PixelPen is a pixel art editor and animation tool built with the Godot Engine. It can run as a standalone application on Linux or as an add-on inside the Godot editor. That makes it suitable both for general pixel artwork and for artists creating assets directly alongside a Godot project.
Projects combine the canvas, palette, layers and animation data rather than treating the artwork as a single flattened image. PixelPen uses its own project format to preserve this structure, while export functions provide conventional image and animation output when the work is ready to use elsewhere.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Create and edit pixel art with dedicated pen, selection, move and colour-picking tools.
- Run PixelPen as a standalone application or integrate it into the Godot editor.
- Manage multiple layers with visibility controls and layer locking.
- Maintain an indexed colour palette and perform palette-oriented editing operations.
- Create frame-based animations using a dedicated animation timeline.
- Preview animations while working and step through individual frames.
- Use onion skinning to compare neighbouring animation frames.
- Export animations as individual frames, animated GIF files or PNG sprite sheets.
- Export still artwork in common image formats including PNG and WebP.
- Use configurable keyboard shortcuts for editor, layer and animation actions.
- Copy, cut, paste, invert selections and delete selected areas.
- Use canvas guides designed for diamond and hexagonal tile layouts.
- Store project data, images and configuration together in PixelPen’s project format.
- Build and run native x86-64 Linux components through the project’s GDExtension support.
- Use a web build for previewing the editor in a browser.
Website: github.com/pixelpen-dev/pixelpen
Support:
Developer: Bayu Santoso Widodo
License: MIT License
PixelPen is written in GDScript and C++. Learn GDScript with our recommended free tutorials. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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| voidsprite | Pixel art editor in an early stage of development |
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