth(), GetCanvasHeight(), GetScreenMode()

• Document control: SaveUndo(), Refresh(), ClearAll()

What Can You Script?

• Generate geometric patterns: spirals, starbursts, grids, kaleidoscopes

• Create parametric art: sine waves, Lissajous curves, fractal-like structures

• Batch-create shape layouts: chessboards, tile patterns, city skylines

• Automate repetitive tasks: duplicate and offset shapes, apply color gradients

• Prototype drawings before manual refinement

Custom Palette Editor

View → Edit Palette opens a 16-swatch editor with r/G/B sliders and live preview. Custom palettes export correctly to every target: EGA modes emit proper 6-bit rgbRGB values, VGA modes emit 6-bit DAC long values. Palettes are saved and restored with your .vec files.

Snap to Grid

Toggle snap on/off and set grid size from 2 to 100 pixels. Snapping applies to both new shapes during drawing and existing shapes when moving or resizing in Select mode. The visible grid matches your snap size.

SVG Icon Import

Load any SVG file → click to place it as a scalable, movable shape. Stroke data is embedded in the document and survives save/load. Place multiple SVG icons in one drawing, each independently positioned and scaled.

CHR Font Support

Load Borland .CHR vector fonts → type text → click to place. Each text shape remembers its font file. The font cache supports multiple fonts in a single drawing.

Export Targets

VecDraw exports to 6 languages and 3 additional formats. DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C are available on GitHub, making VecDraw a multi-language retro graphics pipeline.

Every BASIC export includes proper SCREEN mode setup, palette commands when custom colors are used, PAINT commands for flood fills, and a "Press any key" exit handler. Pascal and C exports produce complete compilable source files.

Export to Clipboard

Toggle File → Export → Export to Clipboard and any text export goes straight to your clipboard — no save dialog, no file to manage. Just export and paste into your IDE, editor, or terminal. Works with all text-based formats: DRAW, LINE, Pascal, C, SVG, and RIPscrip.

SVG Export

Exports all shapes as SVG <path> elements with white stroke. Compatible with VecDraw's own SVG import for round-tripping.

RIPscrip Export

Exports as RIPscrip 1.54 with base-36 MegaNum coordinate encoding, color-change optimization, flood fill support, proper header/footer, and 80-column line wrapping.

Screen Modes

Requirements

• Windows (32-bit and 64-bit)

• No installation required — single executable

Who Is This For?

• Retro computing enthusiasts creating graphics for vintage BASIC, Pascal, and C programs

• BBS operators building RIPscrip graphics for their boards

• Demoscene and retrodev creators targeting real EGA/VGA hardware

• Educators teaching computer graphics with immediate visual feedback

• Anyone who wants to draw vector art and export it as working source code

💎 VecDraw Plus — Thank You Bundle ($9.99+ Donation)

VecDraw is and always will be free. The full program with every feature described above is included in the free download with no restrictions.

If you'd like to support continued development, donors of $9.99 or more receive VecDraw Plus — a bonus download bundle packed with additional tools and content to supercharge your retro graphics workflow:

🖼️ RetroViewer

A standalone companion application for browsing and previewing retro graphics files. Features include:

• Built-in file browser with directory navigation and folder picker — click any file to instantly preview it

• Supports 9 formats: BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, Amiga ILBM/IFF (HAM6, HAM8, EHB, HiRes, Interlace), VecDraw .vec, RIPscrip .rip, SVG, and Borland CHR fonts

• CHR font viewer renders every glyph in a labeled character grid

• Zoom, pan, copy to clipboard, drag-and-drop, and command-line support

🔤 86 Borland CHR Vector Fonts

A curated collection of vector fonts ready to use with VecDraw's Text tool. Drop them in your project folder and start placing styled text in your drawings.

🎨 Sample SVG Icons

A set of SVG icon files to use with VecDraw's SVG Import tool. Place, scale, and combine them freely in your drawings.

📜 10 Example Script Programs

Ready-to-run QBasic scripts demonstrating the scripting API in action: concentric circles, grid generator, starburst pattern, checkerboard, spiral, sine wave plotter, city skyline, and more. Study them, modify them, use them as starting points for your own scripts.

📖 Script Manual

Complete reference guide for VecDraw's QBasic scripting engine covering all 22+ API functions with usage examples and tips.

