Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. It’s designed from top to bottom for pixel artists – people who make low-resolution raster art like the sprites you see in old video games. But it’s great for artists of all arenas: the tool is like a very powerful MSPaint or a simpler, more agile Photoshop. With innovative features like a color palette system, patterns, and high-zoom support, Pixen packs all the tools pixel artists need in an intuitive, Mac-native interface. Pixen for macOS also makes creating frame-by-frame animations fun and easy.

Features and Highlights

Animations
Create and arrange image frames in the filmstrip view to piece together animations; export animations as animated GIFs, QuickTime movies, or even spritesheets!

Tools
Leverage the app’s wide array of tools when composing pixel art: Pencil, Eraser, Eyedropper, Zoom, Rectangular Selection, Magic Wand, Lasso, Move, Fill, Line, Rectangle, and Ellipse.

Layers
Take advantage of the flexibility layers provide when working with complex pixel art.

Color Palettes
Add and organize commonly-used colors into palettes.

Patterns
Define custom patterns to use while drawing with the pencil, line, or eraser tool (instead of a single pixel).

Backgrounds
Pick a flat, striped or checkered background (or even a custom image) to be drawn beneath the canvas.

Tablet Support
Pixen supports pressure-sensitive drawing tablets and maps pressure to color opacity.

Full Screen
Work with all your favorite tools in full screen mode on OS X Lion.

Note: Pixen is now a paid app in the Mac App Store. Requires 64-bit processor.