Since the Scratch Beta site opened, we've gotten tons of constructive feedback from Scratchers. (Thanks!) While mostly people are excited about the new features, some have felt confused or frustrated by the new vector paint editor, and wanted it to be more like the bitmap paint editor in Scratch 1.4. Some Scratchers suggested that we offer both a bitmap and a vector editor . At first we worried that having two paint editors would be confusing. But based on feedback from the community, we've decided to provide both options. We want to give Scratchers the power and flexibility of vector graphics, but also the familiarity and simplicity of bitmap editing.

So here's our plan so far. When you start, you'll get the bitmap tools by default. Here’s a rough mockup:



Those tools – such as the paintbrush, line tool, paint bucket, and eraser –will work like they did in 1.4.

But if you want to, you can switch to draw with vector tools instead:



We hope to have an updated paint editor based on this design ready for testing in a few weeks. Once it is available, we'll make an announcement, and ask everyone to try it out. Meanwhile, thanks for your feedback and patience while we work out the kinks in the Beta!!

Scratch On!
Lightnin, on behalf of the Scratch Team

p.s. We're always rethinking things to make them better, so don't be surprised if the design ends up looking and working a little differently than these mockups indicate.

Finally! oh, and will bitmap graphics have better quality?

numberonegamers wrote:

Finally! oh, and will bitmap graphics have better quality?

A bitmap is a bitmap is a bitmap.But we're looking into some anti-aliasing issues that might make things look a bit better.

Will the scratch cat that comes when you make a new project be bitmap or vector?

and on a side note of graphics will the resolution of the stage be bumped up?

coinman wrote:

Will the scratch cat that comes when you make a new project be bitmap or vector?

We're going to try starting out with vector when you make a new project (during the beta). But if that's confusing for newcomers, we might change that to bitmap.

Yay for bitmap. I'll be able to create scratch projects seriously now. It's just that vectors are horrible for precise measurements

Good choice, Scratch Team.

will we be able to use the bitmap editor to make an image, then use the vector editor on the same image? and will we be able to have costumes with both bitmap and vector components?

Why not have a bitmap editor that saves as PNG files that are then converter to vector graphics? Or have the ability to convert images as they are imported from the computer. It is MUCH easier to draw with the bitmap raster graphics, but being able to finalize the project with vector graphics makes it look nicer.

Vector paint editor: fantastic video that show very well how to work with it: http://youtu.be/_CQiKkaq1Ec

Yes! Thank you guys!

Cool idea: have there be an option in Account Settings for your preference of graphics (either vector or bitmap) and it will load up those sprites from the library and that editor by default. It should be set to Vector by default at the beginning, since it is the new editor of 2.0

Wes64 wrote:

will we be able to use the bitmap editor to make an image, then use the vector editor on the same image? and will we be able to have costumes with both bitmap and vector components?

Yep - the details of how to convert are a little tricky though. Stay tuned!

Yes, I shall be able to complete the next update to SSBS now!

Lightnin wrote:

Wes64 wrote:

will we be able to use the bitmap editor to make an image, then use the vector editor on the same image? and will we be able to have costumes with both bitmap and vector components?

Yep - the details of how to convert are a little tricky though. Stay tuned!

Hmm, why not have a vector layer and a bitmap layer? They could become “read-only” when the mode changes.

Lightnin wrote:

the details of how to convert are a little tricky though. Stay tuned!

I can see how you can convert from vector to bitmap quite “easily”. But converting from bitmap to vector is to me tricky, if not often impossible (or at least the result won't be what I'd like, but a bunch of small vectors).

If I start my work with vectors, and then convert my image from vectors to bitmap, work a bit on it, and then convert the image back to vectors, will I have the same vectors that I had before converting them to bitmap (at least in those part of my image that I didn't modify with the bitmap editor)?