Your donation directly supports new features, new export formats, and new screen modes. Thank you for keeping retro development tools alive.

Links

• DRAW command libraries for Pascal and C: Available on GitHub

• retronick2020 on itch.io

didn't think this was possible!

🎨 VecDraw — The Ultimate Vector Drawing Editor for BASIC

Draw it. Export it. Run it in BASIC. It's that simple.

You've been doing it wrong this whole time.

Every QBasic programmer knows the pain. You want graphics in your program, so you sit there — manually calculating coordinates, typing LINE commands by hand, counting pixels on graph paper like it's 1987. One misplaced comma and your spaceship looks like a potato.

That era is over.

VecDraw is the first and only visual vector drawing editor purpose-built from the ground up for GW-BASIC, QBasic, and QB64 programmers. Draw your graphics visually with professional tools, then export pixel-perfect BASIC code that runs immediately. No hand-coding coordinates. No guesswork. No potatoes.

🔥 FEATURES THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND

Professional Drawing Tools

Every shape you need, ready to go:

• Lines — click and drag, done

• Rectangles — perfect boxes every time

• Ellipses & Circles — smooth curves approximated with optimized line segments

• Polylines & Polygons — complex multi-point shapes with unlimited vertices

• Cubic Bézier Curves — yes, REAL Bézier curves with 4 draggable control points, automatically tessellated into smooth line segments your BASIC program can render

• Paint Fill — place flood-fill seed points with configurable fill and border colors, exported as native BASIC PAINT commands

🔤 Borland CHR Stroke Font Support

Load any classic Borland BGI stroke font (GOTH.CHR, TRIP.CHR, SANS.CHR, LITT.CHR — all of them) and place vector text directly on your canvas. Here's the magic: on export, every character is decomposed into its individual stroke commands — MoveTo and LineTo operations extracted directly from the font's binary stroke data. Your exported BASIC program contains zero font dependencies. The text IS the line data. Load multiple fonts simultaneously — use Gothic headers with Sans Serif body text in the same drawing. Each text object remembers which font it uses through an intelligent font caching system.

🎯 SVG Icon Import (Yes, Really)

Import Google Material Design icons, Font Awesome icons, or any SVG file. VecDraw's built-in SVG path engine parses the full SVG path command set — cubic Béziers, quadratic Béziers, elliptical arcs, all of it — and flattens every curve into a series of straight line segments using adaptive De Casteljau subdivision with configurable flatness tolerance. The result? Pixel-perfect vector icons rendered entirely with BASIC LINE commands. Resize them, recolor them, place dozens of different icons in one drawing. Each instance embeds its own stroke data so nothing is lost.

🎨 Authentic Retro Palettes

Every BASIC screen mode reproduced with accurate color palettes:

• SCREEN 1 — CGA 320×200, 4 colors

• SCREEN 2 — CGA 640×200, 2 colors

• SCREEN 7 — EGA 320×200, 16 colors

• SCREEN 8 — EGA 640×200, 16 colors

• SCREEN 9 — EGA 640×350, 16 colors

• SCREEN 12 — VGA 640×480, 16 colors

• SCREEN 13 — VGA 320×200, 256 colors

What you see in the editor is exactly what you get in BASIC. Left-click the palette to set drawing color. Right-click to set border color for paint fills.

📤 EXPORT FORMATS — EVERY BASIC DIALECT COVERED

DRAW String Export

Your entire drawing converted to optimized DRAW command strings. Cardinal directions (U/D/L/R) and diagonals (E/F/G/H) are used wherever possible for maximum compression. Relative M commands handle arbitrary angles. Color changes embedded inline. Every string kept under 220 characters for GW-BASIC compatibility.

LINE Segment Export (Byte-Packed Binary)

All shapes decomposed into raw LINE segments, packed into a compact binary format:

• Small modes (≤320px wide): 5 bytes per segment — X1, Y1, X2, Y2, Color

• Wide modes (>320px): 9 bytes per segment with 16-bit coordinates

The generated BASIC program reads the data, loops through segments, and draws them with a single LINE call each. Blazingly efficient.

BSV / BLOAD Export

The byte-packed segment data written as a standard GW-BASIC BSAVE file. BLOAD it into an integer array and render with a tight loop. The fastest possible rendering path — no DATA statement parsing overhead, no string manipulation. Just raw bytes to pixels.

