Pixel Studio vs Pixelc

Pixel Studio is a pixel art editor for artists and game developers, including beginners and professionals. It runs on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, with drawing tools such as brushes, symmetry, gradients, text, and dithering. Its color picker offers RGBA and HSV modes. Layers, frame-by-frame animation, an animation timeline, and onion skinning support animated projects; exports include GIF, sprite sheets, and MP4 video. Supported project formats include PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, TGA, Pixel Studio Project, PSD, and EXR, and Aseprite files can be imported. The export-format list also includes PSP, AI, EPS, HEIC, PDF, SVG, and WEBP. Google Drive can sync work across devices and platforms, and users can download palettes from Lospec. Pixel Network provides a place to share artwork. The free plan is free and includes ads and in-app purchases. PRO costs $12.99, paid once and includes no ads, Google Drive sync, dark theme, extended project size, and extra formats.

Pixelc is a free, open-source tile and sprite editor written in C using SDL2 and OpenGL. The project targets touch devices such as smartphones and tablets, while also running on desktops, and provides a mobile-friendly web app. It supports animation frames and GIF export, as well as layers and onion skinning for frames and layers. Drawing tools include multiple modes, shading, selections, and custom brushes, kernels, and stamps; a tile mode supports tile work. Pixelc includes popular Lospec palettes and accepts custom palettes. The project says artwork is saved locally and nothing is sent to a server, with offline saving available in the browser app. Undo and redo are stated to remain available after an app reload. The app and assets use the GPLv3 license, and the README points users to documentation, a tutorial, and tooltips. A separate Android Premium edition is offered, with grayscale tools and background. The README warns that Samsung Internet Browser can render tiling incorrectly, with potential for other app corruption.