Make sure to set the eraser to a size of 1 px too. Luckily, you can switch it to pencil mode from the toolbar to make it work like the pencil instead. By default, it works like the brush, where it can erase some of the transparency of your pixels. Photoshop has two basic drawing tools, but only one eraser. If you’re having trouble finding the pencil tool, click and hold on the brush tool to see its variants.Īdvertisements Set the eraser to pencil mode, too. Most of the basic brushes work the same way when they’re down at this size, so you don’t need to worry much about any other settings. You can do this in the Brush Settings window, or by pressing the left bracket “[” key until the toolbar shows a brush size of 1. At 100% opacity, the pencil tool is all-or-nothing–it either fills in a pixel all the way, or it doesn’t.Īlso, be sure to set the size of your brush down to 1 px. This is great for smooth lines at high resolutions, but it doesn’t give you the control you need for pixel art. The default brush tool draws anti-aliased lines–that is, it can draw “between the pixels” and create partial transparency.

These instructions were written using Photoshop version 22.4.3 on Windows 10. But it can be done, with the right setup. Photoshop isn’t widely known as a tool for creating pixel art.

Pencil photoshop