apixed

A native, cross-platform pixel-art editor built in Zig (raylib/raygui), with an embedded Lua console for scripting. Version 0.6.X.

Document & File Management

• Multiple documents open in tabs, quick-switch with Ctrl+1…Ctrl+0
• New (Ctrl+N), Open (Ctrl+O), Save (Ctrl+S), Save As (Ctrl+Shift+S), Close (Ctrl+W)
• Custom binary .apixed file format (versioned schema, backward-compatible readers)
• Unsaved-changes confirmation on document close and app exit, listing all modified docs
• Import image as new document: PNG, BMP, JPEG, QOI
• Export document as image: PNG, BMP, JPEG, QOI
• Export animation as GIF, with adjustable FPS and export scale (1x–32x)
• Canvas size up to 4096×4096 pixels

Canvas & Viewport

• Zoom toward cursor (mouse wheel / +/-), 1×–128×
• Pan via middle-mouse drag
• Pixel grid toggle (Ctrl+P) and tile grid toggle (Ctrl+T)
• Tile-aware canvas resize (add/remove rows/columns by tile increments)
• Per-document zoom/pan persisted in the save file

Layers

• Add, remove, duplicate, merge-down, rename, reorder
• Per-layer visibility toggle and opacity slider
• Full undo/redo for all layer operations

Selection

• Rectangle select (add/subtract/move/copy-move modifiers, double-click = select tile)
• Fuzzy/magic-wand select (add/subtract, select-all-occurrences)
• Select All (Ctrl+A), Invert (Ctrl+I)
• Copy / Cut / Paste (Ctrl+C/X/V)
• Flip horizontal/vertical (Ctrl+F / Shift+F)
• Rotate CW/CCW (Ctrl+R / Shift+R)
• Scale via drag handles, commit-on-paste/deselect editing model
• Escape cancels an in-progress move
• All operations undoable

Drawing Tools

Color & Palette

• Foreground/background color pair with quick swap (X)
• Color picker: RGB, HSV, hex, alpha inputs; revert-to-previous; copy hex to clipboard
• Per-document custom palette: add, remove, clear, reorder
• Import palette from an image (color extraction/sampling)
• All palette edits undoable

Animation

• Multiple named, tile-based animations per document
• Floating preview panel: play/pause, FPS +/-, next/previous frame, zoom/pan, enlarge/shrink
• GIF export with selectable scale multiplier (1×/2×/4×/8×/16×/32×)

Undo/Redo

• Full undo (Ctrl+Z) / redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z)
• Command-pattern history (27+ command types) covering drawing, selection, layers, palette, resize
• Batched pixel-level change recording
• Per-document modified/unsaved state tracking

Scripting (Lua Console)

• In-app developer console (Ctrl+Backtick to toggle)
• Commands: /help, /version, /clear, /run <script> (downloads from the community repo first if missing locally), /stop, /api, /list, /download <script>, /update [script]
• Scripts run on a background thread (UI stays responsive), with instruction-count safety limit; only one script runs at a time
• Lua API for pixel/layer/selection manipulation and shape drawing (get/set pixel, layers, draw line/rect/ellipse, fill, replace color, etc.) — enables procedural generation and batch operations

Community Script Repository

Scripts can be shared via the public github.com/arguit/apixed-scripts repo (flat .lua files in its root).

• /list — lists scripts available in the repo ([downloaded] / [downloaded, update available]) plus any local-only scripts in ./scripts/
• /run <script> — falls back to downloading the script from the repo if it isn't found in ./scripts/ locally, then runs it
• /download <script> — (re-)downloads a script from the repo, overwriting any local copy regardless of version
• /update [script] — re-downloads one (or, with no name, every) previously-downloaded script that has a newer version in the repo
• Network operations run on a background thread (polled once per frame), same as script execution, so the UI never blocks

Lua API

All coordinates are pixel coordinates on the active document; colors are four 0-255 component arguments (r, g, b, a), not a table. Layer indices are 1-based (Lua convention) and get translated internally. Functions that read/write pixels return/accept nil when out of bounds or no document is open.

Document info

• log(message) — prints to the in-app console
• get_doc_w(), get_doc_h() — document dimensions in pixels
• get_tile_w(), get_tile_h() — tile dimensions

Active-layer pixels

• get_pixel(x, y) -> r, g, b, a | nil
• set_pixel(x, y, r, g, b, a)
• erase_pixel(x, y) — shorthand for set_pixel(x, y, 0, 0, 0, 0)

Layers

• get_layer_count() -> count
• get_layer_name(index) -> name | nil
• get_layer_by_name(name) -> index | nil
• get_layer_pixel(index, x, y) -> r, g, b, a | nil
• set_layer_pixel(index, x, y, r, g, b, a)
• erase_layer_pixel(index, x, y)
• create_layer() -> index | nil — becomes the active layer
• remove_layer(index) -> ok
• move_layer_up(index) -> ok, move_layer_down(index) -> ok
• rename_layer(index, name) -> ok

Selection (write-only mask)

• select_pixel(x, y), deselect_pixel(x, y)

Shape drawing

Each runs as one whole-canvas operation and one undo step, using the same helpers the interactive tools use; honors the active selection like the equivalent tool would.

• draw_line(x0, y0, x1, y1, r, g, b, a)
• draw_rectangle(x0, y0, x1, y1, r, g, b, a) — outline
• draw_rectangle_filled(x0, y0, x1, y1, r, g, b, a)
• draw_ellipse(x0, y0, x1, y1, r, g, b, a) — outline
• draw_ellipse_filled(x0, y0, x1, y1, r, g, b, a)
• fill(x, y, r, g, b, a) — flood fill from (x, y)
• replace_color(r0, g0, b0, a0, r1, g1, b1, a1) — replaces one exact color with another across the document (or selection, if any)

Foreground/background color

• get_fg_color() -> r, g, b, a, set_fg_color(r, g, b, a)
• get_bg_color() -> r, g, b, a, set_bg_color(r, g, b, a)

Pen tool

• get_pen_size() -> size, set_pen_size(size) — brush size, clamped to 1-256

This surface is enough to script procedural pixel-art generation, batch edits across layers, and repetitive shape/fill operations that would be tedious by hand.

Feedback & UX

• Status-bar notifications (info/success/error)
• Contextual tooltips with keyboard shortcuts on nearly every control
• Per-tool help/controls overlay