Pixelc vs Pixen
Pixelc
github.comPixen
pixenapp.comSide by side
| Figure | Pixelc | Pixen |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Pixel Art Software | 8.7 (#6) | 8.0 (#23) |
| Animation | Frames support animated previews, per-frame timing, three blend modes and GIF export. | It can import animated GIFs, animated PNGs, and sprite sheets, and export animations as GIFs, PNGs, movies, image sequences, and sprite sheets. |
| Drawing tools | Features listed include multiple drawing modes, shading, selections, and custom brushes, kernels, and stamps. | Its tools include Pencil, Eraser, Brightness, Text, Eyedropper, Zoom, selections, Magic Wand, Lasso, Move, Fill, Line, Rectangle, and Ellipse. |
| Palettes | The app includes LOSPEC palettes and lets users create, rename, delete and import custom palettes with up to 128 colors. | Pixen imports and exports palettes in Adobe Color Table, Microsoft Palette, JASC Palette, and GIMP Palette formats. |
| What it does | Pixelc is a C-based tile and sprite pixel-art editor built with SDL2 and OpenGL. | Pixen is a native pixel art editor for low-resolution raster art such as 8-bit video game sprites. |
Plans
In their own words
Pixelc
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.