Sprite Pencil

Name: Sprite Pencil
Rating: 4.6 (61 reviews)
Author: 256 Arts

Create Pixel Art

Free

61 Ratings
Age Rating

4+
Years
Category

Graphics & Design
Developer

256 Arts
Language

EN
+ 6 More
Size

12.5
MB

Pixel art, made simple and made to feel great. Sprite Pencil is a focused pixel-art editor for sprites, icons, and game assets. A small set of carefully chosen tools and a drawing engine built exclusively for Apple devices make every pixel land exactly where you meant it, whether you draw with a finger or with Apple Pencil. Draw • Pencil, eraser, and fill tools • Highlight and shadow brushes that shade automatically • Symmetry mode to mirror strokes as you draw • Dithering for classic checkered patterns • Flip, rotate, and outline a whole sprite in a tap • Full undo and redo Color • Handpicked palettes, plus seasonal picks • Building Bricks colors • Import any palette from Lospec Your Files, Your Way • Sprites are plain PNG files, so any app can open them • Edit images in place wherever they live, including iCloud Drive • Share your art scaled up so it stays crisp Show It Off • Pin a favorite sprite to your Home Screen with a widget • Draw and send pixel-art stickers right in Messages

Ratings & Reviews

4.6

out of 5

61 Ratings

Really good app!
06/15/2020
JudgeOfPixels
This is a really good pixel art app! It is perfect for beginners, and pros alike! I didn’t get the app for what I am about to report, but I wanna say this anyway so maybe you can fix it. Whenever I search for something, using search, it crashes. This is the same case for my brother too, so maybe you can fix it in the future! But overall, 5 star app except the crashing.

Developer Response
Thanks for the review! 😊 I believe the issue may be related to 3rd-party drives, and the next update should fix it.
Really good app!
06/15/2020
JudgeOfPixels

This is a really good pixel art app! It is perfect for beginners, and pros alike! I didn’t get the app for what I am about to report, but I wanna say this anyway so maybe you can fix it. Whenever I search for something, using search, it crashes. This is the same case for my brother too, so maybe you can fix it in the future! But overall, 5 star app except the crashing.
Developer Response 06/16/2020
Thanks for the review! 😊 I believe the issue may be related to 3rd-party drives, and the next update should fix it.
No Undo … Not ready for prime time.
10/19/2025
Hasan&Laura
Table stakes for an image editor is undo. Must be able to map it to a keystroke or action. The tool looks interesting otherwise, would love to revise this review if the product meets the minimum bar.
No Undo … Not ready for prime time.
10/19/2025
Hasan&Laura

Table stakes for an image editor is undo. Must be able to map it to a keystroke or action. The tool looks interesting otherwise, would love to revise this review if the product meets the minimum bar.
Great, but could improve
03/20/2019
UNDEFEATABLE12
I just got this app and it’s definitely amazing what I can do with it but there’s a few glaring flaws that hold me back with what I make that I’d love to see improved upon. I gave this app 4 stars mostly because it could easily be a 5 star rated app with a few simple improvements.1. Exporting Sprites: the app crashes for me whenever I try to export a finished sprite. I’m capable or screenshotting and saving it myself or even changing it to a transparent image, but that shouldn’t be on me to change.2. Scrolling: using the scroll tool to move your sprite around the canvas is nice on paper, but it doesn’t tell you that anything you move off screen is deleted. I unfortunately had to redo a sprite cuz it was mostly cut off due to this. A little border or buffer to stop you from moving it off screen would be nice to avoid this3. Zoom Tool, or lack thereof: working with extremely small sprites is difficult. I personally feel like I could make MASSIVE improvements in what I make if I had the ability to zoom in and work on smaller details. That would be a MASSIVE quality of life change, to be able to zoom in and work closely on pieces that use large layouts and small pixels that are normally unusable with my finger on an iPhone screen. Most importantly, if you take my advice on implementing this tool, PLEASE make it so zooming in would NOT delete the sprites that move off screen like the movement tool does currently.4. More colors: after my other suggestions this one may seem small but I think adding a color wheel option would greatly improve how much could be done with this app. I know photo editing apps that offer an entire color wheel of the color spectrum, and that app is free. It would be nice to see that implemented here.If a developer happens to be reading this: thank you for your time and your effort. You’ve done great so far on this app but there is so much potential for improvement. This app has allowed me to make sprite art for original characters who I never before had the ability to represent visually (as someone with very little artistic skill with a pen and paper, using a pixel canvas gives me a lot more room to work.) I would absolutely love to see this app expand so I could put more time into it and just increase the detail and quality of my work and for once be able to make actual art

