What is your pixel editor of choice, and why?

I'd like to hear which editor people work with mainly, and why they chose it over others. Perhaps you'll convince a few people to try out yours (or maybe even be convinced to switch yourself...)

well, I'm a bit out of box here but I use photoshop. I'm not a professional so I'm not the best to point something. When I started doing pixel arts I was already used to ps, I tried to use aseprite but I dont see why since for me ps is a complete software and the most difference is the half of his tools is useless to pixel art, so anyone that dont know most theses tools would get lost.

for me , its aseprite , its the best for animation and great and simple , lets start about normal use of it , you can create artworks with all the normal and usual tools : brush - line - rectangle - different selecting tools - move - zoom - dropper - bucket and other well designed and fitted tools with pixel art , it has layers and great pre-made color pallets , it also allow you to make your own colors from a amazing color wheel , and you maybe ask what is amazing about it , i would say that it has multiple choices for the wheel too , you can choos between : ( color Tint/shade/tone , color spectrum , RBG color wheel , RYB color wheel "here comes my favorite" Normal maps color wheel ) so its great for multiple artist to choose what they prefer and what they like the most and what they are most comfortable with , and this is great in my opinion , so for pixel art art-works its great , what about the animation ? its not great its fantastic it has everything you need for pixel art animation , with the most comfortable animation workflow env for an artist , here comes a good part too , what about game development use of aseprite ? i hate to repeat my words but its pretty cool , in game engines like unity , you dont use .gif files to animate your character , we use somethin called "sprite sheets" and thankfully aseprite allow you to export you animation as a sprite sheet ! , and what should i say more ? i am not ( out of words ) of this but i said as much as i can , aseprite is great in my opinion and i like its pixel art cute UI so yea thats it

I'm a traditionalist, so my work is still all pretty much completed in MSPaint from Windows Vista, haha. As a software, it's incredibly limited, but there's not a single pixel art editor that feels as good to use to me, and I've tried literally all of them.

Aseprite is probably the best software for pixel art, though. I use it alongside MSPaint for my general needs, alongside with poking around in Photoshop if I need that for anything.

I use Piskel which is an online in browser pixel art creator, I use my school chromebook for pixel art which can't run .exe files so I can only use in browser tools. Just because it's in browser doesn't mean its bad though, It has a lot of slice of life features and the ui is very simple and easy to use. I've tried other in browser tools but none of them felt right to me, but I think it's mostly because I've put the most hours in Piskel anyway.

I use Aseprite because was easier to me get on steam and the software give me all I need for pixel art. The only stuff was missing was tilemap creation but now the 1.3 beta version already have this functionality and I imagine will be in normal version soon. Other reason is because I think the appearance of the software is cozy. I tried to use others in the past like pro motion but feels so messy and confuse

Paint is nice and straightforward - it's a very direct way to just have you and the art with minimal distractions. For animating, I use aseprite, because it's honestly the best animation tool I've seen for pixel art due to how straightforward its design is.

For color correction, I occasionally put my pieces through GIMP before returning it to MSPaint.

I don’t only do pixel art, so Photoshop feels the most natural for my workflow and the ability to sketch in hi res, use clipping masks, or make nondestructive edits (color/contrast adjustments, indexing, etc.) is really powerful. I use CS6 since I got the whole suite at an educator’s discount. I don’t think I would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t also use it for anything besides pixeling though. I’d probably recommend Paint Tool SAI, Clip Studio Paint, or GIMP over Photoshop if you want a program that can both draw in hi res and pixel and isn’t absurdly expensive.

I also sometimes use the Vista version of MSPaint because it simply feels amazing to draw in (and had more undos than the older versions of Paint). It starts up instantly, there’s no lag or unnecessary tools, and what you draw is very 1:1 with what ends up on the canvas. The only usability problem with it for me is the lack of keyboard shortcuts.

For pixel animation I honestly like GraphicsGale the best thanks to its super fast color pick and transform mapped to mouse buttons, but Aseprite has so many features now that it’s hard to justify not using it over anything else if you’re animating for a game. It feels really unnatural to draw in though, so for non-game asset pixel animations I’ve been considering making the switch over to TVPaint which I already use for raster animation.