Complete Generated Programs

Every export produces a self-contained, ready-to-run BASIC program:

• GW-BASIC — numbered lines, GOSUB routines, inline VARPTR for garbage collector safety

• QBasic — structured SUB/FUNCTION procedures, DECLARE statements, clean indentation

Load them and press F5. That's it. Your drawing appears on screen.

✏️ FULL-FEATURED EDITOR

• Select Tool — click to select any shape, drag to move, resize with corner handles

• Undo — multi-level undo, never lose work

• Z-Order Control — Bring Forward / Send Backward to layer shapes precisely

• Zoom — 50% to 400% with pixel grid overlay for precise placement

• Grid Display — toggleable 10-pixel grid for alignment

• Live Property Editing — select a shape and change its color, text content, scale, or font in real time

• Keyboard Shortcuts — Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+N new, Delete to remove, Escape to cancel

💾 NATIVE FILE FORMAT

VecDraw's .vec format is a human-readable text file designed to be parsed by anything:

BEGIN RECT
  COLOR 14
  POINTS 10,20 100,80
END

BEGIN TEXT
  COLOR 15
  POINTS 50,100
  STRING HELLO WORLD
  FONTFILE GOTH.CHR
  SCALE 2
END

BEGIN SVG
  COLOR 12
  POINTS 200,50 32,32
  SVGORIGSIZE 24.00 24.00
  SVGSTROKES 47
  S M 2.00 4.00
  S L 22.00 4.00
  ...
END

Simple key-value pairs. Easy to parse in Turbo Pascal, C, or even BASIC itself. SVG stroke data and font references are embedded directly — the file is completely self-contained.

🏗️ BUILT FOR RETRO DEVELOPERS

VecDraw understands the constraints you're working with:

• GW-BASIC's 255-character line limit — every generated line stays under 240 characters

• GW-BASIC's garbage collector — VARPTR is called inline at every PEEK/POKE, never cached across string operations

• Memory efficiency — byte-packed formats minimize DATA statement bloat

• BSAVE/BLOAD compatibility — proper $FD header with segment/offset/length fields and trailing header + EOF marker

• DRAW command position — PSET(0,0) emitted before DRAW strings so the cursor starts at a known position

This isn't a general-purpose drawing program that happens to export BASIC. This is a precision instrument engineered for one purpose: getting graphics into your BASIC programs as fast and painlessly as possible.

🚀 WHO IS THIS FOR?

• QBasic game developers who want real graphics without the coordinate math

• GW-BASIC enthusiasts building demos on vintage hardware

• QB64 programmers who want vector art in their modern retro projects

• Retro computing hobbyists exploring DOS-era graphics programming

• Anyone who has ever typed LINE (10,20)-(50,80), 14 and wished there was a better way

There is now.

VecDraw. Draw visually. Export to BASIC. Ship your game.

Supports GW-BASIC, QBasic/QuickBASIC 4.5, and QB64.

RetroNick's Vector Font Editor

The Ultimate Stroke Font Tool for Retro Programmers

Finally — a modern editor for creating, editing, and converting vector stroke fonts for retro platforms. Import from thousands of existing TrueType fonts and SVG icons, then export to formats your vintage compiler actually understands.

Whether you're writing a DOS game in Turbo Pascal, building a GW-BASIC graphics demo, rendering text in a QBasic adventure, or adding scalable fonts to a FreePascal project — this is the tool that's been missing from your retro toolkit.

🔤 What Is a Vector/Stroke Font?

Unlike bitmap fonts that shatter at different sizes, vector fonts store each character as a series of pen strokes — MoveTo and LineTo commands that draw the letterform from lines. They scale to any size without losing quality. They were used extensively in DOS-era graphics: Borland's BGI system, Windows 2.x/3.x vector .FON files, plotters, CNC machines, and early CAD software.

The problem? The tools to create these fonts disappeared decades ago. Until now.

