Small Java editor for hand painting normal maps for 2D sprites. Instead of picking a normal colour and then painting it, you steer the direction with the tilt of a tablet pen or a gamepad stick while you draw, and a built-in light tester shows the result. It is aimed at lit pixel art, where generated normal maps tend to look wrong. Downloads for Windows, macOS and Linux are name-your-own-price on itch.io, and the source is on GitHub.
At a glance
Licence
MIT
Commercial use
commercial OK
Credit
Not required
Status
active: License spot-checked at the source; the entry carries dated evidence.
The MIT licence covers the editor. Normal maps you paint are your own work; the licence text travels only with copies of the program
Needs Java 8 or later (Java 8 only on Linux, per the itch page). A tablet with tilt support gives the best results; joysticks work
The author calls it "in early stages of development" and a side project. The last release is 1.6.1 (2023-10-12) and the last push to WinterAlexander/NormalPainter was 2023-10-15 (read 2026-09-30). That is just under the three-year line for maintenance: inactive, which it crosses on 2026-10-15
For generated rather than painted normal maps from photos or height, see materialize
Evidence
Live itch page (2026-09-30): "Code license MIT License"
Live GitHub LICENSE (2026-09-30): "MIT License", "Copyright (c) 2021 Alexander Winter"