Chess piece sets in PGN, GIF, or JPG

[AdrianP]

Hey guys :)

I'm writing a chess application for an as-yet-unreleased platform that I can't discuss much because of an NDA, but which nevertheless I think will be very exciting for a lot of members here.

My question has to do with an attractive, easy-to-view piece set. Does anyone know a good set of piece images meeting the following requirements:

a) In either PGN, GIF, or JPG format.
b) Freely licensable -- please don't just suggest I rip the resources from Chessbase or Dasher (unless you can show that they're allowed to be reused)
c) Preferably without a square background, just the piece on a transparent layer (if there is a background I may still be able to use it, though... this is just a very strong preference)
d) Nice, clean, standard (not any of those "fantasy" piece sets) pieces, which would be easy to look at even in conditions that are small, monochrome, etc.

Thanks a lot :) In return, I promise to keep y'all updated on my progress!

Cheers,
Adrian

[Rincewind]

I'm writing a chess application for an as-yet-unreleased platform that I can't discuss much because of an NDA, but which nevertheless I think will be very exciting for a lot of members here.

If there is a NDA I assume it is a commercial venture. That's ok but it might limit what you can use and also it might limit the sort of help you can reasonably expect for free. ;)

My question has to do with an attractive, easy-to-view piece set. Does anyone know a good set of piece images meeting the following requirements:

a) In either PGN, GIF, or JPG format.

PGN is not a graphic format I assume you mean PNG. If you want to use a transparent layer I would recommend going with GIF but remember that it is not a vector format and so may not scale well. To mitigate this you can has a discrete set of GIFs of various sizes.

b) Freely licensable -- please don't just suggest I rip the resources from Chessbase or Dasher (unless you can show that they're allowed to be reused)

Remember that software released under a GPL only permits use in not for profit applications. If you considering making a profit from your venture then you will need to find something which is completely no-strings-attached free.

Alternatively, pay an artist to come up with something original (which is what I would recommend).

c) Preferably without a square background, just the piece on a transparent layer (if there is a background I may still be able to use it, though... this is just a very strong preference)

If you have a good contrast it is pretty easy to make a transparent layer version from a graphic with a square background. The software Photofiltre does this well and probably other freely available applications will as well. The only issue that comes to mind is that if you go this route you may want to keep a single row of contrasting pixels around your images so that while pieces look good on white and back backgrounds and the same with the black pieces..

d) Nice, clean, standard (not any of those "fantasy" piece sets) pieces, which would be easy to look at even in conditions that are small, monochrome, etc.

I agree this is best and regular chess players will want to use something which is standard (like what you see in newspaper puzzle columns). But again I would recommend you give these requirements to a professional computer artist and get your own version. Then you don't have to worry about the copyright issues.

Thanks a lot :) In return, I promise to keep y'all updated on my progress!

Please do post any news of general interest to chess players.

Best of luck with the project. If you need some help using programs like Photofiltre, drop me a line.