Whether you’re of an age where you can remember computers with only a handful of colours and pixels the size of house brick, or if you simply appreciate a bit of old-skool graphical minimalism, it's hard to resist the charms of a bit of chunky pixel art.
And here's an iPad app that gives the business of making your own pixel masterpieces a lovely modern twist. Created by indie game developer Luke Rogers, Pixaki's billed as a pixel editor designed with professionals in mind, and it packs a decent set of features to ease your creative processes. Working on a canvas up to a whopping 512x512 pixels in size, you can build your own 16 colour palette with an intuitive hue picker and work with up to 20 layers.
You can get close up to your work with up to 400x zoom, and once you’re done it makes exporting your finished work a breeze, with even an option to save it out as a PSD for further work in Photoshop CC.
It may be a little specialised in its appeal, but if you fancy the challenge of working within pixel art’s constraints, or perhaps if you’re creating striking artwork for an indie game, we reckon it's well worth taking Pixaki for a spin around the block.
Key info
- Works with: iPad
- Price: $4.99/£2.99
- Developer: Rizer
- Version: 1.0.1
- App size: 15.4MB
- Age rating: 4+
Words: Jim McCauley
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Have you tried Pixaki? Have your say in the comments below.