OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Pixel Art Editor
Draw Sprites Online, Free PNG Export
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How the Pixel Art Editor works
This pixel art editor gives you a grid, a palette and a pencil. A small grid, a palette and a pencil are all pixel art needs. This editor gives you a canvas from 8 to 64 pixels square, sixteen-colour palettes plus any custom colour, fill and eyedropper tools, mirror drawing for symmetrical sprites, and a PNG export at whatever scale you need, with a transparent background by default. Nothing leaves your browser.
Pixel art editor: the canvas
Canvas size sets the grid: 8 or 16 pixels for icons, emoji and tiny sprites, 32 for characters and items, 64 for portraits and detailed tiles. Changing the size keeps whatever is already drawn in the top-left corner, so you can start at 16 and grow to 32 without losing work. Each cell is drawn large on screen so it is easy to hit with a mouse or finger, and Grid lines can be hidden to judge the picture as it will look when saved. The checkerboard behind the drawing marks transparent pixels and is never part of the saved file.
Tools
Pencil paints one cell at a time and joins the cells under a fast drag so a quick line has no gaps. Eraser sets cells back to transparent. Fill floods every connected cell of the same colour, including connected transparent cells, so a single click colours a background or the inside of an outline. Eyedropper picks the colour of the cell you click, sets it as the current colour and copies it into the Custom swatch, which is the quickest way to return to a colour you have already used. Undo steps back through the last fifty changes, and Clear empties the canvas as a single undoable step.
Colours
Each palette is a small fixed set of colours, which is what makes pixel art look coherent: the Classic 16 palette suits retro game sprites, Pastel suits icons and stickers, Earth suits tiles and landscapes, Four-shade green reproduces the look of early handheld screens, and Greyscale is for shading studies. The Custom colour picker adds any colour at all, and every colour you place stays on the canvas if you switch palettes, because the palette only changes the swatches offered, not the pixels.
Mirror
Mirror repeats each pencil, eraser and fill stroke across the middle of the canvas: Left-right for characters, faces and anything seen head-on, Top-bottom for reflections, and Both for emblems and tiles. It applies as you draw rather than afterwards, so you can switch it off to add an asymmetric detail such as a sword or a shadow and switch it back on.
Saving
Download PNG saves the grid at the chosen Export scale, so a 16-pixel sprite at scale 16 becomes a crisp 256 by 256 image with hard pixel edges and no blurring. Scale 1 gives the true-size sprite for a game engine, which does its own scaling. Saved background is Transparent by default, the right choice for sprites and icons; choose White for a picture that will be pasted into a document or shared where transparency would show as black.
FAQ
Can I import an existing image to edit?
No, this editor starts from a blank grid. To enlarge finished pixel art without blurring, use the pixel art upscaler, and to turn a small drawing into a set of favicons, save it at scale 1 and run it through the favicon package tool.
Why does fill colour the whole background?
Fill floods every cell connected to the one you click that shares its colour, and empty cells are all connected until an outline separates them. Draw a closed outline first and fill inside it, or use fill on the background deliberately to set a solid ground colour in one click.
What scale should I export at?
For a game or app, export at scale 1 and let the engine scale with nearest-neighbour filtering. For sharing on the web or in chat, use 8 or 16 so the sprite is large enough to see; a 32-pixel canvas at scale 16 is 512 pixels wide, which is plenty for a post or a profile picture.
Does the palette change existing pixels?
No. The palette only changes which swatches are offered; every pixel keeps the colour it was painted with. Use the eyedropper to bring a colour from the canvas back into the current selection after switching palettes.
See also: all Drawing Pads tools, Images, Audio, Video & Screen, PDF, SVG, Simulations & Screensavers, Generative Art, Chart Makers, 3D Model Viewers, Mockups & 3D Making, Diagram Makers, 3D Science, Tracker Music.
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Doodle Pad
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Symmetry Sketchpad
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