Retro console sprite editor - Based on Piskel

RetroPiskel is a fork of Piskel enhanced for creating sprites targeting retro game consoles. It maintains full compatibility with original Piskel functionality while adding specialized workflows for retro console development.

• CHR Export: Export sprites directly to .chr format (spec)
• NES Mode: Optional mode that constrains palette to official NES colors
• 4-Color Validation: Warns when sprites exceed 3 colors + transparent
• 8×8 Tile Alignment: Dimension validation for proper tile alignment

More consoles coming soon...

The Piskel editor is purely built in JavaScript, HTML and CSS.

We also use the following libraries :

• spectrum : awesome standalone colorpicker
• gifjs : generate animated GIFs in javascript, using webworkers
• supergif : modified version of SuperGif to parse and import GIFs
• jszip : create, read and edit .zip files with Javascript
• canvas-toBlob : shim for canvas toBlob
• jquery : used sporadically in the application
• bootstrap-tooltip : nice tooltips
• playwright: End to end testing

As well as some icons from the Noun Project :

• Folder by Simple Icons from The Noun Project
• (and probably one or two others)

Piskel supports the following browsers:

• Chrome (latest)
• Firefox (latest)
• Edge (latest)
• Brave (latest) but only if canvas fingerprinting is disabled (more info)

There is no support for mobile.

Offline builds are available. More details in the dedicated wiki page.

Help is always welcome !

• Issues : Found a problem when using the application, want to request a feature, open an issue.
• Development : Have a look at the wiki to set up the development environment (for now, same as original Piskel).

Note: issues from the original Piskel apply to RetroPiskel. You may work on them if applicable, targeting issues below #1231.

Copyright 2025 Unveil | Copyright 2017 Julian Descottes

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.