Pixelorama
Unleash your creativity with Pixelorama, a powerful and accessible open-source pixel art multitool. Whether you want to create sprites, tiles, animations, or just express yourself in the language of pixel art, this software will realize your pixel-perfect dreams with a vast toolbox of features.
Do you need help on how to start, or are you stuck somewhere? You can refer to Pixelorama's official documentation.
Current features:
- Wide Range of Tools: Customize your workflow by dynamically mapping tools to the left and right mouse buttons, making your creation process faster and more intuitive.
- Advanced Animation Support: Create animations with a timeline composed of layers and frames, including features like onion skinning, audio synchronization, frame tags, and the ability to draw while the animation is playing.
- Pixel Art Focused: Perfect pixel lines, indexed mode, and rotation and scaling algorithms tailored specifically to pixel art, like cleanEdge, OmniScale, and rotxel.
- Seamless Tilemap Creation: Use Pixelorama's tilemap layers to create rectangular, isometric or hexagonal tiles for your games.
- Powerful Layer System: Utilize clipping masks and non-destructive visual effects like outlines, gradient maps, drop shadows, and more. Perfect for experimenting with styles and compositions, as changes can be applied without altering your original artwork.
- Palette Management: Bring color into your canvas by choosing from pre-made palettes, importing your own, or creating custom ones inside the software to suit your unique style.
- Visual Effects: Multiple image effects for fine-tuning your artwork.
- Advanced Canvas Options: Utilize guides, rectangular and isometric grids, and tile mode to ensure seamless and precise pattern creation.
- Automatic Backups: Stay safe with auto-saved backups to recover your work in case of unexpected software crashes.
- Highly Customizable UI: Tailor the interface to your needs for maximum efficiency and a smooth workflow.
- Export & Import: Support for various formats such as PNG, animated PNG, spritesheets, GIFs and even videos.
- 3D Layer Support: Break the barrier between dimensions by bringing 3D models and shapes into your 2D canvas for unlimited creative possibilities.
- Command Line Automation: Automate file exports using the command line interface for bulk exporting and streamlining workflows.
- Project Metadata: Attach custom user data to layers, frames, and cels, making it easy to integrate with game development and other creative processes.
- Extension Support: Benefit from free, community-made extensions, such as tools that convert your 2D pixels into 3D voxels.
- Fully Open-Source: Pixelorama is open-source, licensed under the MIT license, guaranteeing free updates forever!
Make sure to visit our website for more information and join our Discord community server!
Find the source code on GitHub!
And if you like, consider helping us by donating, or becoming a Patreon!
Make sure to read the Troubleshooting page if you are experiencing any issues. Especially if you are a Mac user.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Pixelorama v1.1.6 is out!10 days ago
- Pixelorama v1.1.5 is out!65 days ago
- Hotfix release - Pixelorama v1.1.489 days ago
- Pixelorama v1.1.3 is out!96 days ago
- Pixelorama v1.1.2 is out!Jun 26, 2025
- Pixelorama v1.1.1 is out!May 06, 2025
- Pixelorama v1.1 is out!Mar 28, 2025
- Pixelorama v1.0.5 is out!Nov 18, 2024
Comments
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WoW that's awesome application, thank you for making it! I was trying into pixel art and randomly found this application. I hope more people will find out about this application ( ദ്ദി ˙ᗜ˙ )
I was just looking at Overloaded's philosophy here: https://github.com/OverloadedOrama and it's something that I not only agree with, but I'm actively working towards. Looking at these comments, the joy that you're bringing to artists from all walks of life with this software, I'd say that you're well on your way to achieving your goals! So a toast to Team Orama! Here's to many more releases!
This is very sweet, thank you so much! Your kind words and your support means a lot to us! We feel very blessed to have such an amazing community :D
The amount of improvements you have made in this app is incredible!It's been my only pixel art app since last July or so, and I have appreciated every new feature and performance boost.Thanks for all the hard work!
I have really been looking forward to having thumbnails for .pxo files and I was so excited when I saw it in the new release! Sadly, it doesn't seem to work in Linux Mint XFCE ( haven't tried any other OS yet as Linux is my daily driver). Is there anything that can be done about it?
I'm also still hoping for a less cumbersome way to import gifs.
Regardless, thank you so much for this release!
Edit: i see I've posted this before, my bad
You can use ffmpeg to import gifs, as you are on Linux there's a good chance ffmpeg is pre installed.
You just have to type ffmpeg in the preferences>startup>ffmpeg path
Oh, no worries! Yeah, you first showed me the ffmpeg trick some time back, thank you! But it works unpredictably and it would sometimes hang the app.
