"We need to first be limited in order to become limitless,” 

- Phil Hanson

About

minart is an extremely minimalist workspace for creating itty-bitty pixel art, like so: 

  ~ "Squeak!"

You can run it from your browser here, or download it for offline use. This art program was specially made to make it easier to create and import small sprites for Decker projects on mobile devices.

How to Use

By default, when minart loads, the blank canvas will be opaque white and your brush will be a small,  1x1 black pen. Try drawing!

If your image needs a little adjusting, clicking on the sides of the canvas frame or using w-a-s-d will shift the image one pixel at a time.

LoadYou can upload 16x16px .gif, .bmp, and .png images. If you're loading a sprite created in minart, you'll want to make sure the palette is set to the same one used when making it.
SaveImages created in minart are always palette-restricted, 16x16px .gifs. During the save prompt, you'll have the option of scaling up the final image by 2x (32x32px) or 4x (64x64px).

* It's recommended to routinely back up your image to save your drawing progress.
Code
Since minart was created in Decker, images can be encoded and imported to other decks using a string you can generate by clicking on the 'code' header.
TintYou can select a new brush color by clicking anywhere on the bottom-most row. The first entry, which is a lined pattern, represents transparency. 

Once a color is selected, the 'tint' menu on the top right will display  a complimentary swatch. You can click  on the swatch colors to temporarily swap your brush color.
BrushThe brush modal on the right has two arrows to swap between available brushes. Using the slider, the brush can be made bigger (higher value) or smaller. (On desktop, your scrollbar will work here!)
PaletteThere are three palettes to choose from: default, vivid, and pastel. You can click or use the numbered tabs or keys 1-2-3 to swap between them.

Click on the heart-dotted i to visit the advanced settings page. 
From there, you can edit the color palettes directly or import your own! ^^

Keyboard Shortcuts

Quit - O | Fullscreen - P
Load - N |Save - M
Undo - Z | Redo - X
Scroll through brushes - 2
Smaller brush - 1 | Bigger brush - 3
Lighter Tint - R | Darker Tint - F
Shift color left - Q | Shift color right - E
Move image - W,A,S,D

Credits

This program was created using Decker , with UI work done in Aseprite. All of the sprites in the background image were made in minart. Everything provided here is free to learn from and create with. Please do not re-upload or use my work to  train AI.

If you'd like to embed minart on your own website, you can use the following code:

<iframe frameborder="0" src="https://itch.io/embed-upload/17018480?color=5f5a5f" allowfullscreen="" width="640" height="380"><a href="https://missooni.itch.io/minart">Play minart on itch.io</a></iframe>

minart.zip Contents

/source/
Unlocked versions of the deck that allow editing.
/sprites/A handful of free sprites you can edit and practice with.
LICENSE.txtOpen source, MIT license.
bg.pngTiled background pattern, used for minart.html and index.html,
index.htmlDisplay version of minart, lacking the  'close' and 'fullscreen' buttons.
minart.htmlStandalone .html version of minart that runs in browser.
minart.deck.deck version of minart that can run on native or web Decker.
Updated 23 days ago
StatusReleased
CategoryTool
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(11 total ratings)
AuthorMissooni
Tags16x16, Decker, Minimalist, No AI, Pixel Art
Code licenseMIT License
Asset licenseCreative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
ContentNo generative AI was used

Download

Download
minart.zip 329 kB

Development log

Comments

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(+3)

i came from Millie's zine! this is awesome :)

(1 edit) (+2)

Thank you so much!! 

(+3)

this is very very cute, i love that it can do automatic palette swapping. are the three palettes custom made for this tool? they’re pretty nice

(+2)

The first palette is bundled in all Decker projects by default. I made the 'vivid' and 'pastel' palettes by tinting colors from that original set of sixteen, I'm really happy you like them.

The palette swapping is a feature from Decker itself - it's so cool!

(+3)

ahh cool thats nice to know! i havent used decker yet, but i will once i have a project idea. thanks for making this!

(+5)

Yippee, it's fun!

 

(+3)

Yayy! Thank you so much mini-Phinxel.

(+4)

(+4)

Thank you for mentioning me in your zine, making awesome stuff, and helping other people feel seen!  

(+4)

Aww thanks for reading it haha! I'm glad you liked seeing the mention and I hope it's got other people try this out!

(+3)

wish there was an undo button :/

(+3)

Added in the most recent version! Thank you for the feedback. ^^