Procreate
Procreate is a powerful digital illustration app for iPad that provides professional-grade creative tools like custom brushes, advanced layering systems, and high-resolution canvases for artists and designers.
Pyxel Edit
Pyxel Edit is a specialized pixel art drawing tool designed to help you create tilesets, level mockups, and animations with unique tile-based syncing capabilities.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Procreate | Pyxel Edit |
|---|---|---|
| Website | procreate.com | pyxeledit.com |
| Pricing Model | One_time | One_time |
| Starting Price | $??/month | Free |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✘ No free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✓ Has free plan |
| Product Demo | ✘ No product demo | ✘ No product demo |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2011 | 0 |
| Headquarters | Hobart, Australia | null |
Overview
Procreate
Procreate is a complete art studio designed specifically for the iPad and Apple Pencil. You can create high-resolution digital paintings, complex illustrations, and expressive animations using a vast library of handcrafted brushes and an intuitive layering system. The interface stays out of your way, letting you focus entirely on your artwork while providing advanced features like color harmony tools, perspective guides, and a powerful brush engine.
Whether you are a professional concept artist, a freelance illustrator, or a hobbyist, you can take your entire workflow on the go. You can record your creative process with time-lapse exports or use the 3D painting tools to texture models directly. It solves the problem of needing a bulky desktop setup by offering desktop-class performance in a portable, touch-first experience that feels natural and responsive.
Pyxel Edit
Pyxel Edit is a specialized drawing tool built specifically for pixel artists and game developers. You can create beautiful pixel art, but its real power lies in how it handles tilesets. When you change a single tile, every instance of that tile across your entire document updates instantly. This makes it incredibly easy to design level mockups and see how your environment looks in real-time without manual copying and pasting.
You can also manage complex animations by organizing frames and layers in a clean, focused workspace. The software is designed to stay out of your way, giving you a lightweight environment to build game assets from scratch. Whether you are a solo indie developer or a hobbyist artist, you can streamline your workflow by exporting your creations directly into XML or JSON formats for easy integration into your game engine.
Overview
Procreate Features
- Brush Studio Design your own custom brushes or choose from hundreds of built-in options to achieve the exact texture and stroke you want.
- Valkyrie Engine Experience lightning-fast performance with a 64-bit painting engine that keeps your strokes smooth and responsive at 120fps.
- Advanced Layering Organize your artwork with a sophisticated layer system that includes blend modes, masks, and groups for non-destructive editing.
- Animation Assist Create frame-by-frame animations and motion graphics easily with onion skinning and instant playback directly on your iPad.
- 3D Model Painting Import 3D models and paint directly onto their surfaces with full lighting and material control for immersive design.
- Time-lapse Recording Record every stroke of your creative journey automatically and export high-quality videos to share your process with others.
Pyxel Edit Features
- Tile Referencing. Edit one tile and watch every identical tile in your project update automatically to save hours of manual work.
- Animation Tools. Create smooth character animations by managing frames and layers within a dedicated, easy-to-use animation timeline.
- Tileset Exporting. Export your finished tilesets and maps as images or data files like XML and JSON for seamless game integration.
- Tile Map Tools. Build entire level mockups quickly by painting with tiles instead of individual pixels to visualize your game world.
- Color Palette Management. Import and manage custom color palettes to ensure your pixel art maintains a consistent and professional aesthetic.
- Layered Editing. Organize your artwork using multiple layers to keep your background elements and character sprites separate and manageable.
Pricing Comparison
Procreate Pricing
- One-time purchase
- Full brush library
- Advanced layering system
- Animation Assist tools
- 3D painting capabilities
- Free lifetime updates
- Designed for iPhone
- Portable painting engine
- High-resolution canvases
- Full layer support
- Time-lapse recording
- One-time purchase
Pyxel Edit Pricing
- Basic pixel drawing tools
- Simple layer support
- Standard brush sizes
- No tileset syncing
- Limited export options
- Everything in Free, plus:
- Tile referencing and syncing
- Animation frame management
- Export to XML and JSON
- Lifetime updates
- Commercial usage rights
Pros & Cons
Procreate
Pros
- One-time purchase with no recurring subscription fees
- Extremely responsive interface with zero lag
- Massive library of high-quality community brushes
- Intuitive gestures speed up your creative workflow
- Regular free updates that add significant features
Cons
- Exclusive to iPad and iOS devices only
- Limited text and vector manipulation tools
- Layer limits depend on iPad hardware specs
- No cloud-based file syncing between devices
Pyxel Edit
Pros
- Incredible time savings with synchronized tile editing
- Very affordable one-time purchase price
- Lightweight software that runs on older hardware
- Clean interface that is easy to learn quickly
- Excellent for creating seamless environment tilesets
Cons
- Development updates can be very infrequent
- Lacks advanced photo editing filters
- No native mobile or tablet versions available