This is a collection of tools for making Pixel Art that I personally missed in Krita.
Installation
Download the .zip.
In Krita, go to Tools ‣ Scripts ‣ Import Python Plugin…, find the .zip file and press OK.
Restart Krita.
Go to Settings ➡ Dockers ➡ SZK Pixel Art Suite
A new docker with the plugin will appear:
Different tabs of the docker
💡 TIP: Everything is documented. Simply hover your mouse over any element to reveal its tooltip, learn how it works, discover shortcuts, and get helpful tips.
Tools
Pixel Shading Tab 🎨
This is inspired by the color shading panel from Pyxel Edit, which provided interesting color shadings very easily. It brings its original functionality to Krita and expands on it by adding a few more options.
It also includes actions for adding and sorting colors in Krita's default Palette docker by different criteria (hue, value, saturation, perceived lightness, color similarity, etc.), similar to other software like Aseprite, which I personally find very useful when working with limited color palettes.
💡 TIP: When choosing a color from a palette, you can use shortcuts to quickly select darker or lighter variations within the palette.
Color Replace
Allows to precisely replace an specific color in the selected layers/groups or in the entire document.
This is useful when you want to change a palette or a certain color of an entire document or layer.
Note: At the moment undo/redo is not supported natively in Krita' scripts, so if you want to undo changes you can swap the colors (with the swap button) and re-execute the color replace.
Index Painting
Sets up an index painting group for a layer (or group) with a single click.
The Index Painting is a technique that automatically dithers and reduce colors on a non-pixel art artwork. This means that you can use non-pixel art brushes, gradients, etc. for painting and still obtaining a Pixel Art aesthetic. Learn more about it here.
It comes with a pattern editor that allows to create, save and load different patterns-pressets for the dithering effect.
This is mostly to play, experiment and discover new and cool pixel gradient effects.
💡 TIP: Hover a cell to see more matrix drawing options.
Export Tab 💾
Allows exporting the document (or any selected layer(s)!) scaled by a factor very easily and fast.
Useful when you want a higher resolution image of your Pixel Art drawing.
SZK K-Sprite ✏️
Pixel art editor inside Krita that is meant to add some pixel art features that are missing in Krita. Like a pixel perfect brush, or tools for propper ellipses/circles, bezier lines, etc.
Is not meant to replace the process of drawing Pixel Art in Krita (because Krita is still a great tool for making pixel art!). Is meant to add those tools when you need them.
Tutorial
To execute K-Sprite, go to the Pencil Tab ✏️ in the docker, or press the shortcut for Open SZK K Pixel Art Editor (SZK Pixel Art Suite) (Default Alt+F3).
A new window will appear on top of Krita (1), and will grab the active layer (2):
1 - The window will render on top always so you can still use other krita dockers/plugins while drawing in K-Sprite > 2 - The active layer will be temporarily hidden in Krita's UI. This is due K-Sprite renders the document, and having it visible will make it impossible to see changes in case you erase parts of the active layer inside K-Sprite
Active tool options: Options related the selected tool
Actions: Diferent actions, like undo/redo, solo mode, etc.
Tool Bar: Contains all the drawing tools.
Brush: 1px brush with pixel perfect option.
Antialiasing brush: Automatically calculates the color of a pixel by their neighbour pixels.
Line
Bezier
Square
Circle: Improved circles
Fill: 👉 For big areas, reaches a python recursion limit set by krita, so is only suitable for not so big regions.
Text: Tool to render correctly pixelated fonts
Zoom: For zooming specific areas easily.
💡 You can check each tool shortcut by hovering any tool button and seeing the Info Bar.
Canvas:
Controls
Left MB - Paint with Foreground Color
Right MB - Paint with Background Color
Middle MB - Pan
CTRL + Middle MB + Drag - Zoom in/out
CTRL + Left/Right MB - Sample Foreground/Background color
X - Switch Colors
💡 TIP: You can mask regions for painting by making a selection in Krita:This way, you will only be able to draw within the selection.
Export Buttons: Export the drawing to a New Layer or to the Active Layer
New layer will export the drawing to a new layer above the selected layer
Active layer will export the drawing to the layer that was active (❗) when executing the editor.
👉 These buttons may show or not depending on the active layer when launching the editor.
Launching it with an empty layer will make not show the New Layer button (to avoid cluttering).
Launching it with a hidden layer selected will make not show the Active Layer button (to avoid committing changes to an invisible layer by mistake).
Info Bar: Displays information, shortcuts, etc. when hovering a button/tool.
Options ⚙️
Index Painting Options
Add gradient: Adds a gradient to preview the dither and to sample colors.
Position: Changes the position of the gradient.
Size: The size of the gradient as a percentage of the document's size.
Invert: Inverts the gradient.
Method
Index colors: Uses an index color filter
Gradient map: Uses a gradient map filter. You can configure its dither pattern in its properties.
Dither live preview: When selecting a new pattern preset or editing it (rotate, invert, etc), if a "Dither" layer is selected or is a sibling of the selected layer, it will be updated automatically.
Shortcuts
Shortcuts provided by the plugin:
Palette
When selecting a color from a palette in the Shading tab, you can move backward/forward the active palette color with the shortcuts:
Previous Palette Color (SZK Pixel Art Suite) - Default: Alt+1
Next Palette Color (SZK Pixel Art Suite) - Default: Alt+2
K-Sprite
You can execute the editor with the shortcut:
Open SZK K Pixel Art Editor (SZK Pixel Art Suite) - Default: Alt+F3
Export Pixel Art
You can bind to a shortcut the action to export your pixel art with your current settings with:
Export Scaled Pixel Art (Full Document) (SZK Pixel Art Suite)
Export Scaled Pixel Art (Selected Layers) (SZK Pixel Art Suite)
This took a lot of work and thought. If you find it useful, value the work and want to contribute to future updates, any amount you find fair is appreciated. Thank you so much 🍀.