For tiles I use Pyxel Edit because it has live preview and feels natural to draw in but I might switch to Ase if they make a stable build with animated tile support.

sometimes i use asprite cause it's useful for making pixel art like my art but i know some pixel artist use grafx2 photoshop etc. but i use asprite for my art

Entered the medium using the Pixilart editor (Free + the first one to come up in a google search) and soon after, switched to Aseprite- never wanted another editor again, Aseprite has pretty much every tool you could want for pixel art and animation (Excluding a dither tool- still would like that) and with a pixel art UI, feels really nice to use also. If you're using any random free online editor, i highly recommend switching to Aseprite for a great editor made specifically for pixel art. (I know this sounds like a sales pitch lol, i just really love Aseprite over the alternatives)

I use Aseprite for most of my work, mainly because I like the UI. It was very easy for me to learn and many tutorials exist for it. The only thing I don't use it for is tileset work, but they just added tilemap functionality in the 1.3 beta. I currently use Pyxel Edit for all of my tiling needs, but it is also a good all around spriting application. Recently, I also started using Pixel Studio, a free pixel art editor with a mobile app and Google Drive functionality, so I can sprite on the go. I'm still learning the shortcuts and UI, but it is a very well made editor.

GraphicsGale. I've been using it so long that adjusting to anything else would be a ton of work for me. The interface is pretty basic, but to me that's really a plus. You can drag things around to set it up how you like, hide what you don't use, organize it in a way that makes sense to you. The keyboard shortcuts aren't that great out of the box but you can customize keyboard shortcuts for literally everything. It's got layers and all the usual tools. I really like the color selection and palette management, and the ability to create gradations in the palette interface. And right clicking to select colors has really spoiled me. The animation tools are pretty intuitive and you can export animations as spritesheets. And these days it's 100% free.

Aseprite

Because:

• it's available on macOS
• I learnt its keyboard shortcuts and use them a lot
• it seems tailored to pixel art needs
• it doesn't overwhelm me
• I love its "linked cels" feature when working on an animation

Aseprite for pixel art for sure. It's just the simplest tool for the job that still has what I need and I don't get distracted. Plus call me shallow but I like having a pixelated interface when I'm working on pixel art. The program I used before this was Grafx2, which still has just a few too many features for me.

Although, I have been meaning to start learning CSP because I've tinkered with it for digital illustration, and it seems like it would be a bit more functional for high-resolution pixel art pieces or oekaki where I'm using a tablet.

I've been using Krita recently and will probably be sticking to it. It is a program for digital art in general, so it is a bit overkill for pixel art, but it already comes with some nice features for it, like palette support, dithering brush, layers, animations, similar color selection tool (great to change colors when used along with the fill tool), crop tool and such. Its only problem is that it doesn't seem to have a way to get a color by setting HSV numbers, but to compensate it has 7 different visual selectors . Being both an Ubuntu and Windows user (but mostly Ubuntu), it also has the advantage of being available for both.

I also had used MSPaint and Paint.NET a long time ago and also really liked them for pixel art, especially Paint.NET (because layers), but I use mostly Ubuntu now, so a native alternative would be better. There is Pinta, an open source rewrite of Paint.NET based on Mono, but it has been pretty buggy recently. I also messed around with Adobe Fireworks for a while and it is also pretty good, basically an easier to use Photoshop, but it is paid, a bit heavy, and Windows-only too. I also tried GIMP, but it doesn't have geometric tools (like, to create lines and circles), so that didn't work out very well for me.

I use Pixaki on my iPad Pro for the bulk of my work. The reference layer support is great as are the transform tools and the dither brush.
I don't tend to do that much pixel work on my PC but when I do I split my time between Pro Motion NG and Photoshop.
I've got Aseprite but I struggle with the UI, to be fair it's the program I've used the least.
https://www.artstation.com/alanmealor

GraphicsGale

• The UI is great
• The customizability of your workspace is great
• I love the space bar menu
• Has a portable version / does not require an installation
• Not bloated af
• Simple

I use Photoshop, for the same reasons as @kiana

I already use it for lots of other things such as web design, and I'm already very comfortable with it. I've tried aseprite but there's just a few things in photoshop I like more, so it's not really worth it to try to switch for me.

