Overview

PixelCraft is a compact, working photo editor starter kit for native Android, written in 100% Kotlin with Jetpack Compose and Material 3 (ViewModel + StateFlow). Users pick a photo with the Android photo picker, apply filters and adjustments, crop with an interactive frame, add text, emoji stickers and drawings, remove the background on the device with Google ML Kit, and save the result to the gallery, with undo / redo and a before/after compare.

It is sold honestly as a starter kit: about 2,600 lines of clean, commented code in 17 Kotlin files that are easy to read and extend, not a finished rival to the big editor apps. Everything runs on the device: no backend, no login, no Firebase, no analytics, no ads and no in-app purchases. It targets Android 16 (API 36) with the current Android Gradle Plugin 9 / Kotlin 2.3 toolchain.

Key features

Filters and adjustments

• 11 colour filters (Mono, Sepia, Vintage, Cool, Warm, Fade, Punch, Noir, Sunset, Forest, Berry) with live thumbnails of the photo and an intensity slider
• Brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth sliders
• Non-destructive pipeline: one combined colour matrix on a fast preview, replayed on the working image when saving

Crop and transform

• Interactive crop frame: drag to move, drag the corners to resize, dimmed outside area and rule-of-thirds grid
• Aspect presets Free, 1:1, 4:5, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16 (kept while dragging), Reset
• Rotate 90° and flip

Text, stickers and drawing

• Text layers in 6 colours and 16 emoji stickers: drag, pinch to scale and two-finger rotate; select and delete
• Freehand drawing with 8 colours and a brush-size slider
• Layers are drawn into the saved image exactly where they are on screen

Smart tools

• Remove background with Google ML Kit Subject Segmentation, processed on the device (model delivered by Google Play services); transparent result saved as PNG
• Auto enhance (automatic levels with a safe limit) and Resize 2x (smooth enlargement up to 4096 px, not AI upscaling)

App

• Undo / redo (12 steps) and press-and-hold before/after compare
• Saves to Pictures/PixelCraft (JPEG, or PNG for transparent images) through MediaStore; Android 8–9 supported with the legacy permission
• Photo picker (no media permission), edge-to-edge UI, dark Material 3 theme, original launcher icon and original in-code UI icons

What's included

• Full Android Studio project (Kotlin, Gradle Kotlin DSL), 17 Kotlin source files, about 2,600 lines
• 30 JVM unit tests for the image logic: crop maths, layer gestures, filters, auto enhance and the resize rule
• Detailed README: setup, rebranding, where to add ads or in-app purchases, the Google Play photo access / Data safety notes, signing, troubleshooting, asset sources and known limitations
• Templates: keystore.properties.example and local.properties.example
• Original launcher icon (adaptive, themed and legacy PNGs) and a 512 px Play Store icon
• CHANGELOG and commercial LICENSE

Tech stack

• Kotlin 2.3, Android Gradle Plugin 9.2.1, Gradle 9.4.1
• Jetpack Compose (BOM 2026.02), Material 3, Activity Compose, Lifecycle ViewModel, Coroutines + StateFlow
• Google ML Kit Subject Segmentation (Google Play services), AndroidX ExifInterface
• minSdk 26 (Android 8.0), targetSdk / compileSdk 36

Requirements

• A recent Android Studio with AGP 9.2 support, JDK 17+ (the bundled JBR works)
• No Firebase project, no server and no API keys needed
• A device with Google Play services for background removal; for publishing: a Google Play Console account and a privacy policy page

Setup in minutes

• 1. Open the project in Android Studio and press Run
• 2. Change the applicationId, app name, colours and icon (the name "PixelCraft" is a placeholder)
• 3. Adjust filters, stickers and limits in a few clearly marked files
• 4. Add your keystore to keystore.properties and build a signed AAB

Monetization

Ads: none in this app (no ad SDK is included). The README explains where a banner or an interstitial fits naturally if you want to add AdMob.

In-app purchases: none in this app (the README suggests a "Pro" unlock with Google Play Billing).

Support and updates

Need help? Contact us through the DevStore support page: https://www.aadhya-infotech.com/DevStore/contact. We can help with setting up the included features. When a new version of the package is released, it is published on this product page.

Please note: this is a starter kit and it is not published on Google Play, so there is no live listing to try; the screenshots show the app's real screens with sample pictures painted in code. Not included: drafts, a layer panel, fonts, editing existing text, curves / HSL, straighten, object removal and AI generation. Photos are edited and saved at up to 2560 px; layers do not follow the photo when it is cropped or rotated afterwards; background removal needs Google Play services. English only. All of this is listed in the README.