Pixxxel 1.0 · native macOS app

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
Coming to the Mac App Store 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, and 256 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 will be 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.

Coming to the Mac App Store

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