Pixen overview

Pixen is a professional pixel art editor designed for working with low-resolution raster art, such as those 8-bit sprites found in old-school video games. With features like a unique color palette system, patterns, layers, and high-zoom support, Pixen packs all the tools pixel artists need in an intuitive, Mac-native interface. Pixen also makes creating frame-by-frame animations fun and easy.

What’s new in version 6.0

Pixen 6 is here with an improved design, new features, and many quality of life improvements.

Enjoy a refreshed design with support for macOS 26 and Liquid Glass with a new icon, updated controls, and menu icons.
Turn Liquid Glass effects off or on under sidebars and toolbars independently in the Settings window.
Create, sort, edit, and organize color palettes directly in the main document window.
Speed up drawing symmetrical objects with the Mirror X / Mirror Y options for the Pencil tool.
Use the new "Clone Layer to All Frames" command to propagate layer changes to all frames in an animation, perfect for updating a background that is shared across all frames.
Hide the layers sidebar on the right to free up screen space.
Use new keyboard shortcuts to bring up the Welcome window and color panel.
Use new keyboard shortcuts for canvas rotation commands.
Navigate to the previous/next row in color palettes using up/down arrow keys.
Access the Trim Canvas command more easily.

Pixen 6 also features many smaller quality of life improvements:

Improved the reliability of drag and drop operations in color palettes.
Improved the default file name in the frame sequence export sheet.
The last selected frame sequence image format is now remembered across exports.
Fixed a bug where rotated images could end up being offset by an extra pixel.
Fixed a bug where opening the background picker popover could select the wrong background.
Pixen now warns when trying to export a project without adding export formats.
Improved performance throughout the app, especially on older Macs.

4.5

(41 Reviews of Pixen)

Comments
User Ratings

RogerKatz

Apr 24 2022

4.1.5

0.0

Version: 4.1.5

The current version at the Mac App Store is 4.1.6

Beamy

Feb 8 2021

4.1.3

Version: 4.1.3

On the Macupdate page you can read "Free • Absolutely Free", well that is not correct. On the MacAppStore and on the Pixen website the program costs $ 10. That is not really the definition of "free". I have not found a test or demo version of Pixen. What about "try before you buy" ? The pixel paint program PikoPixel is really free !

anonymous-octopus-321984

Jan 5 2016

3.8.1

0.5

Version: 3.8.1

Keep crashing and I cannot open any animate gif file at all.

DonkeyKong

Sep 16 2012

3.5.7b3

5.0

Version: 3.5.7b3

I like Pixelmator a lot but if you need to edit small pictures this is much better imo Very easy for pixel perfection. Both essential graphics apps!

idyll

Aug 10 2012

3.5.6b3

Version: 3.5.6b3

Versions after 3.5.3 no longer work with Mac OS X 10.6. The developer only provides links to the latest version, but this is no good for those of us still using Snow Leopard. To MacUpdate and/or the developer: Please provide a link to Pixen 3.5.3!