: What are the best mac applications for developing pixel art? I would like to create pixel art graphics for an iPhone game on my mac, and I'm wondering what are some good programs I should

@Pierce403

I love using PyxelEdit, it gives me everything I need without the size and weight of PhotoShop. Among the great features are: animation, spritesheet export, tileset importing, layers... check it out here.

The Price is small and it runs on any system that supports Adobe Air. There is an older (free) version for testing.

Cheers
rikki.o

Vote Up Vote Down

@Vandalay110

When evaluating graphics software for pixel art this is the kind of tools I'm looking for:



The most well known software that is also great for pixel art is Photoshop.

If you don't have access to it and are looking for the next best alternative, look at GIMP. I've been happily using it on Macs since around 2010 and it has everything you need for pixel art. Best of all, it's free and open source!

Here's a tutorial I made about setting up GIMP for pixel art that should come useful:



When comparing Photoshop vs Gimp on pixel art grounds the capabilities are 99% leveled out. You really need to go into details to find some differences:

GIMP


line drawing guide
precise grid settings (+ saved into file format)
low-level GIF animation control
indexed colors with layers


Photoshop


better animation tools
more intuitive user interface
adjustment filters (useful for advanced techniques such as HD indexed painting)


But these are really minor points that don't matter that much. You'll be able to create any pixel art you desire in both.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Angela777

PikoPixel is a free pixel-art editor.

        


Easy to use
Unlimited undo
Supports multiple layers
Customizable canvas background
Hotkey-activated popup panels
Export upscaled images
Runs on OS X 10.4 Tiger & later

Vote Up Vote Down

@Phylliss782

Take a look at Sketch. It has made big strides toward being your next favorite UI tool.

It's vector based but supports raster export. It supports a pixel preview mode similar to Illustrator but I think it does a better job with the vector to pixel output conversion overall.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Sent7350415

ASESPRITE is good, in my opinion. The free version is quite capable, and it has a pixel-arty feel, but if you can spare , the full version is very good

Vote Up Vote Down

@Margaret771

There is always a free alternative Paint.NET. It is essentially MSPaint but with great many tools borrowed from PS and other image editing applications.

It has an option to use Anti-Aliased or Pixeled edges.

I always have it since it's light weight and has some good options, that other programs either don't have and/or are difficult to execute.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Twilah924

I think the main features you're after are:


Being able to paint with a non-antialiased pencil or brush.
Nearest neighbour scaling (keep blocky things blocky when you scale).
Non-antialiased selections.
Layers.
Being able to export the formats you'll need (PNG? GIF?).


Based on that criteria, there’s a few tools that can do it. Pixen is awesome, and worth investigating:

pixenapp.com

I'd also highly recommend Photoshop, predominately using the Pencil Tool — it does exactly what you're after, letting you paint non-antialiased pixels easily. It also has some other tools that might be handy, like posterisation.

Acorn would be my second option on the Mac. It has a pencil tool that's similar to Photoshop, as well as nearest neighbour scaling (if you need it). It's also far cheaper and available on the Mac App Store, if that's a concern.

Both Photoshop and Acorn have the full list of features above.


Flying Meat Acorn
Adobe Photoshop

Vote Up Vote Down

@Jessie844

There are so many good software to work around.

If you can afford adobe you should go for
Photoshop and fireworks they both works awesome for pixels.

You can check these links also they are dedicated to complete game pixel work...


Anim Pixels
Graphics Gale
A good list of software's with links

Vote Up Vote Down

@RJPawlick971

Some Options:


Adobe Fireworks (my recommendation if you can afford it)
Adobe Photoshop
Pixelmator (though a lack of nearest neighbor scaling is a big detriment)
The Gimp
Pixen (looks like it's designed just for pixel art)

Vote Up Vote Down