It takes a lot to switch to a new program. When I switched to photoshop from MSPaint XP, I had to force myself for months, because I was still able to do things faster in Paint. After the switch I was glad, but I don't want to do it again unless there's a very enticing reason.

I chose aseprite because it looked like it had the simplest interface, and i saw it had a great animation timeline, i still use it to this day because I know how to use it more than any other editor and would have trouble getting used to another.

I use Graphics Gale. I started out in MS Paint, but when I upgraded my computer to windows 7(?) and they changed the way paint worked, I just couldn't do it anymore I almost quit entirely. Then someone showed me Graphics gale and it seemed so feature rich to me. Now I've been using it so long that I can't use anything else, and I've tried them all but I need right click as my color dropper haha.

I use the free online editor called Pixilart, i find it useful because it’s free & there’s a large community behind it.

Piskel. Its a free online editor that I find better than Pixilart.

For me mostly is Asprite, I use Lospec (of course) of palettes and tutorials but I use Asprite of almost all of the art works I make. I do use the pixel editor when I have making concept art of oc's but all the finished works go the the one and only Asprite. I also use the smallest amount of Pixilart for posting my work, there is not much on it so I won't give you a like but you can they finding it. its rainbow animations for the username. I also use pixel art of palette making, and for which I can never make a good clashing palette, I some times take a 3 or 4 week break of pixel art because I can never think of a peace, and then there is LOSPEC, the palettes are amazing and you can find almost every color and hue, its is turning in to a add so I am going to stop here.

I feel it is completely relevant and useful for me.

red ball

@something-fishy same, except i'm weird and I use the downloaded version.

I used to use piq, but piskelapp is better.

I am use Canva for pixel editor because it is easy to use.

i use asesprite, cuz for me is very confortable and easy to understand, but before asesprite used piskel , more easy interface and great for low spec computers

Aseprite is a great program for creating pixel pictures and animations (if you know how to do it of course). The toolset is bigger than in Paint or Graphics Gale. Shortcuts are pretty handy and intuitive. A big plus is the great set of layer effects, from the simplest ones like lighten, darken and multiply to all sorts of invert, color burn and other, which if you do not use them right away most likely will spoil your work, but if you make a YouTube guide, most likely these layer effects will make your image more deep and unusual. Again a big plus of Aseprite is the adjust color option - it helps to adjust color to any color scheme (HSL, HSV, RGB) and basically allows you to duplicate the same work in different colors, which is pretty interesting. And yes, there are preset and custom palette sets that allow you to learn how to paint with a limited set of colors (like the Game Boy Color palette), which is pretty important for pixel art and artist skill growth.

Of the disadvantages note, for example, rather unintuitive setup workspace and panels, for example the panel with the layers can not just grab and drag left / right / down. There is no tool like the dithering pen, as in Graphics Gale. There is no function to count the number of colors used. But other than that, everything is great.

Microsoft Paint. No need for anything more, unless you want transparency in your images, and it comes with windows anyway.

Also,

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tho I do tend to do pixel art a lot I guess the website of choice that I normally use is pixilart.com . But at the moment I'm just using this as a temporary thing. school has blocked pixilart for now. So I'm just looking around the web to, Well make stuff and share it with everyone. If you want to follow me on pixilart You are more than welcome to do so. But to say my real reason for using this pixel editor That's something that I normally used to it's just my passion It's why I do it. I love doing arts and I want to share my passion for doing art with other people. So I just do what i can and try my best at that. pixilart.com/TheGlitchyOne

well I just started pixel art for couple of months and I'm using Piskel, I think it's friendly for begginers. I use 32x32 so its easy in piskel. but i want to start using aseprite ...

I use Aseprite.

I love that the space bar can be a keybind condition, the animation system is great, and just in general it's so powerful.