GitHub – danterolle/tilf

Tilf (Tiny Elf) is a simple yet powerful pixel art editor built with PySide6.
It’s designed for creating sprites, icons, and small 2D assets with essential tools, live preview, undo/redo, and export options.

There are several Pixel Art Editors that do the same things and even much more,
but many require an account registration or the insertion of an e-mail or have a certain business model.

I’m not interested in all that, my goal is to be able to create sprites freely, with (almost) zero dependencies,
zero setup time, zero installations:

Tilf starts and I begin to draw what I want.

It runs on Windows, MacOS and GNU/Linux.

Download the latest release from the releases page.

Windows 11 -> Download

MacOS 15.6 -> Download

GNU/Linux (ParrotOS 6.4) -> Download

I’m aware that the code quality isn’t great.
I didn’t prioritize it when writing this.
This project was something I put together during my spare time, and a lot of it could be written much better.
There’s definitely room for improvement, so I’m more than happy to accept PRs from anyone willing to contribute.

Because I mainly used it for learning and personal purposes.
Publish it as an Open Source project might be interesting for others as well.

• Drawing tools:
  • Pencil
  • Eraser
  • Fill (bucket)
  • Eyedropper
  • Rectangle (stroke)
  • Ellipse (stroke)
• Canvas:
  • New image with custom dimensions
  • Zoom 1–50x (mouse wheel or slider)
  • Editable background color (alpha supported)
  • Optional grid with customizable color
  • Clear canvas
• Workflow:
  • Undo/Redo with history up to 50 states
  • Drag & drop images to open
  • Real-time preview in a side dock (you can move it wherever you want)
• Import/Export:
  • Open PNG, JPEG/JPG, BMP
  • Export to PNG (with or without transparency), JPEG/JPG, BMP
• Handy details:
  • Hold Shift while drawing rectangles/ellipses to constrain to squares/circles
  • Grid is shown when zoom (cell size) is at least 4

• Python 3, virtualenv
• OS: Windows, MacOS or GNULinux
• Dependencies:

I did not use uv or poetry for this project;
I don’t think it is necessary to introduce a tool of that kind for a project that is, all things considered, simple.

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/danterolle/tilf.git && cd tilf

2. This project has a Makefile
   that automates all the necessary build and cleanup operations for Tilf (for MacOS and GNU/Linux only), so we just need to run:

3. The executable will be in the dist folder.

Enjoy!

1. Clone the repository by using Git Bash:

git clone https://github.com/danterolle/tilf.git

2. Create a virtual environment:

3. Activate the virtual environment:

4. Install the dependencies:

pip install pyside6 pyinstaller pillow

Note:

5. And finally, run the application:

1. Clone the repository by using Git Bash:

git clone https://github.com/danterolle/tilf.git

2. Install the dependencies:

pip install pyside6 pyinstaller pillow

3. Run PyInstaller:

pyinstaller --name tilf --onefile --windowed --icon assets/icon.icns --add-data assets:assets --add-data style.qss:. main.py

4. The executable will be in the dist folder.

• File:
  • New: Ctrl+N
  • Open: Ctrl+O
  • Save: Ctrl+S
• Edit:
  • Undo: Ctrl+Z
  • Redo: Ctrl+Y
• Tools:
  • Pencil: B
  • Eraser: E
  • Bucket: G
  • Eyedropper: I
  • Rectangle: R
  • Ellipse: C
• Shapes:
  • Constrain to square/circle: hold Shift

• Export formats:
  • PNG: optionally keep transparency.
  • JPEG/JPG, BMP: no transparency.

On close, if there are unsaved changes, a recovery .png is automatically saved into a tilf_autosaves
folder next to the startup script, with a timestamped filename.

Ensure your virtualenv is active and run: pip install pyside6

• Open issues for bugs or feature requests.
• For PRs, please keep the code style consistent and explain changes clearly.
• Feature ideas are welcome (e.g. advanced fills, selections, layers). Thank you!

GPL v3.0, see the LICENSE file for details.