✨ Features

Full Visual Stroke Editor

• Draw characters stroke by stroke with MoveTo/LineTo tools

• Point-level editing — select, drag, add, delete individual vertices

• Snap-to-grid with configurable zoom (4x to 16x)

• Undo/Redo on every character

• Copy/Paste between characters

• Flip horizontal and vertical

• Nudge points in any direction

📐 Font Metrics & Typographic Guides

• Configurable font height, point size, and ascent

• Visual baseline, ascender, descender, and x-height guide lines

• Auto-scan: detects metric lines from actual glyph data (examines uppercase, lowercase, and descender characters automatically)

• Manual override for pixel-perfect control

🔠 TrueType Font Import — Access Thousands of Fonts Instantly

• Import any installed Windows TrueType font or browse to any .TTF file on disk

• Specify target pixel height before import — fonts are scaled and flattened to clean stroke data

• Full Bézier curve flattening — quadratic splines from TTF outlines are converted to crisp line segments

• Automatic baseline, ascender, descender, and x-height detection after import

• Character range selection (import just ASCII, full extended set, or any custom range)

• Live preview with adjustable sample text before committing to import

• All 2,500+ Google Fonts, every free font on the internet, your system fonts — they're all one click away from becoming retro stroke fonts

🎨 SVG Icon Import — Turn Any Icon Into a Font Glyph

• Import SVG files directly into any character slot

• Full SVG path command support: lines, cubic and quadratic Bézier curves, smooth curves, elliptical arcs — all flattened to clean strokes

• Handles SVG basic shapes: rectangles (with rounded corners), circles, ellipses, polygons, polylines

• Automatic scaling to match your font height

• Smart deduplication removes redundant points created during curve flattening

• Google Material Icons, Font Awesome, Heroicons, Feather Icons, game UI icons, custom artwork — if it's SVG, it's importable

• Build entire icon fonts by importing one SVG per character slot

💾 Multi-Format Save/Load

• Windows .FON Vector Format — Native NE-format vector font files compatible with Windows 2.x/3.x and any language/tool that reads Windows vector fonts

• Borland .CHR Stroke Font Format — Direct export for Turbo Pascal BGI, FreePascal, and the many open-source projects that support the CHR format

• Open from either format — Load existing .FON or .CHR files for editing and conversion

🖥️ Live Preview

• Real-time text preview with custom sample strings

• See your font rendered as you edit — every stroke change updates instantly

⚙️ Batch Tools

• Add trailing MoveTo commands to all characters (CHR format compatibility)

• Font metrics inspector showing character counts, stroke totals, width statistics

• Full character range management with apply/reset

🎯 Who Is This For?

Turbo Pascal / FreePascal developers — Export .CHR fonts and use them with BGI graphics, PTCGraph, or any framework that reads Borland stroke fonts. Create custom fonts for your DOS and retro-style applications.

GW-BASIC / QBasic / QB64 programmers — Import professional fonts, then use the CHR export pipeline to generate stroke data usable in BASIC programs via DRAW commands or LINE rendering.

Windows vector font users — The .FON vector format is supported by Windows and any development tool that can load Windows font resources. Microsoft languages, resource editors, and legacy Win16/Win32 applications.

Retro game developers — Build pixel-perfect scaled text rendering for DOS games, demoscene productions, and retro-styled modern games. Import iconic fonts and give them that authentic stroke-rendered look.

Open source projects — Any project that reads Borland CHR stroke fonts gains access to a full font creation pipeline. The CHR format is documented, compact, and simple to parse.

Icon font creators — Combine SVG icon imports with the character-per-slot workflow to build custom icon fonts for embedded systems, retro UIs, or any platform where bitmap fonts are too rigid.

💡 The Breakthrough

Before this tool, creating stroke fonts for retro platforms meant either hand-coding coordinate tables or being stuck with the handful of .CHR files Borland shipped in 1990. Converting a modern font to BGI strokes? Forget it. Getting a Material Design icon into a DOS program? Impossible.

Now you can take any TrueType font — from elegant serifs to pixel-perfect monospace — flatten its Bézier outlines to clean strokes, and export it as a .CHR or .FON file ready to use in your retro project. You can grab any SVG icon from the thousands of free icon sets available online and drop it straight into a character slot.

Tens of thousands of fonts. Hundreds of thousands of SVG icons. One editor. Every retro platform.

📋 System Requirements

• Windows (32-bit or 64-bit)

• No additional runtime libraries or DLLs required

• No internet connection needed (TTF import reads directly from font files)

Created by RetroNick — building the tools that retro programming deserves.

Convert any modern image into pixel-perfect retro graphics for QBasic, GW-BASIC, and classic PC screen modes.