Developer Response
Thanks a lot for this incredible feedback! 😊 I intend to implement some of these great suggestions in future updates of Sprite Pencil! Please email spritepencil@jaydenirwin.com so we can diagnose the crashes you’ve experienced. 👍🏼
Great, but could improve
03/20/2019
UNDEFEATABLE12

I just got this app and it’s definitely amazing what I can do with it but there’s a few glaring flaws that hold me back with what I make that I’d love to see improved upon. I gave this app 4 stars mostly because it could easily be a 5 star rated app with a few simple improvements.1. Exporting Sprites: the app crashes for me whenever I try to export a finished sprite. I’m capable or screenshotting and saving it myself or even changing it to a transparent image, but that shouldn’t be on me to change.2. Scrolling: using the scroll tool to move your sprite around the canvas is nice on paper, but it doesn’t tell you that anything you move off screen is deleted. I unfortunately had to redo a sprite cuz it was mostly cut off due to this. A little border or buffer to stop you from moving it off screen would be nice to avoid this3. Zoom Tool, or lack thereof: working with extremely small sprites is difficult. I personally feel like I could make MASSIVE improvements in what I make if I had the ability to zoom in and work on smaller details. That would be a MASSIVE quality of life change, to be able to zoom in and work closely on pieces that use large layouts and small pixels that are normally unusable with my finger on an iPhone screen. Most importantly, if you take my advice on implementing this tool, PLEASE make it so zooming in would NOT delete the sprites that move off screen like the movement tool does currently.4. More colors: after my other suggestions this one may seem small but I think adding a color wheel option would greatly improve how much could be done with this app. I know photo editing apps that offer an entire color wheel of the color spectrum, and that app is free. It would be nice to see that implemented here.If a developer happens to be reading this: thank you for your time and your effort. You’ve done great so far on this app but there is so much potential for improvement. This app has allowed me to make sprite art for original characters who I never before had the ability to represent visually (as someone with very little artistic skill with a pen and paper, using a pixel canvas gives me a lot more room to work.) I would absolutely love to see this app expand so I could put more time into it and just increase the detail and quality of my work and for once be able to make actual art
Developer Response 03/21/2019
Thanks a lot for this incredible feedback! 😊 I intend to implement some of these great suggestions in future updates of Sprite Pencil! Please email spritepencil@jaydenirwin.com so we can diagnose the crashes you’ve experienced. 👍🏼
I love
04/26/2025
HomeSlice3332
10 out of 10 except for one thing. I’m trying to upload one of my sprites in the import tab but when I click the button it doesn’t do anything. I still love this app and it’s great for making simple sprites for coding games or animations
I love
04/26/2025
HomeSlice3332

10 out of 10 except for one thing. I’m trying to upload one of my sprites in the import tab but when I click the button it doesn’t do anything. I still love this app and it’s great for making simple sprites for coding games or animations

This update brings smarter tools and a more polished Mac experience. • New: a bucket fill toggle to recolor every pixel of a tapped color at once, plus Remap to Palette to snap your whole image to your palette's nearest colors • New: Tiled Preview shows your sprite repeated around the canvas, perfect for seamless tiles • New: import a reference image behind the canvas, and an Autosave setting for more control over when your work is saved • Refined Mac and visionOS toolbars, plus new languages: Simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish • Bug fixes and improvements

Version 5.0 2d ago

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Supported Features
- Dark Interface
- Differentiate Without Color Alone
- Reduced Motion

Information

Seller: 256 Arts Inc.
Size: 12.5 MB
Category: Graphics & Design
Compatibility: Requires iOS 27.0 or later.

iPhone
Requires iOS 27.0 or later.

iPad
Requires iPadOS 27.0 or later.

Mac
Requires macOS 27.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.

Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 26.0 or later.
Languages: English and 6 more

English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
Age Rating: 4+

4+

Learn More