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Aseprite

lastmod 2025-08-09created 2020-06-2525 edits

Aseprite is a program to create animated sprites.

Categories

Features

Its main features are:

  • Sprites are composed of layers & frames as separated concepts.
  • Support for color profiles and different color modes: RGBA, Indexed (palettes up to 256 colors), Grayscale.
  • Animation facilities, with real-time preview and onion skinning.
  • Export/import animations to/from sprite sheets, GIF files, or sequence of PNG files (and FLC, FLI, JPG, BMP, PCX, TGA).
  • Multiple editors support.
  • Layer groups for organizing your work, and reference layers for rotoscoping.
  • Pixel-art specific tools like Pixel Perfect freehand mode, Shading ink, Custom Brushes, Outlines, Wide Pixels, etc.
  • Other special drawing tools like Pressure sensitivity, Symmetry Tool, Stroke and Fill selection, Gradients.
  • Tiled mode useful to draw patterns and textures.
  • Transform multiple frames/layers at the same time.
  • Lua scripting capabilities.
  • CLI - Command Line Interface to automatize tasks.
  • Quick Reference / Cheat Sheet keyboard shortcuts (customizable keys and mouse wheel).
  • Reopen closed files and recover data in case of crash.
  • Undo/Redo for every operation and support for non-linear undo.

Build

See the INSTALL.md file in the repository and, among the dependencies, the skia repository forked for aseprite page.

Linux dependencies

You will need the following dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian: 

sudo apt-get install -y g++ cmake ninja-build libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libfontconfig1-dev

On Fedora: 

sudo dnf install -y gcc-c++ cmake ninja-build libX11-devel libXcursor-devel libXi-devel mesa-libGL-devel fontconfig-devel

On Arch: 

sudo pacman -S gcc cmake ninja libx11 libxcursor mesa-libgl fontconfig

Download Skia

Download the prebuilt files from here and extract them to a specific directory. Didn't really work ...

If building it yourself: 

mkdir $HOME/Project/aseprite-deps
cd $HOME/Project/aseprite-deps
git clone --depth 1 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
git clone --depth 1 -b aseprite-m96 https://github.com/aseprite/skia.git
export PATH="${PWD}/depot_tools:${PATH}"
cd skia
python tools/git-sync-deps
gn gen out/Release-x64 --args="is_debug=false is_official_build=true skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_icu=false skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false skia_use_sfntly=false skia_use_freetype=true skia_use_harfbuzz=true skia_pdf_subset_harfbuzz=true skia_use_system_freetype2=false skia_use_system_harfbuzz=false"
ninja -C out/Release-x64 skia modules

Builds about 1760 objects... be patient...

Build from source

Install additional packages (if missing): 

sudo apt install cmake libxcursor-dev xorg-dev

Download the source code and build. 

ASEPRITE_VER=v1.2.33
mkdir $HOME/Applications
cd $HOME/Project
git clone --depth 1 -b $ASEPRITE_VER https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite aseprite-$ASEPRITE_VER
cd aseprite-$ASEPRITE_VER
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build
cd build
cmake \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/Applications/aseprite-$ASEPRITE_VER \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
  -DLAF_BACKEND=skia \
  -DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/Project/aseprite-deps/skia \
  -DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=$HOME/Project/aseprite-deps/skia/out/Release-x64 \
  -DSKIA_LIBRARY=$HOME/Project/aseprite-deps/skia/out/Release-x64/libskia.a \
  -G Ninja \
  ..
ninja aseprite
ninja install

GNOME Desktop Icon

If needed, create a shortcut at ~/.local/share/applications/aseprite.desktop.

WARNING

Replace $HOME below with an absolute path 

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Aseprite
Exec=$HOME/Applications/aseprite-v1.2.33/bin/aseprite %U
Icon=$HOME/Applications/aseprite-v1.2.33/share/aseprite/data/icons/ase256.png
Categories=Graphics;2DGraphics;RasterGraphics;GTK;

Loading palettes

Below the top menu, under the file tab, where the palette buttons are, there is an Options button next to the Preset button. Click it to find the related menu.

Raster Graphics Editor Projects

See also

Favorite site

author Zer0 sitemap