PyxleOS

If you're interested in getting involved in pixel art and are looking for a simple editor to start with, you could try PyxleOS (Pixel Open Source). It's a free-to-use app that comes packed with only the necessary and essential drawing tools for creating pixel images.

The program can be used to design customized icons for your games or applications. However, it doesn't stop here, since the canvas can be set to any size. Photos get exported to PNG format so, if you're planning to produce ICOs, you have to resort to a PNG-to-ICO converter.

PyxleOS was partly inspired by PyxelEdit but developed at a smaller scale. Although it can be technically used to design pixel artwork for tilesets, game levels and animations, it doesn't have any kind of advanced options.

You are equipped with a single drawing tool that fills pixels with color, one at a time (like zooming into Paint at maximum level and drawing with a pencil). Besides setting the canvas' width and height, you can load external images to have a baseline, view the current position of the mouse cursor (x and y coordinates), zoom in, or move with the arrow keys and set the movement step.

Colors can be customized when it comes to the drawing, background, base, selection and text. There is also a built-in text editor that can be used to create simple plain text documents (.txt), independent of the pixel editor.

Because PyxleOS is made with Java, it can be installed on any platform with Java support, such as Linux or Mac. Besides the fact that Java Runtime Environment (JRE) hsa to be installed on your PC, the program doesn't need to be setup, so you can simply double-click the downloaded .jar to reach the main window right away.

Unfortunately, the application hasn't received updates for some time and we're not sure that it's still being developed. It's easy to use by anyone but expert drawing skills are mandatory to be able to create believable pixel art projects, in lack of more advanced features.