Pixelsort GUI

PySide6 (Qt6) desktop GUI for the pixelsort by Satyarth.

The engine source is NOT distributed with this repo. It is installed from original distribution with Pypl.

Setup

Windows:

setup_venv.bat     :: creates .venv, installs PySide6 + Pillow + pixelsort + pyinstaller
run_gui.bat        :: launches the GUI (runs setup first if needed)

Or manually:

py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate.bat
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Linux / macOS (needs Python 3.10+; first make the scripts executable once with chmod +x *.sh):

./setup_venv.sh    :: creates .venv, installs PySide6 + Pillow + pixelsort + pyinstaller
./run_gui.sh       :: launches the GUI (runs setup first if needed)

Or manually:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

ASDF preset

More familiar with Kim Asendorf's ASDFPixelSort? Click ASDF preset: threshold + lightness + stock thresholds with two-pass enabled. pass 1 at angle 90 (vertical streaks), pass 2 at angle 0 (horizontal), the recipe from the satyarth README for replicating the Processing sketch.

Build a standalone executable

Requires the .venv from setup. One-dir builds (faster, more reliable); add --onefile to the pyinstaller line in the script for a single-file binary.

OS	Script	Output
Windows	build_exe.bat	dist\PixelsortGUI\PixelsortGUI.exe
Linux	./build_linux.sh	dist/PixelsortGUI/PixelsortGUI
macOS	./build_macos.sh	dist/PixelsortGUI.app (open dist/PixelsortGUI.app)

build_macos.sh ad-hoc signs the bundle so it launches locally; that is not a substitute for notarization when distributing to others.

Parameters

Mirrors the CLI flags: interval function -i (random/threshold/edges/waves/file/file-edges/none), sorting function -s (lightness/hue/saturation/intensity/minimum), angle -a, lower/upper thresholds -t/-u, char length -c, randomness -r, interval file -f, mask -m. Controls irrelevant to the chosen interval mode are auto-disabled. Defaults come from the engine's pixelsort.constants.DEFAULTS.

Troubleshooting

• ImportError: cannot import name 'PyAccess' from 'PIL' — you are running an old checkout of this GUI. Current app.py shims that hint-only alias, which Pillow 12 removed; pull latest and keep Pillow>=10.
• App starts but Sort fails — the bundle embeds the PyPI engine at build time; rebuild with the matching script (build_exe.bat / build_linux.sh / build_macos.sh) after any requirements.txt change.
• Linux: setup_venv.sh fails to create the venv — install it with sudo apt install python3-venv (Debian/Ubuntu). If the GUI or frozen binary fails to start with missing Qt/shared-library errors, install the system GL stack, e.g. sudo apt install libgl1 libegl1 libxkbcommon0.
• macOS: first launch of an unsigned/ad-hoc build may be blocked — right-click the app > Open, or run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine dist/PixelsortGUI.app.