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Sumo Paint
Browser painting app with layers, over 300 brushes and a symmetry tool that mirrors every stroke around up to 18 points.
BeginnerWeb
Piskel
Piskel is a free, open-source editor for pixel art and animated sprites that runs in the browser and as an offline desktop app, and exports PNG spritesheets and animated GIFs.
FreeBeginnerWebWindowsMacLinux
Overview
Piskel is a browser editor for pixel art and animated sprites, the kind used for small game characters, tiles and icons. You draw square by square on a grid and build the animation frame by frame in the same file. Each frame takes layers, and an onion skin shows the previous frame faintly behind the current one. Exports are an animated GIF, a PNG spritesheet, a ZIP of frames, or a C file.
It runs in a desktop browser, and there are free desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux. Piskel is free and open source under the Apache licence, with no accounts and nothing to upgrade to. The editor carries ads, and there is no paid ad-free version. You save your work in the browser or as a .piskel file.
Key features
✓Draw pixel art square by square on a grid
✓Animate frame by frame in the same file
✓Live animation preview with adjustable frame delay
✓Layers within each frame
✓Onion skin to line up against the previous frame
✓Export an animated GIF
✓Export a PNG spritesheet, a ZIP of frames or a C file
✓Save in the browser or as a .piskel file, with session backups
✓Desktop apps for Windows, Mac & Linux
✓Piskel for Kids: the same editor without ads or tracking
When to use
Use Piskel if:
- You are making a game character, tile or icon on a small grid. The canvas is built for that scale, and you place one coloured square at a time.
- You want the sprite and its animation in one file. You draw a sequence of frames, the onion skin lines up movement against the previous frame, and a live preview plays it as you work.
- You need assets a game engine or a web page can use. Piskel exports PNG spritesheets, ZIPs and animated GIFs straight out.
- You want to start with nothing to sign up for. The browser version draws immediately, and the Windows, Mac and Linux apps are free downloads that run without a connection.
- You want to read or change how the tool works. All of Piskel's code is public under the Apache licence.
When NOT to use
Skip Piskel if any of these describe you:
- You are painting or sketching at normal resolution rather than on a pixel grid. Piskel's tools all work square by square, so a paint tool like Kleki suits that work better.
- You are editing a photograph. Piskel has no photo adjustments at all, so a photo editor is the right kind of tool.
- You want your projects held in the cloud. Piskel has no accounts, and its terms state nothing is uploaded to its servers, so your work lives in your browser or in a .piskel file on your own disk.
- You work on a phone or tablet. The drawing tools assume a mouse and a desktop browser or app, not a touchscreen.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Piskel is free and open source, released under the Apache licence. You do not make an account, your exports carry no watermark, and there is nothing to upgrade to. Ads pay for it, and the team states there is no paid ad-free version. Piskel for Kids is the same editor without ads or tracking.
An animated GIF, a PNG spritesheet, a ZIP holding one PNG per frame, or a C file with the frames as an array for game code. You can also save the whole project as a .piskel file and reopen it later to keep editing.
Piskel has no accounts at all. Its privacy policy states the site does not allow the creation of accounts, and its terms state nothing you make is uploaded to its servers. You save your work inside the browser, which keeps it on that machine and in that browser only. You can also save a .piskel file and keep it yourself. Piskel also stores backups of recent sessions, so you can recover work after a crash.
They are free downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux that run without a connection. The team calls them best-effort releases with very limited testing, and recommends the web version if you want the latest fixes and features. Your sprites live in .piskel files either way, so you can move work between the two.
Yes, that is a core part of Piskel. You draw a sequence of frames, and a live preview plays them so you can set the speed. An onion skin shows the previous frame behind the current one to help line up movement. You then export the animation as a GIF, or as a spritesheet to drive it in a game.
No. Piskel is for pixel art and sprites drawn square by square on a grid. It has no photo adjustments, and it is not a freehand painting app. For a photo you want a photo editor, and for ordinary drawing you want a paint tool. Piskel is built for pixel work only.
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