Dot Writer
Utilities
Only for iPhone
Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
Draw pixel art and animations with your finger.
- Draw on a grid canvas with pen, fill, line and eraser
- Pinch to zoom in and draw fine details
- Stack frames to make flip-book style animations
- Onion skin shows the previous and next frames faintly, so drawing motion is easy
- Major grid lines every few cells help with larger art
- Choose the playback speed: slow, normal or fast
- Undo, redo, and go back through your drawing history
Send your art as an animated GIF, a video (MP4) or an image to LINE, X, Instagram, TikTok and other social and messaging apps. Pick a format from the share button and your art is scaled up with every pixel crisp. For Instagram and TikTok, which don't accept GIFs, send a square or vertical video. You can also save to Photos or export all frames as a Zip.
Your sketches sync with your other iPhones signed in with the same Apple Account through iCloud.
Import images and animated GIFs from other apps by choosing Dot Kaku from the share sheet.
Sample animations are included the first time you open the app.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
- iCloud sync: your sketches now sync with your other iPhones signed in with the same Apple Account
- Send as video: share square or vertical videos to Instagram and TikTok, which don't accept GIFs (sized to post directly to YouTube Shorts, Reels and Stories)
- Your usual: the format and destination you used last time appear at the top of the share menu. Save to Photos, Copy, Messages and Mail send right away without opening the share sheet
- Onion skin: see the previous and next frames faintly (choose the opacity and colors)
- Major grid lines: draw thicker lines every few cells
- Canvas background: choose gray, checkerboard, white or black
- Color palettes: pick colors inspired by classic computers and consoles, like NES and Game Boy styles
- Larger canvases: create 128 × 128 and 256 × 256 sketches
- Auto Frame: pressing Next on the last frame makes a new frame
- Playback speed: choose slow, normal or fast, or 12–60 fps and custom speeds (also applies to GIFs and videos)
- Touch and hold a frame, then drag it to change the order
- Importing: GIFs from other apps keep their playback speed, and all-frames PNGs exported from this app are split back into frames
- About This App: open it from the bottom left of the list to see the version, drawing settings, support and licenses
- Safety: a backup of your data is made once a day and restored automatically if the data can't be read
- Fun effects when you delete or create frames
- Restore the sample sketches to your list
- Now available in English
- Other small improvements and bug fixes
The developer, Shinya Sato, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Shinya Sato
- Size
- 2.3 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English and Japanese
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- ©2016-2026 Shinya Sato