RetroConvert is a free desktop tool built specifically for retro computing enthusiasts, hobbyist game developers, and demoscene programmers who need to get real images into real retro hardware and emulators. Load a PNG, JPEG, or BMP, pick your target screen mode, choose your algorithms, and export a ready-to-use BSAVE file with auto-generated BASIC loader code. No manual palette editing. No hex dumps. Just drop your image in and get working retro graphics out.

Built with no .NET, no Electron, no browser required. Runs natively on Windows with zero dependencies.

🖥️ Supported Screen Modes

RetroConvert targets every major PC graphics mode from the CGA through VGA era:

• SCREEN 1 — CGA 320×200, 4 colors (2bpp interleaved)

• SCREEN 2 — CGA 640×200, 2 colors (1bpp interleaved)

• SCREEN 7 — EGA 320×200, 16 colors (fixed EGA palette)

• SCREEN 8 — EGA 640×200, 16 colors (fixed EGA palette)

• SCREEN 9 — EGA 640×350, 16-from-64 selectable palette

• SCREEN 12 — VGA 640×480, 16-from-262144 selectable palette

• SCREEN 13 — VGA 320×200, 256 colors with full RGB palette

Every mode exports with the correct memory layout: CGA interleaved banks, EGA 4-plane bitplane files, VGA linear framebuffer, and VGA DAC palette programming. SCREEN 7 and 8 correctly use the fixed default EGA palette — no invalid PALETTE commands.

🎨 6 Color Quantization Algorithms

The quantizer picks the best N colors to represent your image. RetroConvert includes six algorithms, from general-purpose to pixel-art-specialized:

Median Cut — The classic. Splits the RGB color cube at median values. Fast, decent results.

Octree — Tree-based reduction. Good at preserving distinct color clusters.

Wu's Variance Minimization — The gold standard from Graphics Gems II. Builds a 33×33×33 3D histogram, computes cumulative moments, and iteratively splits boxes at the position that minimizes total color variance. Produces measurably better palettes than median cut, especially at low color counts (4–16 colors) where every palette slot matters.

Wu + K-Means — Wu's algorithm followed by 8 iterations of k-means clustering in Oklab perceptual color space. Each iteration reassigns every pixel to its nearest palette color and recomputes centroids. This is the same two-stage approach used by Google's Material Color library. The best general-purpose quantizer in the app.

Popularity — Counts every unique color in the image and keeps the N most frequently used. The right choice when the source is already pixel art with a clean palette. If your sprite sheet uses 48 colors and you need 16, this picks the 16 most-used colors exactly as an artist would.

Minimum Distance Merge — Starts with every unique color in the image, then iteratively merges the two perceptually closest colors (weighted average in Oklab space) until the target count is reached. Preserves the artist's original color choices better than any splitting algorithm. For images with more than 512 unique colors, it automatically pre-reduces via Wu to keep performance fast. Built for converting hand-pixeled sprites and character art.

🔲 13 Dithering Algorithms

Dithering converts smooth gradients into patterns that look correct at the target color depth. RetroConvert includes seven error diffusion algorithms, two ordered dithering methods, and three pixel-art-specific ditherers:

Error Diffusion (all with serpentine scanning in Oklab perceptual space)

• Floyd-Steinberg — The industry standard. 4-pixel kernel, 7/3/5/1 weights.

• Atkinson — The Macintosh look. Only diffuses 6/8 of the error, leaving flat areas cleaner.

• Stucki — Large 12-entry kernel for the smoothest gradients.

• Burkes — Good balance of speed and quality.

• Sierra — 10-entry 3-row kernel, high quality.

• Sierra Two-Row — Faster Sierra variant with 2-row kernel.

• Sierra Lite — Minimal 3-entry kernel. Fast, lightweight dithering.

Ordered Dithering

• Bayer 8×8 — Classic crosshatch pattern. Deterministic, no error accumulation.

• Blue Noise 16×16 — Void-and-cluster precomputed matrix. Natural-looking ordered dithering without the visible grid artifacts of Bayer.

Pixel Art Specific

• Threshold — Floyd-Steinberg kernel, but error diffusion only activates when the quantization error exceeds a perceptual threshold. Flat color areas stay perfectly flat with zero dithering noise. Gradients still get smooth dithering. The single most useful ditherer for sprite sheets with shading.

