Dottie: my pixel art editor for macOS

TidBITS Talk
1

This time last year I re-created a 32 year old classic Macintosh app: Stapler

This year I’ve been working on a pixel art editor, I’m calling it Dottie.

I consider myself a game developer above all else, even though I have a very broad set of skills. So I make a lot of games, having even been lucky enough to get a spot on “Best Games of 2023” next to Super Mario Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

But I’ve long been disappointed in the pixel art apps that are available for MacOS for developers like myself to use. Few good native apps, and some wrapped web apps. Nothing with a good user interface (imho, as a former Apple engineer). There were more pixel art apps in the Classic Macintosh era. But the Mac has never really had many great pixel art tools for whatever reason. A Japanese app called Blue Paint (download for MacOS 8) is probably the best of the old bunch. Whilst other platforms had it much better. Here’s a big list.

So, I thought I’d create one. Mostly to fill my own needs but also to go on the Mac App Store. iPad version might follow. The goal is for it to work with modern technology and processing power on full colour images with limited colour palettes. Offering features that are completely new and innovative, and reintroducing useful features and techniques that have been forgotten about for decades. Plus, lots of dithering.

Right now it runs in macOS 12 and up.

Currently on TestFlight. If there are any budding artists on Talk, send me a DM for an invite.

This video shows dither smudge brush, AFAIK last seen in 1992!

6 Likes
2

I’m more than a little burned-out on beta-testing at the moment (sorry); however, I could really use it when it’s released. Please keep us posted.

1 Like
3

Release will be around macOS 26. I could release it now, it’s that feature rich and stable. But I figure I may as well wait to see how Tahoe shakes out.

1 Like
4

Dottie pixel art app version 1 feature list is in the bag! I want to spend spare time over some weeks polishing it as I write the help file/manual/website.

The hardest parts by far were how to draw symmetrical circles of any size using pixels, and how to move the contents of a selection. I saved the later feature until last :sweat_smile:

How big?

A single architecture Apple Silicon build fits on a 3.5" 2HD floppy disk with room to spare: it is a mere 970 KB on disk (2.2 MB uncompressed) you can approx. double those sizes for the Universal build that includes the additional Intel portion of the binary. The app icon alone is 121 KB of the total.

The key to the small size: no external frameworks or libs! Which is the same way I kept my hit game YOYOZO so small (it is a teeny tiny 39 KB, and was named a GOTY in 2023).

3 Likes
5

That proved an entertaining read, the Playdate has long been on my maybe-list.

1 Like
6

I recently added support for:

  • QuickLook preview
  • Finder thumbnails
  • PEP (a new image format)
  • More