This guide is intended for users of Windows 11/10 and assumes prior experience with the terminal and Git.
Motivation
I had a rocky experience following the INSTALL.md
guide to install Aseprite on Windows. At the time of writing, it was updated 8 months ago. I tried contributing an update to help organise it with tables and dropdowns but it was rejected for valid reasons (see original PR). Not wanting to go through the long process of starting an issue and discussion on their repo, I thought it best to simplify even more and just publish a brief article guide on how to install Aseprite on Windows 11 in 2024 from my own experience.
Hopefully, you find this useful đ
1. Get the source code
Clone the repository and all its submodules using the following command:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite.git
To update an existing clone:
git pull
git submodule update --init --recursive
2. Dependencies
To compile Aseprite you will need:
Dependency | Version | Note |
---|---|---|
CMake | Latest (minimum v3.16) | Make available in PATH |
Ninja | Latest | Make available in PATH |
aseprite/Skia | Skia-m102 | Follow their release notes |
Visit the links for more information on how to download pre-built packages or compile them yourself.
You will also need:
-
Using
Visual Studio Installer
, install theDesktop development with C++
item with:- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.18362.0)
- MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (or later version)
3. Compiling
For some of the commands below, make sure they point to the correct paths as they can be different on your system.
3.1 Create a build folder inside ./aseprite
cd ./aseprite
mkdir build
Remove
build
folder and start again if you want fresh copy of Aseprite.
3.2 Enter the VS 2022 Dev CMD Env.
call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat" -arch=x64
3.3 Run cmake inside ./aseprite/build
:
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DLAF_BACKEND=skia -DSKIA_DIR=C:\deps\skia -DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=C:\deps\skia\out\Release-x64 -DSKIA_LIBRARY=C:\deps\skia\out\Release-x64\skia.lib -G Ninja ..
No MinGW support. See info within Issue #2449.
3.4 Run ninja in aseprite/build
folder
ninja aseprite
You can find the executable inside ./aseprite/build/bin/aseprite.exe
.
Attributions
- The official
INSTALL.md
guide can be found on their official repository. - The cover image is a screenshot from their official website.
Hopefully, this guide helps you install Aseprite locally on your machine.