Free C++ pixel art editor

Supported file formats

✔ - implemented
〰 - partially implemented
❔ - implementation non-functional/not finished
✖ - not implemented
* - see notes

Import / Export

Name	Extension	Import	Export
voidsprite session	.voidsn	✔	✔
PNG	.png	✔	✔
BMP	.bmp	✔	〰(24-bit only)
TGA	.tga	✔	〰(uncomp. 24-bit only)
JPEG XL	.jxl	✔	✔
Portable Bitmap, Graymap, Pixmap	.pbm .pgm .pbm	✔	〰(text mode only)
X Bitmap	.xbm	✔	✔
Windows cursor	.cur	✔	✔
OpenRaster	.ora	✔*	✔*
Pixel Studio session	.psp	〰*	✔
Pixel Studio (compressed) session	.psx	〰*	✔
XYZ (RPG Maker 2000/2003)	.xyz	✔	✔
PBM (Cave Story engine)	.pbm	✔	✔
Valve Texture Format	.vtf	〰*	✔(v7.1, BGRA8888)
Aseprite Sprite	.aseprite .ase	〰*(Frame 1 only)	✔
Piskel	.piskel	〰	✔

* OpenRaster: advanced features from painting programs like layer blend modes, etc. are not available here. Exporting the thumbnail will not work until color quantization is implemented.
* Pixel Studio sessions: a 1:1 read of this format requires accurately implementing every tool from that program. For the best experience, wipe the undo history before attempting an import (Functions -> Resize canvas -> Resize -> Yes). Animation is not supported.
* VTF - no mipmaps are imported or exported. Formats: I8, IA88, A8, RGB565,BGR888,RGB888, BGRA8888, RGBA8888, ARGB8888, ABGR8888, DXT1, DXT3, DXT5
* Aseprite - experimental. Only frame 1 is loaded. Layer blend modes and tilemaps are not available here.

Import only

Name	Extension	Import	Export
Nintendo DS banner	.nds	✔	✖
NES CHR-ROM	.nes	✔	✖
Mario Paint save file	.srm	✔(only main canvas)	✖
X-Com SPK, BDY, SCR	.spk .bdy .scr	✔	✖
Windows Shell Scrap	.shs	✔(uses Win32 API)	✖
Atrophy Engine texture	.aetex	〰*	✖
PS2 Icon	.icn .ico	〰	✖
DirectDraw Surface	.dds	〰*	✖
Wii/GameCube TPL	.tpl	〰(only RGB5A3)	✖
Windows 1.0/2.0/3.11 Paint	.msp	❔	✖
PS Vita GXT	.gxt	❔	✖
Every other SDL_Image format	*	✔	✖

* AETEX - GXT and Switch ASTC subformats not implemented
* DDS - only BC1, BC2, BC3 and B8G8R8A8

Export only

Name	Extension	Import	Export
C header (as uint32_t array)	.h	✖	✔
Python NumPy array	.py	✖	✔
HTML Base64 image	.html	✖	✔
Java BufferedImage	.java	✖	〰*

* Java BufferedImage - only works for small images. Larger images go beyond the size limit.

Installing

You can grab a pre-built binary from the latest CI artifacts: https://nightly.link/counter185/voidsprite/workflows/msbuild/main

For Windows, get the voidsprite-build-win64.zip file.

For Linux, get the voidsprite-build-linux-flatpak-x86_64.zip file; this requires Flatpak to be installed. You can also try the portable binary from voidsprite-build-linux.zip, but this might not work on all systems.

Building

Windows

1. Go to freesprite/devlibs and extract devlibs.7z to the current directory (right click devlibs.7z > Extract here).
2. Go back to the repository root and run the copy_devlibs.bat script
3. Open freesprite.sln with Visual Studio and build/run like any other C++ program

Linux

1. Install the dependencies and their respective development packages: sdl2, sdl2_ttf, sdl2_image, libpng, pugixml, zlib, liblcf, libjxl, libhwy
   • Some dependencies (libpng, pugixml, zlib, liblcf) will be automatically downloaded and built during the build step if not installed - don't worry if your distro does not package them.
   • GCC/G++ 13 or later is required
2. Install meson (note that version 0.62.2 or higher is required; Ubuntu 22.04 users will want to install a newer version directly from pip with pip3 install --user meson)
3. Run ./linux_build.sh
   • You can also pass the --run flag to automatically run the built binary, the --global flag to install to /usr/local, and --portable to generate a portable build (assets stored in the same directory as the executable).
   • If you installed a separate version of GCC to use alongside your system install, you can specify a different compiler by setting the CC and CXX variables while calling linux_build.sh, e.g. CC=gcc-13 CXX=g++-13 ./linux_build.sh

By default, the generated output files will be placed in /tmp/voidsprite. When --global is passed, they will be installed to /usr/local instead.

Flatpak

You can also build the program as a Flatpak, see Flatpak README.

Community

You may find the Official Discord server here.

Itch.io page

BlueSky page

Donate

You can support the project by donating on itch.io

Licenses

voidsprite is licensed under GPLv2.

Licenses for other libraries and fonts used in voidsprite can be found in the OPEN_SOURCE_LICENSES directory