Linux image and sprite previewer

SpriteView crisp previews for pixel art and sprite sheets.

A Linux image viewer for pixel artists and game developers. Inspect images at sharp zoom levels, play sprite sheets as animations, read pixel colors, crop and export, or open files from GNOME Files.

Install SpriteView View source

Project snapshot · measured 2026-10-26

Key facts

Commits 125Last commit 2026-10-06 Source receipt ↗ Commits · 7 days 0 Source receipt ↗ Tickets closed 4 / 10 Source receipt ↗ Studies 3 Source receipt ↗

12-week commit activity

2026-10-26

Aug 3

Aug 10

Aug 17

Aug 24

Aug 31

Sep 7

Sep 14

Sep 21

Sep 28

Oct 5

Oct 12

Oct 19

View 12-week data table

Week starting	Commits
2026-08-03	1
2026-08-10	0
2026-08-17	0
2026-08-24	13
2026-08-31	1
2026-09-07	1
2026-09-14	0
2026-09-21	14
2026-09-28	0
2026-10-05	2
2026-10-12	0
2026-10-19	0

Key Features

Sharp zoom and panning keep pixel-art edges clear as you inspect an image.
Play sprite sheets as animations, step through frames and detect sequences automatically.
Click a pixel to inspect its color or drag across the image to crop it.
Export PNG, GIF, WebM or ICO files, or preview images from the GNOME Files right-click menu.

Verified Engineering Milestones

Cursor-centered zoom and image panning (#006, 4e065bd)
Pixel color picking and drag-to-crop (#007, 53d81b3)
Crop coordinates correct at every zoom and scale factor (641c0a2)

Stack

Python, GTK4/PyGObject, Pillow, unittest, GNOME Files (Nautilus) integration

Why SpriteView

Inspect pixels without losing their edges

General image viewers soften small artwork when enlarged and make sprite sheets awkward to inspect. SpriteView is built for pixel-level review: it keeps scaling crisp, shows image details and colors, and gives sprite animations and image sequences their own controls.

A recorded tour of SpriteView's image preview, sprite-sheet playback and pixel inspection.

Screenshots

Image, sprite, color and settings views

GNOME Files folder showing individual sprite animation frames — Open a sheet from GNOME Files, inspect its frames, and play the animation.

Selecting a sprite frame in GNOME Files — Open a sheet from GNOME Files, inspect its frames, and play the animation.

Selecting an image asset in a GNOME Files folder — Open an image and zoom while keeping pixel edges sharp.

GNOME Files context menu offering Preview Image — Open an image and zoom while keeping pixel edges sharp.

Color analyzer showing a palette, swatches and color names

SpriteView settings for playback, mode and sprite-sequence detection

Capabilities

Made for looking closely

Crisp zoom and pan

Enlarge pixel art with nearest-neighbor scaling and navigate around the image.

Sprite playback

Play sprite sheets, step through frames and inspect detected sequences.

Pixel and palette details

Inspect image properties, sample pixel colors and review the dominant palette.

Crop and export

Select image regions and export supported image and animation formats.

GNOME Files integration

Open supported images from the file manager's context menu or use the standalone CLI.

Persistent settings

Configure playback speed, preview mode and sequence detection preferences.

Quickstart

Install and start previewing

Install the GNOME Files bindings for your distribution, then run the project installer. Restart GNOME Files when installation completes.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install python3-nautilus

Fedora

sudo dnf install nautilus-python

curl -sSL https://codeberg.org/ubunatic/spriteview/raw/branch/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Right-click a supported image in GNOME Files and choose Preview Image or Preview Sprite Sheet. The installed spriteview command can also preview files and sequences or export them from a terminal; run spriteview --help for options.

Engineering story

Pixel precision and safe coordinates

Read the engineering story about pixel-art previews and coordinate-safe image editing.

Project details

Stack

Python, GTK4/PyGObject, Pillow, unittest, GNOME Files (Nautilus) integration

Milestones

Cursor-centered zoom and image panning (#006, 4e065bd) · Pixel color picking and drag-to-crop (#007, 53d81b3) · Crop coordinates correct at every zoom and scale factor (641c0a2)

Source

https://codeberg.org/ubunatic/spriteview ↗

Architecture

Layer composition

Terminal: CLI, headless export
Desktop: Linux, GTK4, GNOME
Inference / AI: —
Containers / VM: —
Web: —

Engineering story

spriteview: the story behind the project

SpriteView is a small Linux desktop image viewer for pixel artists and developers. The problem it takes on is practical: inspecting sprite sheets and image sequences needs more than opening a file. People need crisp zoom, frame playback, pi…

Read the engineering story

Measurement source · 2026-10-26

Verification receipts

Commits: 125 · Last commit 2026-10-06
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Commits · 7 days: 0
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Tickets closed: 4 / 10
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
Studies: 3
git -C <repo> rev-list --count HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<ISO-week-Monday> --until=<ISO-week-Sunday> HEAD; git -C <repo> rev-list --count --since=<measured-date-6-days>T00:00:00 --until=<measured-date>T23:59:59 HEAD; git -C <repo> log -1 --format=%cs HEAD; ls <repo>/issues | grep '^[0-9].*\.md$'; grep -l -E '^\*\*Status\*\*: *(Closed|Done|Resolved|Fixed|Complete)' <repo>/issues/*.md | wc -l; ls <repo>/docs/studies/*.md
repositories behind spec project ids in ~/projects; private-repo filter is a safety net and matches no spec project today; missing repos reported separately; seven calendar days ending on measured date in the measuring host's local timezone; commit counts include all authors and merge commits reachable from HEAD · measured 2026-10-26
12-week commit activity
git rev-list --count --since=<Monday> --until=<Sunday> HEAD
12 latest complete ISO weeks; weekly values are from spec/metrics.yaml.

SpriteView crisp previews for pixel art and sprite sheets.

Key facts

12-week commit activity

Key Features

Verified Engineering Milestones

Stack

Inspect pixels without losing their edges

Image, sprite, color and settings views

Sprite-sheet preview

Image preview

Color inspection and preferences

Made for looking closely

Crisp zoom and pan

Sprite playback

Pixel and palette details

Crop and export

GNOME Files integration

Persistent settings

Install and start previewing

Pixel precision and safe coordinates

Project details

Layer composition

spriteview: the story behind the project