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Dixel 0.0.19: a minimap to navigate your canvas

· 2 min read
The Dixel Team
Dixel — Pixel art, built for Android

Dixel 0.0.19 adds a minimap / navigator — the small overview panel that makes working zoomed in on a big sprite much easier. It's free.

See the whole image while you work​

Turn on the Navigator toggle — the Options tab on a phone, or the left rail on a tablet or foldable — and a small panel appears with the whole image shrunk into a corner. A box on the panel marks the part of the canvas that's on screen right now, so you always know where you are.

The box isn't static: it tracks your view live. As you pan and zoom, it moves and resizes to match, and when you're zoomed out to fit, it frames the whole image.

Tap or drag to move the view​

The panel isn't just for looking. Tap anywhere on it to center the main view on that spot, or drag to move the view around continuously — great for jumping across a large canvas without pinching your way there. The navigator only pans (pinch still owns zoom) and never draws, so a tap on it can't leave a mark. Any finger or the stylus works on it.

A faithful, lightweight overview​

The panel shows your committed artwork — the same thing the gallery thumbnail and your exports show. It's a screen-only aid: it never appears in an export, a thumbnail, or a timelapse. And it's built to stay out of your way — the overview image is prepared off the main thread and only refreshes when your art changes, so turning it on doesn't cost you drawing smoothness, even on a large canvas.

On a phone the panel sits in the top-right corner; on a tablet or foldable it sits top-left, clear of the Palette and Layers panels.

Happy pixeling.