make 8-bit art!

make 8-bit art! puts a pixel canvas, a compact toolbox, and PNG export on one lively page. It is approachable enough for a five-minute doodle, yet custom palettes and selection tools give a careful sketch room to grow.

What is make 8-bit art!?

The editor keeps the useful parts of a small paint program close at hand: draw and fill tools, brush sizing, a hex color field, an eyedropper, undo and redo, plus cut-copy-paste controls for selected pieces. Finished work can leave as a full-canvas or selected-area PNG, while browser-local saving offers a route back to unfinished pixels. A CSV palette importer adds welcome flexibility for tightly planned colors. PXON, an experimental JSON representation for pixel art, also appears in the toolbox, though the page gives that feature its own frank reliability warning.

What you can do there

• Draw and fill pixel art
• Edit copied selections
• Choose colors and brush sizes
• Export a canvas or selection as PNG
• Save work in local browser storage

Why we picked it

The charm comes from getting out of the way without becoming disposable. The current page exposes a real editing kit immediately, and its tools cover the satisfying arc from the first blocky line to a saved PNG. More than a decade of independent coverage and creator documentation also shows that this little canvas has had unusual staying power.

How to get the most from it

Pick a deliberately chunky brush size and sketch the silhouette before fussing with color. Use fill for broad areas, the eyedropper for corrections, and selection export when the useful sprite occupies only part of the canvas. Save locally during longer experiments, then export a PNG when the pixels behave.

Good to know

The editor is presented as free and opens without a visible account or payment gate. Custom palettes use a name-and-hex CSV file. PXON import is experimental and carries an on-page warning that it can break often; ordinary drawing, saving, mobile use, accessibility, and export reliability were not interactively retested for this profile.

Who made it, and when?

Jenn Schiffer is the credited creator or organization. The earliest supported launch date we found is 2011. A documented update was recorded 2023.