Pixel art editor guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

Does it need WebGL or a GPU?

No. The grid is drawn on a plain canvas. Any current browser works.

My drawing is gone

Picking a grid size, even the one you have, and pressing Reset canvas both empty the grid and clear the undo steps, so Undo cannot bring the drawing back. Reset at the bottom of the panel puts the tree back. Save a PNG before any of these.

I picked a palette and the drawing did not change

A palette is a list of colours to draw with. Squares keep the colour they were drawn in. To recolour an area, pick a swatch and use Fill on it.

My line or shape did not appear

A line, rectangle or circle is drawn when you let go, and only if you let go over the grid. Let go outside it and nothing is drawn. No undo step is added.

The brush size does nothing

Brush size sets only the Pencil and the Eraser. Fill, the shapes and the Eyedropper work on one square.

How do I zoom and move on a phone?

Pinch with two fingers to zoom, from 1x to 32x, and drag with two fingers to move the view. If the first finger had started a stroke, the second finger takes it back. With one finger, pick Move and drag.

The tools sit in a row above the grid; swipe it sideways. The controls open from the bar at the bottom.

How do I zoom with a mouse?

Scroll over the grid. Each step zooms by a fifth, about the pointer. Drag with the middle button, or pick Move, to slide the view. Picking a grid size or pressing Reset canvas puts the zoom back to 1x.

The tool keys do nothing

The letters work in either case, with Caps Lock on or Shift held. They do nothing while Ctrl, Cmd or Alt is held, or while a panel field, such as the colour box or the brush slider, has focus; click the grid first. See Keys.

Are there lines between the squares with the grid off?

No. Each square's edges are snapped to the screen's own pixels, so neighbours meet with no seam at any zoom and on any screen. Lines come only from Show grid, and never go into the PNG or the copy.

The grid lines are missing

Show grid may be off. The lines are also left out when a square is drawn smaller than 4 pixels, which can happen on a small screen; zoom in to see them.

Can I open my own picture?

No. The tool draws on its own grid of 8 to 64 squares and does not open files. The largest file it saves is 1024 × 1024 pixels, a 64 × 64 grid at 16x.

Copy did nothing

Some browsers do not let a page put a picture on the clipboard, and the page then says the copy failed. Use one of the Save PNG at buttons instead.

Is my drawing saved or uploaded?

Neither. The drawing lives only in the open page and never leaves your device. Reloading or closing the page loses it, so save a PNG.