Pixel art maker & sprite editor
Draw, animate and export game-ready sprites without installing anything. Layers, onion skinning, retro palettes, animated GIF and sprite sheet export. It saves in your browser as you go.
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Everything a sprite needs, nothing it doesn’t
PixelMint is built for the way sprites are actually made: small canvases, strict palettes, and a handful of frames that have to loop cleanly.
- Pixel-exact tools. Pencil and eraser from 1 to 4 px, flood fill, Bresenham lines, rectangles and ellipses (hold Shift for squares and circles), colour picker and a move tool.
- Mirror drawing on either axis for symmetrical characters and items: draw half, get the whole.
- Layers with visibility, opacity, reorder and merge down. Keep outlines, colour and shading separate while you work.
- Frames and onion skinning. See the previous (and optionally next) frame as a ghost, with a live looping preview beside the timeline.
- Retro palettes loaded in one click: NES, Game Boy, Commodore 64, PICO-8, CGA, ZX Spectrum and Sweetie 16.
- Exports: PNG at 1–20× (nearest-neighbour, never blurry), animated GIF with exact colours and transparency, and a sprite sheet PNG with frame JSON.
From idea to game engine
- Pick a size under File & export → New. 16×16 and 32×32 are good places to start. Not sure? Check the pixel art size guide.
- Load a palette. Fewer colours make cleaner art; the palette library explains the limits of each console.
- Block in the silhouette, then add shading on a new layer. The pixel art tutorial covers clean lines and hue-shifted ramps.
- Duplicate the frame and change the pose. Onion skinning keeps it on model. Read how onion skinning works.
- Export a GIF to share, or a sprite sheet to drop into Godot, Unity, GameMaker or Phaser. Already have loose frames? Use the sprite sheet maker.
Starting from a photo? Convert an image to pixel art and open it here to clean up. Stuck for a subject? Try the pixel art idea generator or the AI pixel art generator.
More pixel art tools
Frequently asked questions
Is PixelMint really free?
Yes. The editor, every palette and all exports (PNG, animated GIF, sprite sheet with JSON) are free with no watermark and no account. The optional AI features are free too, with a fair-use limit per visitor.
Where are my drawings saved?
Your current project autosaves in your browser’s local storage on this device. Nothing is uploaded. Use “Save project” to download a .json file you can reopen later or on another computer.
Can I use it on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Draw with a finger or stylus; the canvas uses pointer events, so Apple Pencil and other pens work. On small screens the tools scroll horizontally and the panels stack below the canvas.
How do I make an animated sprite?
Draw your first frame, click Duplicate in the timeline, then change the pose. Onion skinning shows the previous frame faintly so you can keep proportions consistent. Set the FPS and press Play, then export an animated GIF or a sprite sheet.
What sprite sheet format does the export use?
A PNG with frames laid out in a single row or a grid of your chosen column count, plus a JSON file listing each frame’s x, y, width, height and duration. The structure follows the common “hash” format used by Aseprite and TexturePacker, which Phaser, Godot plugins and most engines can read.
What canvas size should I start with?
For a first sprite, 16×16 or 32×32. Small canvases force you to decide what matters and are quick to animate. See the pixel art size guide for common sizes by platform.