Brilliance (graphics editor)

{{Short description|Graphics editor for the Amiga}}

{{more citations needed|date=December 2016}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Brilliance

| screenshot =

| caption =

| other_names = TrueBrilliance

| developer = Digital Creations

| released = {{Start date and age|1993}}

| latest release version = Brilliance 2

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|1994}}

| operating system = AmigaOS

| platform = Amiga

| genre = bitmap graphics editor

| license = Proprietary

| website =

| discontinued = yes

}}

Brilliance is a bitmap graphics editor for the Amiga computer, published by Digital Creations in 1993.{{cite web |title=Brilliance 2.0 |url=http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id%3D306%26type%3Dsoftware |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703121311/http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=306&type=Software |archivedate=2014-07-03 |accessdate=2014-06-21 |website=The Personal Computer Museum}}{{Cite news |last=Pudsey |first=Jarrod |date=November 1993 |title=BRILLIANCE Watch Out, King Tut |volume=10 |pages=14–17 |work=ACAR |issue=11 |url=http://amr.abime.net/review_51998}} Although marketed as a single package, Brilliance in reality consisted of two separate (but near identical-looking) applications. One was a palette-based package also named Brilliance. The other was a true-color package called TrueBrilliance.{{Cite news |last=Kirsch |first=Patrick |date=November 1994 |title=Brilliance 2.0 24 bit painting for the rest of us |volume=11 |pages=12 |work=The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review |issue=11 |url=https://archive.org/details/Australian_Commodore_and_Amiga_Review_The_Volume_11_Issue_11_1994-11_Storm_Front_Studios_AU/page/n13/mode/2up}}{{Cite news |last=Mortier |first=R. |date=November 1995 |title=TrueBrilliance |volume=10 |pages=18 |work=Amazing Computing Amiga |issue=11 |url=https://archive.org/details/amazing-computing-magazine-1995-11/page/n19/mode/2up}}

The Brilliance package was one of the major rivals to Deluxe Paint, the established "killer app" in Amiga bitmap graphics editing.

At its launch, Brilliance attracted generally favorable reviews.{{Cite news |last=Atkin |first=Denny |date=October 1993 |title=Brilliance - Brighter than the Sun |pages=76 |work=Amiga Computing |issue=65 |url=http://amigaland.com/dataz/press_magazine/Amiga_Computing/PDF_TXT/Amiga_Computing_Issue_065_1993_Oct.pdf}} One commonly noted point was TrueBrilliance's performance on Hold-and-Modify and true-color images, which was significantly faster than that of Deluxe Paint IV.{{Cite news |last=Mortier |first=R. |date=January 1994 |title=Brilliance |volume=9 |pages=46 |work=Amazing Computing Amiga |issue=1 |url=https://amr.abime.net/review_51596}} However, despite being faster and easier to use than Deluxe Paint, Brilliance never achieved the same level of popularity. It may be significant that (in contrast to Deluxe Paint) by the time of Brilliance's launch, the Amiga market was already in serious decline.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

TrueBrilliance was notable for its ability to edit true 15 and 24-bit color images, even on older Amigas which could only display HAM-6 (pseudo-12-bit color) graphics. In such cases, the image was rendered as a HAM display, but all modifications were performed on the underlying true color image buffer. Even when the final image was intended for HAM display, this had the advantage that successive operations did not accumulate HAM artifacts on top of each other. Loss of quality could be restricted to a single HAM conversion at the end of the process.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}