Texeled

Texeled is a practical tool especially for those who need to work at a very granular level with textures and study texture maps as well as, edit and manipulate pixels’ formats. The open-source tool is well-equipped for the task and does not overcomplicate things. It delivers the necessary features in a small package.

Texeled’s name was derived from two words: ‘texel’ and ‘editor’. The texel is a concept highly used among individuals who work with textures on 3D objects building. The texel is the smallest unit from a texture map (the pixels from a 2D surface) that will be used to create a 3D object. These techniques are super useful for industries like game development and 3D design, video editing, and so on.

In the previously described context, Texeled (‘texel’ + ‘editor’) is an indispensable tool. The program’s whole structure is simple, coherent, and efficient. The tool is also fully portable, meaning you don’t need to install it and it can be moved super quickly (e.g. send it, save it on an external drive/USB). Being built in C, C++, and Objective-C, it will integrate perfectly with your Windows OS.

Upon opening the tool, you have an empty working space that requires you to add a file, and intuitive commands. You can open, save, and navigate files (previous/next), convert a picture’s pixel format, resize the image, and generate the MIP maps (a succession of pictures where each consecutive image is a lower-resolution representation of the previous one).

The tool allows for setting certain parameters, color corrections, display pixel grids, etc. With the Ctrl + Shift shortcut, you can generate a mini magnifier for checking individual pixels. A cool feature is the one that allows you to drag and drop a new image; the newly added picture will automatically be modified based on your previously set parameters. A cool function is ‘Tiling’ — it allows for multiplying an image which is super useful for working with textures.

To summarize, whether you work in the gaming or the 3D industry, or just need a tool that will help you tackle the granular work of handling pixels, Texeled is the tool that will satisfy your needs. It is fast, easy-to-use, free, portable, and works perfectly well. This program is a tool worth trying and worth keeping.