Help · Community
The LibreSprite community
LibreSprite is made by volunteers. With 8,703 stars and 612 forks on GitHub, it is one of the most popular free pixel-art editors. Here is where people meet, and how you can help, even without writing code.
On this page 7 sections
Short answer
Does LibreSprite have a Discord?
Yes. The official links from the project: Discord, Matrix (#libresprite:matrix.org), the GitHub repository for bugs and code, and Liberapay for donations. libresprite.dev is an independent site and not one of these channels.
Where to go for what
| You want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Chat, show your art, ask quick questions | Discord or Matrix |
| Report a bug or request a feature | GitHub issues (318 open when we checked) |
| Contribute code | A pull request on GitHub (see below) |
| Support the project with money | Liberapay (also Help → Donate in the app) |
| Find themes and the official site | libresprite.github.io and its community wiki |
| Fix a problem yourself first | Our troubleshooting page and FAQ |
Reporting a bug well
The issue form asks for your LibreSprite version (bottom-left of the window, e.g. “LibreSprite 1.3”) and whether you use the Flatpak (Flatpak packaging problems go to the Flathub repository instead). Add your operating system, steps to reproduce, what you expected and what happened, and a screenshot or the smallest file that shows the problem. Search existing issues first. Our troubleshooting page has a checklist.
Security problems: the project’s SECURITY.md asks for reports through the issue tracker.
Contributing code
- Fork the repository and clone it with submodules:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/YOUR-NAME/LibreSprite. - Build it (our tested build guide; note that it needs CMake 4.1 or newer).
- Comment on or open an issue about what you plan, so nobody duplicates work.
- Work on a feature branch, in small commits with changelog-style messages (the project’s example: “Convert 'bool' members in ui::Widget to flags”).
- Rebase on the latest
master, rebuild, push, open a pull request.
That is the process from CONTRIBUTING.md. The 1.3 release thanked 10 new contributors, so first-time pull requests do get merged.
Translations
The interface text lives in data/languages/<code>.json: 650 English strings, each mapped to a translation. How complete each language was in 1.3 (strings that differ from English):
| Language | File | Translated |
|---|---|---|
| Polish | pl.json | 633 of 650 |
| Russian | ru.json | 631 |
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh.json | 630 |
| Hindi, Korean | hi.json, kr.json | 626 |
| Arabic (not in the language list yet) | ar.json | 626 |
| French | fr.json | 618 |
| Portuguese | pt.json | 612 |
| Italian | it.json | 609 |
| German, Spanish | de.json, es.json | 605 |
| Indonesian | id.json | 601 |
| Japanese | jp.json | 569 |
Counted by us from the 1.3 files; some strings (like “OK” or symbols) are legitimately the same as English, so 100 % is not expected.
To improve a translation, edit the file and open a pull request. A new language needs its JSON file plus an entry in the Language list in data/widgets/options.xml, which is why Arabic, though translated, doesn’t appear in Preferences yet.
Other ways to help
- Answer questions on Discord or Matrix, or confirm bug reports (“reproduced on Windows 11 with 1.3”).
- Make a theme and share it (how themes work).
- Write scripts others can use (scripting).
- Package it for your Linux distribution, or keep an existing package up to date (current versions).
- Donate on Liberapay.
Forks and related projects
| Project | What it is |
|---|---|
| Aseprite | The original editor LibreSprite forked from in 2016; paid and proprietary since then. Comparison. |
| Dotto | A from-scratch pixel-art editor started under the LibreSprite organisation in 2022, with a web pre-alpha; no pushes since August 2024. Not a LibreSprite version. |
| Besprited | A community fork of LibreSprite, active in 2026; the 1.3 release credits code cleanup from it. |
FAQ
Who makes LibreSprite?
A group of volunteer contributors on GitHub. It grew out of Aseprite’s GPL code by David Capello (credited in the app’s footer); LibreSprite itself has no company behind it.
Is libresprite.dev official?
No. It is an independent guide; see about. The official home is the GitHub repository.
How do I donate to LibreSprite?
Through Liberapay, also linked from Help → Donate inside LibreSprite.
Keep going
Found something wrong or out of date? Tell us: hello@libresprite.dev. We fix mistakes within a day.