Software for iOS

LÖVE is a small, well documented Lua framework with nearest-neighbour filtering and canvases that make pixel-perfect rendering easy.

Pixquare is a pixel art editor for iPad and iPhone with a deliberately dense feature set: layers, animation, palettes, tiled preview and pressure-aware Apple Pencil drawing. It reads and writes the formats desktop editors use, so a drawing started on a tablet finishes anywhere.

Resprite is a pixel art and animation editor for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, built around a touch interface without losing the tools a desktop editor has: pixel-perfect lines, alpha lock, dithering patterns, custom brushes, gradients and symmetry. It imports and exports GIF, sprite sheets, PSD and APNG.

Core Editing & Selection Tools

Drawing Tools: Includes Brush, Eraser, Flood-fill, Gradient, Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, and Pipette.

Pixel-Perfect Algorithm: Applies to drawing tools to ensure single-pixel-wide lines without unwanted extra pixels.

Selection: Supports copying, cutting, moving, pasting, rotating, and flipping selected image sections.

Layers: Supports layer management for organizing artwork elements.

Animation & Reference

Frame-by-Frame Animation: Includes dedicated tools for creating frame-based animations.

Onion Skinning: Displays overlay previews of preceding frames relative to the active frame.

Reference Images: Loads gallery images onto the canvas for comparison while drawing.

Color Palettes

Preset Palettes: Includes built-in palettes based on hardware profiles like Atari 2600, NES, and Game Boy.

Custom & Imported Palettes: Supports custom color palettes as well as importing palettes from Lospec.

Import, Export & Compatibility

File Import: Opens Aseprite project files (.ase, .aseprite) alongside standard raster formats (.png, .jpeg, .gif).

Export & Upscaling: Exports animations and images to formats including MP4 video, standard raster formats, or local storage/social sharing, with upscaling options to prevent interpolation blur on standard displays.

DefleMask targets the Mega Drive, Game Boy, NES, PC Engine, Master System, C64 and more, exporting files that run on real hardware.

Pixel Studio is a pixel art editor that runs on desktop, phone and tablet with the same project open on all of them. It covers layers, animation with onion skinning, tilesets and palettes, and reads and writes Aseprite files, which makes it a practical way to keep drawing away from a desk.

Goxel is a free voxel editor with layers, a procedural renderer and unlimited scene size, available on every platform.

Divoom is a pixel art editor for Android and iOS devices, letting you create and import pixel art for display on Divoom devices such as the Ditoo speaker or the Pixoo picture frame.

It can be used without these devices just as a portable pixel art program and features the ability to import and resize images, as well as layers and animations.

There is also a text display function with many animated effects and palettes, as well as some audio features such as a keyboard and simple DJ mixer.

Divoom also features a pixel art gallery and community, allowing you to display images from community members on your devices and interact with pixel artists across the globe.

Nanoloop is a music sequencer built around a grid rather than a tracker's note list, which makes it quick to sketch a pattern and hard to write anything conventional. It started as a Game Boy cartridge, where it synthesises sound on the console's own hardware, and also exists as a phone app.

Particubes was a voxel editor and game platform for iPhone and iPad, later rebuilt as Cubzh. The studio behind it has since moved on to other products and the app is no longer available from its authors.

Pixen is a pixel art and animation editor built as a proper Mac application, with the same project openable on an iPhone or iPad. It is aimed at low-resolution bitmaps and 8-bit sprites: layers, palettes, an animation timeline and the system features a native app gets, like versions and autosave.

SunVox combines a pattern tracker with a modular synthesizer, and runs the same on desktops, phones and the web.

Voxel Max is a voxel editor for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Models are built in a workspace of up to 256×256×256 voxels using SDF-based brushes, with a full undo history. Earlier operations keep editable control points, so a shape can still be adjusted after it has been placed. Input is handled through touch, Apple Pencil, keyboard and mouse.

Colour uses a 255-colour palette combined with eight material layers, so the same palette index can carry different roughness, metalness, emission or transparency. The viewport renders those materials in real time with ray-traced lighting, and finished models can be viewed in augmented reality on device.

Larger scenes are assembled from multiple objects through a scene editor and asset manager. Projects import and export as MagicaVoxel .vox, Qubicle, USDZ, GLB/glTF, FBX, OBJ, STL, DAE and PNG, which covers most game and rendering pipelines. A feature called Foundry AI generates voxel assets from images and 3D scans.

It is aimed at voxel artists and game developers who want to model away from a desktop machine, though the touch controls and the official tutorial series also make it approachable for people new to voxel art. The interface is English only, and the Mac version requires Apple Silicon.

dotpict is a phone app for drawing pixel art, built around a community that posts and comments on what it makes. The canvas is deliberately small and the tools are few, which suits short sessions and daily practice more than long production work.

Isopxl's strongest use is making small 3d assets that become consistent pixel-art sprites. You can rotate an object, check its silhouette, and keep details consistent between views. Palettes and surface painting give you control over its visual style.