piskel
A simple web-based tool for Spriting and Pixel art.
Piskel is a free, browser-based editor for drawing pixel art and creating sprite animations, used mainly by indie game developers to make game characters and effects.
Piskel is a browser-based pixel art and sprite editor. Pixel art is a style of digital drawing where images are made up of individually colored squares, and it is commonly used in indie video games. A sprite is a small image or short animation that represents a character, object, or effect inside a game.
The editor lets you draw frame by frame and preview animations in real time. It can export your work as an animated GIF, a spritesheet (a single image containing all frames laid out in a grid, which game engines read), or a ZIP file. It can also import existing GIFs. Everything runs in the browser with no installation: the code behind piskelapp.com is the same code in this repository.
Piskel is built entirely in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It relies on a handful of libraries: one for color picking, one for generating animated GIFs using background threads, one for reading GIFs, and one for creating ZIP archives. End-to-end tests use Playwright, a browser automation tool.
The editor is tested and supported on the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave. There is no mobile or tablet support. Offline desktop builds are available and documented in the project's wiki.
The project accepts small contributions like typo fixes and minor bug corrections, but notes that large refactors, new features, or changes to the user interface are unlikely to be reviewed due to limited maintainer time.
Where it fits
- Draw frame-by-frame pixel art animations and export them as animated GIFs for use in indie games.
- Create a spritesheet from your pixel art characters and import it directly into a game engine.
- Import an existing GIF to edit its frames in the pixel art style.
- Build an offline desktop version of the Piskel editor by following the wiki build instructions.