Pixxxel 1.0 · now on the Mac App Store

Roll a character. Down to the pixel.

Pixxxel is a native Mac app for making 1-bit pixel-art characters. Roll eight traits, lock the ones you like, reroll the rest — and every result comes out clean 1-bit pixel art.

The Pixxxel app icon: a pixel-art wooden cauldron with a swirling rainbow vortex and a rising rainbow flame
Download Pixxxel free See how it works ↓

Bring your own image-model API key. Renders bill to the provider — no subscription, no markup.

A real Mac app, not a wrapper.

Native SwiftUI, dark by design. Every render auto-saves to the gallery. Your API keys stay in Keychain.

01

Roll

Eight traits — type, age, hair, eyes, expression, and more. Randomize and see who shows up.

02

Lock

Keep what works. Lock a trait, reroll the rest — or drop in an archetype like Wizard or Necromancer.

03

Render

Generate, and the pixel pipeline takes over. Clean 1-bit, every single time.

Prompt · built from traits

Traits — lock what works
Orc Old Full beard Glowing eyes Iron crown Neutral

Locked traits hold. Everything else rerolls.

Finished render: a 1-bit pixel-art old orc with a full beard and an iron crown

1-bit. Every render.

The model hands back a full-colour, full-resolution image. Pixxxel doesn't keep it. Every render is forced through the same pipeline — downsampled, dithered, and cut to two tones — so what lands in your gallery is always clean 1-bit pixel art, at the size you pick: 32, 64, or 128 px. Black and white by default; recolour it through any palette and it stays 1-bit.

  1. 01 Downsample 1024 px → 32 / 64 / 128
  2. 02 Grayscale Rec. 601 luminance
  3. 03 Whiteout flood-fill the background clean
  4. 04 Dither Floyd–Steinberg, 1-bit
  5. A finished 1-bit pixel-art character portrait 1-bit · pixel art · PNG

One character. Eighteen palettes.

Black and white is just the default. Recolour any render through a wall of retro duotones — the pixels never change.

Made here.

Every character below came out of Pixxxel exactly as you see it.

Seven models. Pick per render.

Gemini to Stable Diffusion — choose the model on every roll, all on your own API key.

Gemini Fast iteration — takes rerolls in stride. Google
Imagen 4 Crisp detail that survives the downsample. Google DeepMind
GPT Image 2 Strongest at multi-trait prompts. OpenAI
FLUX.1 Schnell Built for speed — drafts in seconds. Black Forest Labs
SDXL The open-weights workhorse. Stability AI
SD 3 Medium Balanced output, sharper prompt adherence. Stability AI
Nano Banana Pro Gemini 3 Pro Image — the top shelf. Google

Everything in the box.

Fifteen character types, fourteen archetype presets, eighteen palettes, and a gallery for everything you roll. No packs, no add-ons.

What ships in 1.0.

The first release — the full loop, the guaranteed pipeline, and eighteen palettes.

The loop

Roll and lock

Eight traits, locked or rerolled until it's right.

  • Eight lockable traits with lock, reroll, and randomize
  • Fourteen archetype presets, from Wizard to Necromancer
  • Seven AI image models, bring-your-own-key
  • Auto-saved gallery with focus mode and filmstrip

macOS 15 or later. Keys live in Keychain; renders stay on your Mac.

Colour & export

Palettes and export

The 1-bit pipeline, eighteen duotones, and real vector output.

  • The 1-bit pipeline: downsample, grayscale, whiteout, dither
  • Eighteen duotone palettes — Game Boy, Amber CRT, Cyberpunk, and more
  • Invertible: tap a palette again to swap ink and paper
  • Export PNG at 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 px, or scalable SVG

Palettes and SVG are presentation and export only — the stored render stays 1-bit.

Full release notes →

Free. Bring your own key.

Pixxxel is free on the Mac App Store. You bring an image-model API key — Google, OpenAI, or Hugging Face — and pay that provider directly per render. No subscription, no markup.

Download Pixxxel free

Requires macOS 15 or later and your own API key. One provider is enough to start.