Meantime, is there anything I can do about the thumbnails? I've been having to save pngs with the same name as the pxo so that I can have an idea of what file I'm opening, but when working with multiple files, it tends to become cumbersome. Any help would be appreciated.
There's currently one for the dolphin file manager. You can try to use that as reference for the nemo file manager (which mint uses)
https://github.com/OverloadedOrama/dolphin_pxo_thumbnailer/tree/main
Mint XFCE uses Thunar, unfortunately. I just installed Dolphin and some extra Cmake modules, but it keeps throwing errors probably because I'm not on a native KDE environment. Hopefully, a version for Thunar can be made. It would really make my day! Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it.
Thank you for the kind words! You will be happy to know that in the next stable release, you will be able to import gifs without needing to rely on FFMPEG! The importing process will unfortunately be a bit slow for large gifs though because it is entirely written in GDScript, but in the future we could use C++ instead for native performance.
As for the thumbnails, there is not much we can do about that, it is up to each file manager to implement them. There is a thumbnailer for Dolphin that I made which Variable linked, but besides that I'm not sure if there is anything available at the moment.
Thank you! I really appreciate it!
Genuinely the best pixel art software I have used! I have been using this for several days on Linux and have no issues. Would it be possible to get an Android port at some point? Keep up the great work!
Thank you very much! It is planned and we have been slowly making some progress. The main obstacle right now is to improve the user interface so that it works better with small touch screens. The timeline for example has a lot of buttons and it is hard to press them on a small screen. Once we make some more improvements we could release an experimental Android version to get feedback from users.
Is there a way to make it so a new layer doesn't automatically create new frames so that when I add new frames it covers the existing ones from the previous layer? if not is there a feature to "replace cel" several frames at once with several imports?
There's a "Duplicate Layer" option. Hope this helps
I have developed a SaaS tool for community building. Are you interested in trying to build a user communication community?
Hello, what tool are you referring to?
nice
Thank you!
Hi, I would the report a certain issue with the selection and ribbon tools, first I noticed a performance issue, I had been using this program since v0.10 on 2022 And with every update the tool get more laggy.
second and to show what I mean when you flip a layer without selection the program does at its normal speed but if you are with the selection activate and use the flip tool the program get frozen by some seconds / minutes depending of size, cuantity of layer and number of frames, this doesn't happen in v0.10 for example, idk if this could be a memory leak or something else but there's something here.
for now I use the flip tool without selection moving what i want to flip to another layer, but I hope this could have a solution soon.
In Any case thanks a lot for this software, to me its the best one ;3
Hello, thank you for the feedback! You're right, mirroring a layer when there is a selection active is indeed very slow. The good news is that we managed to fix this issue and improve performance quite a lot, and the fix will be included in the next stable version (v1.1.6)!
Hey dumb question, do you think you could implement a 3 shear rotation with grid snapping to preserve pixels in rotations?
It's an old technique used on retro consoles to preserve the important pixels on sprites instead of making unique sprites for rotations, there's a really cool video by standup maths on youtube on how it works.
I'd love to be able to rotate artworks without ever losing any pixels (except for those lost to the edges of the canvas, I guess :P)
Hey! This definitely looks interesting. At some point I'll try to implement this as a shader and if it works well we can add it as an extra rotation algorithm. Thanks for the recommendation!
:D I'm so glad!
I know I already wrote a comment a while ago, but I just wanted to say it again. I am very, very thankful for this software. I have been away from pixel art for some time now, and when I decided to get back to it again, my first choice was Pixelorama because, oh man, this thing is great. It is so easy to work with, and the best thing is, it's free and open-source?, like, dude... thanks!
Thank you very much for the kind words! We're very happy that you like Pixelorama, and we wish you the best of luck to your pixel art journey! :D
The program gets frozzed when i try flip images, there is any fix for it?
Hy, if the image is large (larger than 1024x1024) then it's likely that the issue is the size (it is normal for large image size to temporarily freeze the software)
Hi. Awesome tool, just bought it yesterday. Is there a platform where I can suggest of request features? I am working large sprite-sheets with a ton of different animations, so would it be possible to add a feature where you can drag the timeline by clicking with the middle mouse button or similar?
Hy, you can suggest features:
- On GitHub: https://github.com/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama/discussions
- On Discord: https://discord.gg/GTMtr8s
- Or right here, we (contributors and developers) usually read all messages here too 😄
Btw, regarding the timeline there is a scroll bar at the edges which should be fast enough, Also if you are on laptop, gesture controls for scroll is also supported
Have a nice day 😁
This is peak, thank you Orama 🙏
Thank you!
