Free Pixel Art Maker

Pixel art is drawing where every pixel is placed deliberately. It came from machines that could only show a small grid of colours, and it survives because the constraint produces something modern tools cannot fake: at these sizes each pixel carries real weight, and moving one changes the whole shape.

That is why smoothing is the enemy. Anti-aliasing a pixel drawing throws away exactly the decisions that make it pixel art.

Pick a canvas size, choose a colour, and draw with the pencil one pixel at a time. The fill bucket floods a connected area, the eyedropper takes a colour from the drawing, and the line, rectangle and ellipse tools give crisp shapes with no soft edges anywhere.

Shortcuts: P pencil, E eraser, F fill, I pick colour, L line, plus + and − to zoom and Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo.

16×16 is right for an icon or an inventory item. 32×32 is the classic sprite size — enough for a recognisable character with a face. 64×64 allows real detail, and beyond that you are painting rather than placing pixels.

Beginners almost always start too big. A smaller grid forces the decisions that make a sprite read clearly at a glance.

Limiting your colours is not a restriction, it is the technique. Pick a small palette and stick to it and your drawing hangs together; use every colour available and it falls apart. There are built-in sets here — monochrome, greyscale, warm, cool, pastel, a 16-colour general set and a high-contrast one — and every colour you use is remembered so you can pick it again.

Layers let you keep parts of a sprite separate: outline on one, colour beneath, highlights above. Each has its own visibility, lock and opacity, and merging one into the layer below combines them when you are happy.

Symmetry works alongside them. Turn on left–right mirroring and a face or an icon draws both halves at once; four-way symmetry is useful for patterns and tiles.

Open a PNG, JPEG or WebP, choose a target size and a number of colours, and Zerdly will shrink it by averaging each block, reduce the palette with median-cut, and optionally dither the result. The original is kept untouched so you can try different settings freely.

The result is an ordinary editable layer, not a locked image — the conversion is a starting point you then clean up by hand, which is how good converted pixel art is actually made.

Dithering fakes colours you do not have by mixing the ones you do. With only black and white available, a mid grey becomes a fine chequer of both, and from a distance it reads as grey.

Floyd–Steinberg spreads the error to neighbouring pixels and looks smooth and organic. Ordered dithering uses a fixed grid and gives a regular, deliberately mechanical weave. Atkinson passes on less of the error, which keeps more contrast and a crisper look. Turning dithering off gives flat blocks of colour.

Add frames, give each one a duration in milliseconds, and press Play to watch it run. Duplicating a frame and nudging a few pixels is how most sprite animation is made.

Onion skin shows the neighbouring frames faintly underneath so you can line movement up. It is an editing aid only and never appears in an export.

Export a PNG at ×1, ×2, ×4, ×8 or ×16. The scaling is nearest-neighbour, so a ×8 export is your sprite with every pixel exactly eight times larger and no blurring at all — always better than enlarging a small PNG afterwards in something else.

Animations export as a spritesheet in a horizontal strip, a vertical strip or a grid. To keep working later, save the project as a .zpixel file, which preserves layers, frames and palette.

Is anything I make uploaded?

No. Every pixel, every palette and every export happens on your device inside the browser. Images you convert are read locally and never leave the machine. There is no account — which also means your work lives only in this browser, so export anything you want to keep.

What canvas size should I use?

16×16 suits an icon or a small item, 32×32 is the classic size for a game character, and 64×64 gives room for detail without becoming a painting. Start smaller than feels comfortable: the discipline of few pixels is what makes pixel art read clearly.

Why does my drawing look blurry elsewhere but not here?

Because most software smooths images when it scales them, which is exactly wrong for pixel art. Zerdly turns smoothing off everywhere — on screen and in every export — so edges stay hard. If you need a bigger file, export at ×4 or ×8 rather than enlarging the PNG afterwards.

How does converting a photo work?

The picture is shrunk to your target grid by averaging each block, then reduced to the number of colours you choose using median-cut, then optionally dithered. Your original is kept untouched, so you can try different sizes, colour counts and dithering without the image degrading each time.

What is dithering?

A way of faking colours you do not have by mixing the ones you do, in a fine pattern. With only black and white, a mid grey becomes a chequer of both. Floyd–Steinberg looks smooth and organic, ordered dithering gives a regular weave, and Atkinson keeps more contrast. Turn it off for flat, poster-like results.

Can I animate?

Yes. Add frames, set how long each one lasts, and press Play. Onion skin shows the frames either side faintly so you can line up movement — it is only ever shown while you work and is never included in an export. Save the result as a spritesheet in a horizontal strip, a vertical strip or a grid.

How do I keep my sprite?

Export a PNG at whatever scale you need, or save the project as a .zpixel file to carry on later — that keeps your layers, frames and palette. Opening a .zpixel restores everything exactly.

• Drawing PadSketchpad with layers and brushes.
• NonogramPicture logic puzzles.
• Jigsaw PuzzlesTurn a picture into a puzzle.