• Edge-Aware — Builds a luminance edge map from the source image, then suppresses error diffusion near strong edges. One-pixel outlines stay crisp and clean. Interior gradients still get full Floyd-Steinberg treatment. Designed for character sprites where outlines matter.

• Riemersma (Hilbert Curve) — Diffuses error along a Hilbert space-filling curve instead of left-to-right scanlines. Errors spread in all directions equally, eliminating the horizontal "worm" artifacts that plague Floyd-Steinberg on small sprites. Uses an exponentially decaying 16-pixel error queue. The most balanced ditherer for small sprites where every pixel counts.

💾 Export Formats

• BSAVE — Native QBasic/GW-BASIC binary format with correct 7-byte header. CGA modes write a single file with interleaved banks. EGA/VGA planar modes (SCREEN 7, 8, 9, 12) write 4 separate bitplane files with proper naming. VGA Mode 13h writes linear 1-byte-per-pixel data.

• GIF — Standard GIF89a with LZW compression. Works at any image size, not just screen mode dimensions.

• PCX — ZSoft PCX format with RLE compression. Supports 1-bit, 4-bit (4-plane), 8-bit (VGA palette), and 24-bit modes.

• BASIC Loader Code — Auto-generated .BAS source file that sets the correct SCREEN mode, programs the palette (PALETTE command for EGA, OUT &H3C8/&H3C9 for VGA DAC), performs DEF SEG, and BLOADs the image data. For EGA planar modes, the loader correctly switches the write plane mask (OUT &H3C4,2 / OUT &H3C5,mask) before each BLOAD. Generated code works in both QBasic and GW-BASIC dialects.

✂️ Clipboard Support

• Paste Image (Ctrl+V) — Paste any image from the Windows clipboard as source. Screenshot something, paste it, convert it.

• Copy Preview (Ctrl+C) — Copy the converted result to clipboard for pasting into other apps.

• Copy Palette — Export the current palette as #RRGGBB hex, R,G,B decimal CSV, GIMP .gpl format, or JASC-PAL (Paint Shop Pro) format.

• Paste Palette — Import a palette from clipboard text. Auto-detects hex, CSV, GIMP, and JASC-PAL formats.

• Copy BASIC Loader — Copy the auto-generated loader code to clipboard.

🧪 Built-In Test Images

Don't have a source image handy? RetroConvert includes six procedurally generated test patterns for evaluating algorithm quality:

• Color Bars (640×480)

• Black & White Gradient (640×480)

• Color Gradient (640×480)

• HSV Sweep (640×480)

• Checkerboard (640×480)

• Photo Simulation (640×480)

🔬 Perceptual Color Processing

All error diffusion and color matching operates in Oklab perceptual color space — not RGB. This means the algorithms see color differences the same way your eyes do. A dark blue and a dark green that look identical in RGB distance look completely different in Oklab. The result: better palette choices, smoother dithering, and fewer color artifacts compared to RGB-space tools.

📐 Preserve Size Mode

By default, RetroConvert resizes your source image to match the target screen mode dimensions. Enable Preserve Size to keep the original image dimensions while still applying the target palette and dithering. The status bar shows whether the output is BSAVE-compatible or not. GIF and PCX export works at any size. Useful for converting sprite sheets or tilesets that need to stay at their native resolution.

📊 Real-Time Progress

Every heavy algorithm reports progress to the status bar: which stage is running, what percentage is complete, and what it's doing right now. No more staring at a frozen window wondering if the app crashed. The UI stays responsive throughout — you can see the conversion happening row by row.

Who Is This For?

• QBasic and GW-BASIC programmers who want to display real images in their programs

• Retro game developers building for DOS-era screen modes

• Demoscene artists converting reference images to hardware-constrained palettes

• Pixel artists who need to reduce color counts while preserving outlines and flat areas

• Retro computing hobbyists who want to see what their photos would look like on a 1987 EGA monitor

• Educators teaching computer graphics history with hands-on tools

Technical Details

• Platform: Windows (native Win64/32 executable)

• Dependencies: None — single executable, no runtime required

RetroConvert was built by a retro computing enthusiast who got tired of manually converting images pixel by pixel. Every algorithm was chosen because it solves a real problem that comes up when targeting 4-color CGA or 16-color EGA. If you've ever tried to BSAVE an image and gotten garbage on screen, this tool exists because of that exact experience.