Hello, and thanks for the software. I have to ask, How do you do a "proper" installation of this program on linux? Usually, tar.gz files would come either with a readme file or a "configure" one, and yet the zip contains neither, so I don't have a way for link the software to say, my start menu.
There's also a Flatpack (Also Official) if you are interested https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.orama_interactive.Pixelorama
alright i might be dumb but how do i change the format of the picture from .pxo to .jpg for example
File > Export or Export As...
I’m an Aseprite user and was about to move over to this program, but I had to stop because duplicate key mapping (by window focus) isn’t supported.
Do you have any plans to add this in the future? thank you 🙏🏻
Thanks for the feedback! By duplicate key mapping, you mean that the same key shortcuts should be able to be assigned to different actions? If so, we can look into it more, the main worry is that allowing this could cause unexpected behavior, like a single key doing multiple stuff at once
Yes, exactly! In Aseprite, even if you assign duplicate keys, it automatically decides what to act on depending on which UI element is currently focused.
For example, pressing the Delete key removes a cel if cel is selected, deletes a layer if the layer panel is focused, and clears the selected area if the canvas itself is focused.
(For me, features like canvas rotation, rulers, 3D, and OKLCH palettes are awesome additions. but we can still draw pixel art perfectly fine without those advanced features. Meanwhile, unfamiliar UX can feel like a pretty big hurdle until comfortable with it. I’ve recommended Pixelorama to some friends that currently using Aseprite, but can't make a strong case for switching to Pixelorama. I think this tool needs more stronger reasons to make people switch from Aseprite.) thank you!
Wow que programa tan bueno y funciona con el navegador!!! Necesito una versión oficial para Android 🙏🏻
Thank you! An official Android version is planned, we just need to figure out how to solve some issues first! :D
ahh this program seems really great!! I haven't gotten to dig too deep into it yet but I so much love open-source options, thank you 🙏
I'm having an issue with the text tool though, where the output ends up pretty far from the preview. the deformation is happening regardless of size, font, or alignment (alignment doesn't update in the preview either). before and after:
sometimes it'll have additional artifacts, particularly when put on other stuff in the same layer. the brighter the color, the worse it is, like there's some lightening blending going on.
given the comment below I figure this isn't a universal issue, so I'm on Windows 10 x64bit, if that helps! otherwise, I'm having fun designing buttons for my webpage :D
Thanks for the feedback! Not entirely sure why this is happening yet, but we'll try to replicate and find the root of the issue!
I simply love this application, but I miss one thing, maybe I don't know yet, I'm trying to make a "led" banner with a phrase, but when I confirm the creation of the text (which is obviously larger than the screen size) the text is cut off, preventing me from making the pan effect.
Steps:
Thanks for the tip!
The program does not start, any solution?
Not sure, perhaps your computer is old. In that case you best bet it to use an older version (https://github.com/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama/releases/tag/v0.11.4 )
Hi, use the pan tool to grab and move it outside the canvas area
That worked! Thank you very much!
It worked great but all of a sudden i couldnt draw anymore with my mouse could you help me? thanks.
Hy, you may have accidentally enabled"Alpha lock (the encircled icon in the image below)
no it wasnt that, but i downloaded a different version and it works just fine. Thanks anyways :D.
My drawing tablet doesn't work with the windows app
(on the websute it works perfectly fine but in the app it doesn't detect my tablet)
Hy, you need to change the tablet driver from Edit > Preferences > Drivers e.g use wintab
https://www.oramainteractive.com/Pixelorama-Docs/troubleshooting#drawing-is-very-slow-when-using-a-drawing-tablet
TYSM
I really like this program, but it's very frustrating that there is no undo/redo for palettes. My workflow involves using indexed texture mode, where I change the palette colors to see what looks good, but if it doesn't look good I need to change it back which is hard if I'm changing more than one palette color at a time. It's kind of a deal-breaker. If undo/redo for palettes becomes implemented I will probably become a patron.
Hello, thanks for the feedback! You are right that the lack of undo/redo for palettes is frustrating, the reason there is no undo/redo is because the undo/redo system works per-project, and the palettes are global, meaning that they are shared between projects. For the system to work, we'd need some other system that could tell when the user makes a change in the project, and when they make a change in the palette, and apply the appropriate undo.
Alternatively, what we are considering right now is project palettes, palettes that are being stored inside the project files themselves, so people could share projects with each other without having to worry about sharing their palettes as well, which is very useful especially for indexed mode. Project palettes will share the same undo stack as the rest of the changes that happen in the project, so we could finally support undo/redo. This will be implemented at some point, right now we're considering what the best system would be.
