What is Piskel?
Piskel is a browser-based editor for pixel art and animated sprites, built for small drawings such as game characters, tiles and animated icons. You draw frame by frame on a grid, and a live preview plays the animation as you work, with a frame delay you can change on the fly.
The finished work can leave as an animated GIF for sharing, or as a spritesheet PNG or ZIP for use in a game project. The code is open source under the Apache licence and the project is run by a small team of volunteers. A separate Piskel for Kids editor removes ads and is aimed at children and classrooms.
Main Features
- Frame-by-frame sprite animation
- Layers and onion skinning for drawing between frames
- Live animation preview with adjustable frame delay
- Export to animated GIF, PNG and spritesheet
- Recovery of recent sessions from browser backups
- Ad-free Piskel for Kids editor
- Open source code on GitHub
How to Get Started with Piskel
- Open piskelapp.com and press Create Sprite.
- Set the canvas size for your sprite.
- Draw your first frame, then add more frames for the animation.
- Watch the live preview and adjust the frame delay.
- Export the result as a GIF or spritesheet.
Piskel Pricing
Piskel is free. It is paid for partly by ads, and the team says it does not currently offer a paid ad-free version. Piskel for Kids is free and has no ads.
Who Should Use It?
- Indie game developers making sprites and tilesets
- Beginners trying pixel art for the first time
- Teachers running an art or game design lesson
- Hobbyists making small animated GIFs
- Artists who want a quick editor with nothing to install
Piskel Alternatives
- JS Paint recreates classic MS Paint in the browser.
- Voxels lets you build simple 3D models from blocks in your browser.
- PixelPlanet is a shared online canvas where people place pixels together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Piskel free?
Yes. The editor is free and open source. It shows ads and there is no paid version at the moment.
Can I use Piskel without ads?
The Piskel for Kids editor is ad-free and open to anyone. It is designed for children and educators, and needs no special account.
What can I export from Piskel?
Animated GIFs for sharing and PNG or ZIP spritesheets for bigger projects such as games.
Does Piskel work on a phone?
The site says it works best in a desktop browser in landscape orientation. It warns you on small screens but lets you open it anyway.
What if the editor crashes?
Piskel saves your work periodically. Open the Import panel and use Browse backups to recover a recent session.