If you are looking to make pixel art for games and artwork you will need a pixel art maker to help you create your pixel images. We have created a list of the best free pixel art makers for creating pixel art for 2D games as well as graphics.
What is a Pixel Art Maker?
A Pixel Art Maker, sometimes referred to as a pixel art editor, is a unique type of software used by graphic artists and game developers to make 2D pixel graphics. When created using a pixel art maker, these pixel art images can be used for a variety of different scenarios including 2D graphics for video games and image stills for social media. The most commonly used pixel art makers are:
Aseprite
Aseprite is an incredibly popular pixel art maker by Agar Studio for making 2D pixel art and also animated pixel art sprites. Similar to other image editing tools like Photoshop, Aseprite has tools for creating and editing pixel art images. However, Aseprite was designed exclusively to make pixel art. Because of this there are tools and features that don’t exist in other traditional photo editor applications. Some huge features include shading tools and the ability to create repeatable tiles.
Features: Powerful Pixel Art Maker, Dedicated Set of Pixel Art Tools, JPG and PNG Image Importing
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: macOS, Windows
Difficulty: Intermediate
Website: www.aseprite.org
Piskel
Piskel is a free online pixel art maker for designing and animating 2D pixel art. Similar to other dedicated pixel art software like Aseprite, Piskel was mainly created for pixel art and therefore makes it simple to use because all the tools you work with in the editor are related to pixel art only. One of its strong points is the animation editor, with live preview and animated GIF exports.
Features: Full-Featured Pixel Art Maker, JPG and PNG Image Importing, Animation Timeline
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Browser Based (macOS, Windows, Linux)
Difficulty: Easy
Website: www.piskel.com
PixiEditor
PixiEditor is a simple, free pixel art maker that comes with tons of useful features for designing and exporting pixel art on specifically for Windows PCs. It comes with several common and useful features for creating pixel art such as layers, color selecting tools and a great toolset designed especially for pixel art.
Features: Free Pixel Art Maker for Windows PCS, Easy-to-use Layer Support, Tools Designed Exclusively for Pixel Art Creation, Open Source
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Windows
Difficulty: Easy
Website: www.pixieditor.net
Mega Voxels
Mega Voxels is a free 3D pixel art maker for making 3D pixel art models and images. Unlike other pixel makers, Mega Voxels allows you to create a 3D version of pixels, known as voxels. It is very easy to learn and the tools such as pencil, paint and eraser are similar to other popular pixel art makers such as Aseprite and PixiEditor. Mega Voxels is currently available for a variety of phones, tablets and computers.
Features: Full Featured 3D Pixel Art Maker, Large Library of 3D Pixel Art templates, Runs on a variety of different devices
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS (Silicon), and ChromeOS
Difficulty: Easy
Website: www.megavoxels.com
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is an open source image and photo editing software that comes with a the common set of tools for a pixel art maker that run Windows. Because of its large feature set, it makes it particularly fit for pixel art design. Because it is a full featured graphic design software it also includes support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
Features: Full-Featured Graphic Software w/ Pixel Art Maker, Dozens of additional tools, JPG and PNG Image Importing, Export to Multiple Image Formats
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Windows
Difficulty: Advanced
Website: www.getpaint.net
GIMP
GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for macOS, Windows and Linux. Because it is free and open source it has become one of the community’s favorite software for making pixel art. GIMP is a great choice for pixel art creation because it includes the common tools for adding, erasing and coloring pixels. And best of all it free to use for personal and commercial projects.
Features: Complete Photo Editing Software (w/ Pixel Art Maker), JPG and PNG Image Importing, Animation Timeline
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Browser Based (macOS, Windows, Linux)
Difficulty: Advanced
Website: www.gimp.org
Krita
Krita is a free, open source painting program with useful set of pixel art making tools used for creating digital artwork and images. Because of its diverse toolset it is also very powerful when it comes to designing pixel art. Like other photo editing software, you will find common tools such as pencil and bucket fill. One of the advantages of using Krita is that you will find features and tools not available in software dedicated to pixel art, which makes it possible to create some fantastic looking artwork. You will also find a variety of common export formats that make it ideal for artists and game developers alike. The software is free to download and use in personal and commercial projects.
Features: Full-Featured Pixel Art Maker, JPG and PNG Image Importing, Animation Timeline
Price: Free
Supported Platforms: Browser Based (macOS, Windows, Linux)
Difficulty: Advanced
Website: www.krita.org
