Pixely: Pixel Art for Everyone

I’ve used a number of small graphics applications on the iPad (or iPhone), and none of them ever seem to do it all. Most are just easy, obvious clones of each other with the standard functionality, using your photos (camera roll) to (inadequately) do the heavy lifting of managing files, and littering your photos with junk in the process. Real work (even hobby work) requires something more, and Pixely provides just enough interaction with files and iCloud, and copy/paste with other apps, to make it really useful in creating pixel-based art. It has almost all of the tools one needs to create small pixel drawings (I mostly use it for 32 or 64 pixel wide icon-like images for games), including animated sequences. It obviously can’t do everything… I need other tools to migrate my Pixely work into a finished product and refine it further (such as creating crowded sprite sheets, which I could do in Pixely, but it is just more easily done on my Mac). But it lets me comfortably and efficiently generate a pretty refined first step in the process. There’s very little I’d change about Pixely, except perhaps to provide some online documentation, and an ability to move a selection instead of only copy/paste (and maybe a cut in addition to copy)… and maybe an option to export a collection of images into a single sprite sheet. The UI is a little rough around the edges, and not always entirely intuitive, but it’s all there, you can figure it out with practice, it all works, and it gets the job done. Pixely is definitely one of the few apps I rate highly (or at all), and one of the very, very few that I have been using for years and keep going back to.

This app looks really nice besides I can’t find out how to make a new drawing. I don’t know if I’m just missing something but I’ve been trying to figure it out for an hour. I also don’t know how to choose the amount of pixels I want in the canvas.

A great pixel editor having most of the tools you need compared to most of the free editors i’ve tried on ios (which were over 15 and 2 paid) and most importantly compared to a lot of editors i’ve seen, this has been updated more frequently which is reassuring as not being a dead project. There are some things i think are missing (or just didn’t find it in the while i spent on the app, first being a color wheel to choose and adjust colors from it (at least i think it makes picking a color faster and then adjust it with the sliders), an option to index an image would be great A selection movement tool would be useful, having a cut option would complement it. Also a better pen support with palm rejection and only draw with the pen since a few times when i tried to zoom or move the canvas i’d end up drawing lines accidentally An option to have unrestricted canvas mode would be great, like right now the canvas locks onto the ipad screen edge or the tool menu edge when you’re zoomed in, i try to keep the part I’m working on in the middle of the screen so when working on the canvas borders it limits you to work on the screen edge. the app could use some extra gesture like dragging two fingers on the screen to move the canvas, 3 fingers swipe forward/back to redo/undo 3/7/19 the app crashed when i was selecting pixels using the rectangle tool when i repeatedly tried to select an area beginning from outside the canvas (was trying it out for the first time) 3/14/19 the multiple paste tool has a glitch that happens if you’ve been on the app for a while where it enters the mode but won’t let you paste anything or exit the mode which forces you to close the app, also I’ve had multiple crashes while in the copy mode and using the toggle color tool, happened when activating a color by mistake and disabling it after

This app NEEDS to support split view on the iPad. It would be great to have a reference photo from safari or the photos app next to the canvas. Also 11 inch iPad Pro aspect ratio support would be amazing. Otherwise great app with desktop class tools

I used to use this app years ago to edit images at the pixel level. Now, it DOES NOT allow loading photos from any photo album. This has to be the only graphics app for the iPad that does not access photos!!! That is ridiculous!!! Drag and drop does not work either. This app has taken a few steps backwards. 😔😔😔😔😔

Update: So, the app still crashes occasionally, but with the auto-save it’s essentially a non-issue. I’m not fairly certain that this is the best app available for pixel art on the iPad- and I definitely appreciate the developer response! Original Review: Overall, this is a nice, simple app that, while it doesn’t have some of the conveniences of a more advanced tool (eg selecting parts of an image, copy/paste, saving, and setting a color are all a little cumbersome) can produce images and animations that are a joy to make. However, the biggest drawback (and it is a large one) is the lack of an auto save combined with frequent crashing. While editing large size canvases (over about 200x200 pixels) or using a large editing tool (the pencil tool on anything but the smallest setting) the app has a tendency to quit frequently and without warning. Since the app does not save work automatically, you will lose work even if you do remember to save frequently. At its worst, it makes work both extremely tense and maddeningly frustrating. Which is a shame, since most of the app is at least serviceable if not polished. I’ll probably continue to use it, as it’s still the best pixel editing app I’ve found for the iPad, but the crashing issue is best to be aware of before you begin.

When working on a bigger project I noticed it crashes and doesn't save anything and I need to restart my project

Regularly updated. Stable. Clean UI. Pixely makes the majority of my art.

This an amazing app for pixel artwork. The only problem I have is that no one can figure out how to delete folders that are in app (accidentally made a couple). There is no way to delete or rename folders which would be wonderful if someone could tell me

This app filled a huge hole; game design pixel art workflow. Dropbox integration, symmetry modes, custom color swatches, tile preview, animation etc, it's quite good. Get used to its quirks in about 10 mins then get drawing. Would love to see canvases reordering, and circle/elipse tools, but as is totally worth the money. Thanks!