Pel 🎨

Pel is a lightweight, cross-platform pixel art editor written in Go using the Fyne UI toolkit. Create beautiful pixel art with an intuitive interface, powerful color management, and real-time canvas manipulation.

✨ Features

• 🖼️ Flexible Canvas - Create custom-sized pixel art canvases (up to 1024x1024)
• 🎨 Advanced Color Picker - HSV/RGBA color selection with visual preview
• 🎯 Color Palette Management - Save and manage up to 64 color swatches
• 🔍 Zoom & Pan - Smooth canvas navigation with mouse wheel zoom
• 💾 File Operations - Open, save, and export PNG images
• 🖱️ Multiple Brush Tools - Pencil, eraser, fill, and more (coming soon)
• 🌈 Automatic Color Extraction - Import colors from existing images
• ⚡ Performance - Built with Go for speed and efficiency

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25 or later
• Platform-specific dependencies for Fyne:
  • macOS: Xcode command line tools
  • Linux: libgl1-mesa-dev xorg-dev (Debian/Ubuntu) or equivalent
  • Windows: No additional dependencies

Install from source

go install github.com/carlomunguia/pel/pel@latest

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/carlomunguia/pel.git
cd pel
go build -v ./pel

🚀 Quick Start

Running Pel

# If installed via go install
pel

# Or run from source
go run ./pel

Creating Your First Artwork

1. Create a new canvas: File → New

   • Enter your desired width and height (e.g., 32x32)
   • Click "Create"

2. Pick a color: Use the color picker on the right

   • Drag the hue slider to select a color
   • Click in the color square to choose your shade
   • The color appears in the preview box

3. Add to palette: Click an empty swatch at the bottom to save your color

4. Start drawing: Click on the canvas to paint pixels!

5. Save your work: File → Save or File → Save As

🎨 Usage Guide

Canvas Navigation

Action	Method
Zoom In/Out	Mouse scroll wheel
Pan Canvas	Middle-click + drag
Draw Pixel	Left-click on canvas

Color Management

Using the Color Picker

1. Move the vertical slider to select hue
2. Click in the color square for saturation/value
3. Selected color appears in preview
4. Click canvas to draw with selected color

Using Color Swatches

1. Select a color with the picker
2. Click an empty swatch slot to save
3. Click saved swatches to quickly switch colors
4. Up to 64 swatches available

Import Colors from Images

1. File → Open to load an image
2. Pel automatically extracts unique colors
3. Colors populate available swatch slots

File Operations

Operation	Menu Path	Shortcut
New Canvas	File → New	-
Open Image	File → Open	-
Save	File → Save	-
Save As	File → Save As	-
Export	File → Export	Coming soon
Quit	File → Quit	-

🏗️ Architecture

Pel follows a clean, modular architecture:

pel/
├── pel/           # Main application entry point
├── apptype/       # Core types and interfaces
├── pelcanvas/     # Canvas widget and rendering
│   └── brush/     # Brush tools implementation
├── swatch/        # Color swatch widgets
├── ui/            # User interface components
│   ├── layout.go  # Main layout
│   ├── menus.go   # File menu handlers
│   ├── picker.go  # Color picker setup
│   └── swatches.go # Swatch panel
└── util/          # Utility functions

🛠️ Development

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/carlomunguia/pel.git
cd pel

# Download dependencies
go mod download

# Build
go build -v ./pel

# Run tests
go test ./...

Project Requirements

• Go: 1.25+
• Fyne: v2.7.0+

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Fyne - A beautiful cross-platform GUI toolkit
• Color picker by lusingander/colorpicker

📧 Contact

Carlo Munguia - @carlomunguia

Project Link: https://github.com/carlomunguia/pel

---

Made with ❤️ and Go