Pixel Art Tools
Aseprite, Libresprite, Piskel, Pyxel Edit — sprite and tile drawing.
Pixel art for sprites, tilesets and animations. Pairs with tile / level editors, 2D animation rigs, free asset stores and broader design / raster editors. For 2D engines that consume these see 2D engines.
The category leader has been Aseprite for a decade. Its quirk: the binary is paid (~$20), but the source is MIT-ish and you can build it yourself for free, which has spawned a healthy fork ecosystem.
Sprite-first / animation
- ★ Aseprite — paid binary (~$20 on Steam/itch), but source on GitHub is buildable for free. Frame-based animation, onion skinning, tilemap mode (since 1.3), pixel-perfect line tools, palette workflow. The genre standard.
- ★ Libresprite — free fork of the last GPL'd Aseprite, MIT/GPL. Diverged years ago; misses recent Aseprite features (tilemap, slices) but free and getting attention again.
- Pixelorama — free, OSS, built in Godot. Animation, isometric grids, 3D-to-pixel rendering. Surprisingly polished.
- GraphicsGale — free since 2017 (Windows). Long-time pixel-artist favorite for animation.
- Pyxel Edit — paid (~$10), tile-focused.
Browser / lightweight
- ★ Piskel — free, browser, OSS. Excellent for first-time pixel artists, classroom use, quick mocks.
- Pixilart — free web-based community + editor.
- Lospec Pixel Editor — free, browser, by the Lospec palette community.
Mobile / tablet
- ★ Pixaki — paid iPad ($25 one-time), the iPad-native pixel app.
- Procreate — paid (~$13), not pixel-first but has decent pixel brushes.
- dotpict — free mobile, very simple.
Tile / pattern utilities
- Tiled (see tile / level editors) — for laying pixel tiles into maps.
- Tilemancer — generative tile patterns (free / cheap).
- Pixelorama has built-in tilemap mode.
Palettes & references
- Lospec — palette database (DB16, Pico-8, Sweetie 16, AAP-64, Endesga, Apollo, etc.).
- Coolors, Paletton — general palette tools (see design color tools).
- PixelDB, Spriter's Resource — references and rips for study (mind copyright).
License / pricing summary
- Free OSS: Libresprite, Pixelorama, Piskel.
- Free closed: GraphicsGale, Pixilart.
- Paid (~$10–25): Aseprite, Pyxel Edit, Pixaki, PICO-8, Procreate.
- Aseprite caveat: source is on GitHub and buildable yourself; the paid binary funds the dev. Fully legitimate to build from source.
Pick this if…
- Default, willing to pay: Aseprite.
- Default, free: Libresprite or Pixelorama (Pixelorama is more featureful in 2026).
- Browser, no install: Piskel.
- iPad-only: Pixaki.
- Tile-pattern focused: Pyxel Edit or Pixelorama tilemap mode.