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Made by MI Pixel Ltd, an independent game studio in the UK. Where Retro Gaming Meets Innovation.
Palettes
Endesga 32 by Endesga · Sweetie 16 by GrafxKid · DB16 by DawnBringer · Resurrect 64 by Kerrie Lake · AAP-64 by Adigun A. Polack · Apollo by AdamCYounis · Pear36 by PineappleOnPizza · PICO-8 by Lexaloffle · Commodore 64 (Pepto values). The artist-made palettes are free to download from Lospec. Console and computer palettes are the colours of the machines themselves; some are approximate because emulators and monitors differ.
Fonts
Hanken Grotesk, JetBrains Mono and Pixelify Sans, used under the SIL Open Font Licence.
Found a bug, or have an idea? Tell me. The message opens in your email app so you can read it before sending.
Nothing is open yet. Start a new drawing at the size you want, pick a template, or open a project file you saved earlier.
The New dialog also has templates, including a small heart.
Start from a template
Or a blank canvas
Creating a new canvas replaces your current drawing.
Change the main palette colour, and every pixel of it in every layer and frame changes too. Semi-transparent pixels keep their see-through amount.
Recolour every layer and frame from your current palette to another one. Good for enemy variants, day and night versions or team colours. One undo puts it all back.
Shades a selection (or every drawn pixel on this layer) as if lit from one side. Check the result, then apply. One undo puts it back.
The showing frame will share its pixels with the frame you pick, on every layer. Drawing on one changes both, until you press Unlink. The showing frame's own drawing is replaced. One undo puts it back.
Adds frames that blend this frame into the next one. Colours are mixed where both frames have a pixel; shapes that only one frame has dissolve in or out as dots. They work well as a starting point to tidy by hand. One undo removes them.
Adds one frame for each step of a colour turn: every pixel using a palette colour in the range takes the colour next to it. Played in a loop it makes water ripple, fire flicker or gems glint. The range needs at least two colours. One undo removes the frames.
Cuts the drawing down to fewer colours. Dithering mixes the colours in a pattern so smooth areas still look smooth. Check the result, then apply. One undo puts it back.
If you have something selected, only the selection changes.
Recolours every layer and frame so it only uses colours your chosen console can show. Shading steps are kept apart where possible. One undo puts it all back.
Free: canvases up to 32 px, 2 layers, 4 frames, small maps, one drawing at a time. Full version: up to 512 px, 12 layers, 64 frames, big maps, up to 8 drawings open, Lasso, Blend, Text, Mirror, Dither, Auto shade, Reduce colours, Contrast, Drop shadow and glow, in-betweens, palette cycling, hitboxes and 9-slice borders, custom palettes, Smart scaling, pivot points, sprite-sheet and Tiled export. One licence works on up to 3 of your devices and keeps working offline. Replaced a phone? You can remove old devices from this dialog.
The full version is coming soon. Free is yours to use in the meantime.
Device code (for tester access):
A pixel art editor for sprites, animation and tile maps. A few things worth knowing:
The Free button at the top shows what the full version adds.
Made by MI Pixel · Where Retro Gaming Meets Innovation
Click a shortcut, then press the key you want. Esc cancels. The ✕ clears a shortcut.
Hidden layers are left out. Press and hold the image to save it, or right-click it on a laptop.
Leave empty for automatic names with today's date.
The pivot is the spot a game engine uses to place and rotate your sprite, usually the feet or the centre. It is saved in the project and written into the JSON export. A red cross shows it on the canvas (never in exported pictures).
Makes your drawing smaller. Each block of pixels becomes the colour that fills most of it, so nothing blurs and no new colours appear.
Remove works on each layer's own pixels, so an outline drawn on its own layer is left alone. Hide or delete that layer instead.
Downscaling clears your undo history. Save a project file first if you want a safety copy.
Makes your drawing bigger and smooths the staircase edges of diagonals and curves. It never blurs and never adds new colours.
Upscaling clears your undo history. Save a project file first if you want a safety copy.
Where should your art sit? It stays in that spot when the canvas grows or shrinks.
Resizing clears your undo history. Save a project file first if you want a safety copy.
A picture to trace over. It shows behind your art and is never exported or saved with the project.
Choose a PNG, JPG, GIF or sprite sheet.
Choose an .aseprite, .ase or .pyxel file. Importing is free.
Console limit
Paste a hex list (for example from Lospec)
Palette files (.hex, .gpl, .pal, .txt or a PNG strip)
Add an outline around the art on the active layer.
Art touching the edge of the canvas or tile has no room for an outline. Leave a one pixel gap.
Contrast on the active layer (uses the choices above).
Drop shadow / glow behind the art (full version).
Active layer
A normal map tells a game engine (Unity and others) which way each pixel faces, so lights can shade your art. This makes one from the current frame.
Moves everything on the active layer along a curve, one step per frame, starting at the current frame. Tap the picture to add a point and drag points to bend the path.
Pick a picture of a level made of equal-sized tiles. It is cut up into a tile sheet and a map, and repeated tiles are only stored once.
Choose a picture to start.
Importing replaces your current drawing and map.