Any good Pixel Graphics Editors on Mac OS X?

I'm looking for a graphics editor suited for Pixel Editing. On Windows there is Graphics Gale or Pro Motion, but the only thing I found on Mac OS X that comes close ceased development 4 years ago - Pixen.

What I like is a) support for layers, b) the ability to see the image in different zoom levels at the same time, c) Animation Support and d) it's an OS X app and not GTK or AIR.

Of course, Pixen works just fine, but I still wonder if there are comparable alternatives?

PS: Surprised that Mac OS X doesn't come with a simple MSPaint program...

Michael Stum

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 3 061

Pixen doesn't work for me - try opacity below 100%, and it completely miscalculates the color. I am not sure what the issue is, but trying a 50% opacity for something like azure color results in it drawing pink pixels. Blending bugs? – amn – 2012-09-07T17:56:38.073

Answers

Pixen is still being (not so actively) developed.

While some of the (older) code remains open-source, new additions made to the paid version are no longer. The paid version homepage is here.

unode

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 191

@Unode Check the Availability section of the README. It states: “With the number of Pixen clones in the Mac App Store outnumbering contributions to the project, Pixen is no longer open source. Consequently, the source tree hosted on GitHub is over two years old. If you'd like to obtain the latest version of Pixen and support the project, please consider purchasing it in the Mac App Store.”

– user137369 – 2015-01-18T21:59:51.640

Unfortunately it is no longer being developed as an open source project. – Vortico – 2014-03-30T07:52:51.587

@Vortico source code is still available via github. Can you elaborate what you mean by not being developed as an open source project? – unode – 2014-03-30T17:10:41.587

PikoPixel is a free editor for static (non-animated) pixel-art.

Twilight Edge Software

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 31

Besides Seashore most of what I've seen is shareware or other commercial.

I like Pixelmator pretty much. It's no Photoshop, but it's pretty good. Acorn isn't quite as good (for me) but it's got some unique features (screencap-to-layers, advanced filters,...).

Luke Jones

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 11

Although those are very good apps, I don't think they are oriented at 'pixel editing'. I know, they are great for editing bitmap images, but I think the OP is in need of something more like a sprite editor designed to work with individual pixels. – Sergio Acosta – 2010-07-26T05:48:01.103

How about the GIMP? It's free, open source and pretty full featured. I can't say I'm sure it does all you want though. Here's the download page for OS X.

trolle3000

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 1 670

I just found Grafx2 which is a sort of Deluxe Paint type program. It might be a bit simpler and less fiddly than trying to bend Photoshop or other "professional" pieces of software into such a simple task.

Piku

Posted 2010-07-26T04:38:19.290

Reputation: 557