Pixel Surgeon — What It Does

Pixel Surgeon is a precision pixel-art cleanup and editing tool built around the Pixeloid: the grid cell size you choose for the artwork. It can remove JPEG artifacts, anti-aliasing, dithering, stray colors, cell-padding and other raster noise by analyzing each Pixeloid and rebuilding it from its majority color when it passes your Transparency Tolerance.

After cleanup, the Edit State gives you grid-restrained Pencil, Eraser, variable Pixeloid brushes, stylus support, Zero-Elbows orthogonalization, chained precision lines, configurable Undo/Redo history and PNG export.

Quick Start

Load an image by file picker, drag-and-drop, clipboard paste, or image URL.
Choose the Pixel Cell Size that matches the artwork: 1×1, 2×2, 4×4, 8×8, 16×16, 32×32, or Custom.
Adjust Transparency Tolerance. A Pixeloid must contain enough visible pixels to survive cleanup; otherwise it becomes transparent.
If the source is off-grid, drag it on the preview and use Snap To Grid to align its position to the selected Pixeloid size.
Press Apply to rebuild the image and enter the precision Edit State.

Pixeloid Pencil & Eraser

Pencil paints only on Pixeloid-aligned cells using the selected color.
Eraser clears the same exact Pixeloid geometry as the Pencil.
Brush Size is measured in Pixeloids, from 1×1 through 16×16 cells. Example: with 4×4 Pixeloids, a 3×3 brush paints a precise 12×12-pixel footprint.
The hover outline previews the active brush footprint before you draw.

Zero-Elbows — Precision Orthogonalization

With Zero-Elbows enabled, Pixel Surgeon continuously examines the Pixeloid path and removes unwanted L-shaped intermediate cells that create thick 2×2 diagonal corners. This produces cleaner, more disciplined staircase diagonals while you draw.

Tip: Turn Zero-Elbows off when you intentionally want the raw, unpruned Pixeloid path.

Chained Precision Line Tool

Pixel Surgeon always remembers the endpoint of your most recent completed drawing stroke or Shift-line.

Draw or tap a Pixeloid to establish the first endpoint.
Hold Shift and tap/click another Pixeloid to create an automatic restrained line between the remembered endpoint and the new point.
The destination instantly becomes the next endpoint, so you can continue with Shift + Tap, Shift + Tap, Shift + Tap for an uninterrupted chain of connected segments.
When Zero-Elbows is enabled, the generated line is orthogonally pruned for the cleanest feasible Pixeloid connection.
The current Brush Size and Draw/Eraser mode are respected, and each completed Shift-line is one Undo step.

Stylus, Mouse & Eyedropper

Stylus Pen — Native Pointer Event drawing with grid-restrained Bresenham path continuity and canvas-border-corrected nib positioning.
Wacom Eraser Tip — Flip the pen and Pixel Surgeon automatically switches the physical eraser tip to erase.
Barrel Button / Right-Click — Quick Eyedropper.
Alt + Click — Eyedropper.

Undo / Redo History

Ctrl/Cmd + Z — Undo exactly one completed edit.
Ctrl/Cmd + Y or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z — Redo exactly one edit.
Undo History lets you choose how many prior edits to retain, from 1 to 100. The app shows an approximate maximum memory cost so you can balance history depth against system resources.
A completed freehand stroke or chained Shift-line is committed as one history action.

Grid, Zoom & Navigation

Show Grid overlays clean, screen-aligned hairlines for precise editing without padding the artwork itself.
Zoom ranges up to 800%. Mouse-wheel zoom stays anchored around the pointer position.
Shift + Drag — Smooth Zoom: drag upward to zoom in and downward to zoom out.
Space + Drag, Middle Mouse, or Hand — Pan the canvas.
Fit fits the artwork to the viewer; 100% returns to native scale and centers the canvas.
Joystick provides optional touch/mobile panning and scales its movement with zoom.

Export

Save PNG… exports the cleaned and edited artwork. When supported by the browser, Pixel Surgeon opens a real Save As dialog so you can choose the filename and location. Other browsers fall back to their normal download behavior.
Include Grid in PNG intentionally burns the Pixeloid grid into the exported image; leave it off for normal clean artwork.
Cancel exits the Edit State and returns to the source/preparation view.

Pixel Surgeon philosophy: a small set of specialized tools that respect Pixeloid geometry and perform their jobs with extreme precision.

Pixel Surgeon v3.5