Current editor export choices
- Editable PixelWall project · Free: a v4 .pixelwall document with frames, layers, clips, palettes, linked image references, tilesets, and metadata.
- Editable sprite project · Free: a binary sprite file with supported layers, frames and metadata. Review import/export warnings and keep the .pixelwall source.
- Current frame PNG, BMP, or TGA · Free: the active rendered frame at the selected scale. Native projects retain information that raster images flatten.
- Animated GIF · Pro: the chosen clip and playback order with rounded GIF timing and limited color/transparency.
- Sprite atlas PNG · Pro: an atlas PNG plus a separate JSON download describing rectangles, trimming offsets, source IDs, and durations. Allow multiple downloads.
- Game package ZIP · Pro: atlas PNG and JSON, rendered frame PNGs, a native project, a manifest, and independent tileset/map data where present.
- Saved export presets · Pro: keep reusable export options on this device with the Save export preset and Load saved preset controls.
Choose rendered layers and references
For rendered formats, Layers selects Visible layers, Active layer, or Selected layers. Reference layers are omitted by default; enable Include reference layers to put them in the rendered output. Editor previews can still show visible references while you work.
Editable PixelWall and sprite saves retain the whole editable document, including reference layers. Scale, clip, and rendered-layer choices are not a way to flatten or reduce a native project save.
Atlas layout and metadata
Packed, horizontal, vertical, and grid layouts support padding, border extrusion, optional trimming, and optional power-of-two output dimensions. Packing does not rotate entries. The editor’s atlas limit is 8192 pixels per edge; an export fails if the chosen entries and spacing do not fit.
Trimmed frames record sourceSize and spriteSourceSize alongside their atlas frame rectangle. Durations are milliseconds. The JSON is an array of named frame entries, with clip/source information and slices in metadata. Preserve the JSON with the PNG.
Game ZIP uses sprites.png and sprites.json as a matched pair. For a separately downloaded atlas, verify that meta.image matches the PNG filename before loading JSON through an engine that follows that field. Scale changes rendered pixel dimensions; source document coordinates in clips and slices should be interpreted consistently in your own pipeline.
The current atlas metadata is not the classic pixelwall.sprite-atlas v2 schema. The frameTags field includes export-relative from/to ranges, explicit frameIndices, and source frame IDs. Non-contiguous selections use frameIndices; they are not the classic Phaser animation recipes.
Inside a current game package
- manifest.json identifies the native project, atlas, rendered frames, tilesets, maps, clips, slices, and compatibility warnings.
- sprites.png and sprites.json contain the selected frames in timeline order and their atlas metadata.
- A named .pixelwall file preserves the editable source document.
- frames/ contains individual rendered PNGs with source frame IDs and timing listed in the manifest.
- tilesets/ contains independent tileset metadata and tile PNGs. Indexed documents with per-frame palette changes may emit separate palette variants.
- maps/ contains Tiled-compatible orthogonal .tmj maps for frames with tilemap data, grouped by tile dimensions. No map files are invented for a document with no tilemaps.
GIF color and timing
The current encoder preserves up to 255 distinct opaque colors per frame plus transparency. When a frame exceeds that palette, it maps colors to a 216-color RGB grid. Alpha below 128 is transparent; remaining pixels become opaque.
Frame delays round to 10 ms units with a 10 ms minimum; a viewer may display very short delays differently. The current editor checks a 67,108,864-pixel budget over the entire scaled playback sequence. PNG and native project saves preserve original color information more faithfully.
Import and interoperability limits
PixelWall imports its native files, supported editable sprite files, PNG/BMP/TGA images, GIF animations, image sequences, and sprite sheets. A flattened format does not recover original layers. Animated PNG is rejected; use PNG frames or GIF. PNG 16-bit channels are reduced to 8 bits for editing.
PixelWall uses embedded ICC profiles for previews and image export, and converts PNG profile/gamma information when importing. Use Colors → Color profile to assign a profile or convert colors. Unsupported file features produce compatibility notes or a rejected import.
Classic packages and existing examples
The Phaser and PixiJS sample guides describe the classic editor’s established sprite package schema. Follow those guides using /editor/classic, or adapt your loader to the current atlas JSON. Existing downloadable example packages are labeled by their own contents.
Common questions
Are editable sprite exports free?
Yes, for the features the current encoder supports. Keep the native PixelWall project and review any compatibility notes.
Is a sprite atlas a regular spritesheet grid?
It can be. Choose horizontal, vertical, or grid for regular layouts. Packed or trimmed layouts need their JSON rectangles and offsets.
Do game maps include collision shapes?
No. Add game-specific collision or object data in the destination tool. PixelWall retains slices as source metadata; it does not automatically convert them to collision objects.