As of 1.1.5 palettes (as project palettes) now have undo/redo
Hey, I really love this project and I just downloaded the latest version and I can't draw with a graphich tablet anymore. With mouse I can draw just fine but with graphic tablet it either only makes a dot or a straight line. (The last version I could find on my PC right now was 0.11.04 and there it works fine.) My tablet works fine in other programs like Krita.
Hy, you need to change the tablet driver from Edit > Preferences > Drivers e.g use wintab
https://www.oramainteractive.com/Pixelorama-Docs/troubleshooting#drawing-is-very-slow-when-using-a-drawing-tablet
NOTE:
In 1.1.3 making lines with pencil or eraser tool (using Shift) results in a bug where new selections are no longer drawn in correct place.
This fixes the issue: https://nightly.link/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama/workflows/dev-desktop-builds/m...
Hello, I wanted to know what the default font is for the text tool since I started using it and by mistake I changed it and it doesn't appear in the font options. I've already tried them all and I really like it.
It's Roboto regular
Thanks, I already knew it, but when I put it in it looked different, so I deleted the program data, downloaded it again, and it fixed it.
This is a very complete tools, although here are some things I noticed: -No gradient tool (that i could find or see) or at least not like the one found in other software.
-Indexed colors behavior is weird. If I want to move 1 color to a different space that is currently empty (as to organize colors to my liking) then everything from the original color disappears.
There isn't a gradient tool but there does exist a Gradient effect
omg this is so cool!! Thanks for making this :D
Thanks for the kind words! :D
Wow thats actually a really good app man good job. A nice free alternative to those paid apps.
Thank you so much!
How do I access 0.11.4?
It says I need that to update old palettes.
Here ya go
https://github.com/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama/releases/tag/v0.11.4
Thanks. I already found an old version in internet archive.
There really needs to be a link on this page: https://www.oramainteractive.com/Pixelorama-Docs/user_manual/palettes/
I was a Piskel user and this amaze me! Really good tool with a light UI (that you can reshape a bit) with all the functionalities I had (I don't ask much) before + new stuffs while keeping it simple. Still adapting but you already convinced me, thanks!
It would be nice to have a "current color" palette to have all the colors used in the project (or we can auto add colors we use already?)
Currently you can make a new palette and tell it to take all colors from current project/sprite
Set preset to "from current sprite"
And "Colors from" to current frame/cel/etc...
I've seen that, I was hoping for an automatic way but it's good enough, I guess. Thank you!
I could make an extension for it if that helps.
If you have the time, sure! Thank you very much!
Highly recommend Pixelorama! It's a blast to use for pixel art.✨
Thank you so much!
Incredible app !
Thank you!
this is a really lovely program. Thank you so much! Im getting into using the Godot engine myself and was looking for a program to make my own sprites. Now I can have my wife download it too so she can make her own sprites of our dog hahaha. <3
That's very sweet, thank you very much for the kind words!
The more I use this program the more I'm amazed by how much functionality it contains. Everything just works how I'd expect it to. Very well thought out and implemented piece of software. Thank you.
Thank you so much! Very happy to hear that it works well for you!
Just updated, and on my 4k monitor it is starting off screen then it like freezes and I have to close it through task manager. I only have one monitor and it is my 4k one, I tried compatibly and setting scaling but that didn't help either.
Hy, if you're on windows there's a shortcut (window key + left/right arrow key) that moves windows around. Hope that helps
Alternatively you could delete the config.ini file located at `C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Pixelorama\`
Thank You, deleting config.ini did it.
Glad to help 😁
muy buen programa, demasiado bueno como para que este gratis, creeme que si hubiera tenido aunque sea un dolar te lo hubiera donado, lo unico que puedo hacer es darle las gracias por permitir a todo el publico poder acceder a esta aplicacion, y desearles suerte para culaquier futuro proyecto,
Thank you, we really appreciate it!
AMAZING PROGRAM! Thank you all so much for building something so good and still making it open-source!
Thank YOU so much for the kind words!!
Hi! nice program, i've been testing it out and works perfect!, but maybe they could add support for drawing tablets? like a wacom ctl-472... or any basic tablet, maybe a generic driver for compatibility?
P.D ur program has potential
It already has support for drawing tablets
Hello! If you are experiencing issues with drawing tables and you are using Windows, try changing the tablet driver from the Preferences. https://www.oramainteractive.com/Pixelorama-Docs/troubleshooting#drawing-is-very...