# Table of contents

* [Platforms](#platforms)
* [Get the source code](#get-the-source-code)
* [Dependencies](#dependencies)
  * [Windows dependencies](#windows-dependencies)
  * [macOS dependencies](#macos-dependencies)
  * [Linux dependencies](#linux-dependencies)
* [Compiling](#compiling)
  * [Windows details](#windows-details)
  * [macOS details](#macos-details)
    * [Issues with Retina displays](#issues-with-retina-displays)
  * [Linux details](#linux-details)
* [Using shared third party libraries](#using-shared-third-party-libraries)
* [Building Skia dependency](#building-skia-dependency)
  * [Skia on Windows](#skia-on-windows)
  * [Skia on macOS](#skia-on-macos)
  * [Skia on Linux](#skia-on-linux)

# Platforms

You should be able to compile Aseprite successfully on the following
platforms:

* Windows 10 + VS2017 Community Edition + Windows 10 SDK
* macOS 10.12.6 Sierra + Xcode 9.0 + macOS 10.13 SDK + Skia
* Linux + gcc 4.8 with some C++11 support

# Get the source code

You can get the source code downloading a `Aseprite-v1.x-Source.zip`
file from the latest Aseprite release (*in that case please follow the
compilation instructions inside the `.zip` file*):

https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/releases

Or you can 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 you can use the following commands:

    cd aseprite
    git pull
    git submodule update --init --recursive

You can use [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/) to
clone the repository on Windows.

# Dependencies

To compile Aseprite you will need:

* The latest version of [CMake](http://www.cmake.org/) (3.4 or greater)
* [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org) build system
* You will need a compiled version of the Skia library.
  Please check the details about [how to build Skia](#building-skia-dependency)
  on your platform.

## Windows dependencies

First of all, you will need:

* Windows 10 (we don't support cross-compiling and don't know if this would be possible)
* [Visual Studio Community Edition](https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/) (VS2017)
* The [Desktop development with C++](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/vscpp-step-0-installation?view=vs-2017#visual-studio-2017-installation) item
  from the Visual Studio installer
* Windows 10 SDK item from the Visual Studio installer

Then, you will need an extra little utility: `awk`, used to compile
the libpng library. You can get this utility from MSYS2 distributions
like [MozillaBuild](https://wiki.mozilla.org/MozillaBuild).

You will need to [compile Skia](#skia-on-windows) before and then
continue in the [Compiling](#compiling) section. Remember to check the
[Windows details](#windows-details) section to know how to call
`cmake` correctly.

## macOS dependencies

On macOS you will need macOS 10.12 SDK and Xcode 8.0 (older versions
might work).

You must also compile [Skia](#skia-on-macos) before starting with the
[compilation](#compiling).

## Linux dependencies

You will need the following dependencies on Ubuntu/Debian:

    sudo apt-get install -y g++ cmake ninja-build libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libfontconfig1-dev

On Fedora:

    sudo yum install -y gcc-c++ cmake ninja-build libX11-devel libXcursor-devel mesa-libGL-devel fontconfig-devel

You must also compile [Skia](#skia-on-linux) before starting with the
[compilation](#compiling).

# Compiling

1. [Get Aseprite code](#get-the-source-code), put it in a folder like
   `C:\aseprite`, and create a `build` directory inside to leave all
   the files that are result of the compilation process (`.exe`,
   `.lib`, `.obj`, `.a`, `.o`, etc).

        cd C:\aseprite
        mkdir build

   In this way, if you want to start with a fresh copy of Aseprite
   source code, you can remove the `build` directory and start again.

2. Enter in the new directory and execute `cmake`:

        cd C:\aseprite\build
        cmake -G Ninja ..

   Here `cmake` needs different options depending on your
   platform. You must check the details for
   [Windows](#windows-details), [macOS](#macos-details), and
   [Linux](#linux-details). Some `cmake` options can be modified using tools like
   [`ccmake`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/ccmake.1.html)
   or [`cmake-gui`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-gui.1.html).

3. After you have executed and configured `cmake`, you have to compile
   the project:

        cd C:\aseprite\build
        ninja aseprite

4. When `ninja` finishes the compilation, you can find the executable
   inside `C:\aseprite\build\bin\aseprite.exe`.

## Windows details

After you've [compiled Skia](#skia-on-windows) you can execute `cmake`
with the following arguments:

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -DSKIA_DIR=C:\deps\skia -G Ninja ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `C:\deps\skia` is the directory where Skia was compiled
as described in [Skia on Windows](#skia-on-windows) section.

## macOS details

After [compiling Skia](#skia-on-macos), you should run `cmake` with
the following parameters and then `ninja`:

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64 \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9 \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk \
      -DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia \
      -DWITH_HarfBuzz=OFF \
      -G Ninja \
      ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `$HOME/deps/skia` is the directory where Skia was
compiled as described in [Skia on macOS](#skia-on-macos) section.
Make sure that `CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT` is pointing to the correct SDK
directory (in this case
`/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk`),
but it could be different in your Mac.

### Issues with Retina displays

If you have a Retina display, check the following issue:

  https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/issues/589

## Linux details

First you have to [compile Skia](#skia-on-linux), then you should run
`cmake` with the following parameters and then `ninja`:

    cd aseprite
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake -DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia -G Ninja ..
    ninja aseprite

In this case, `$HOME/deps/skia` is the directory where Skia was
compiled as described in [Skia on Linux](#skia-on-linux) section.

# Using shared third party libraries

If you don't want to use the embedded code of third party libraries
(i.e. to use your installed versions), you can disable static linking
configuring each `USE_SHARED_` option.

After running `cmake -G`, you can edit `build/CMakeCache.txt` file,
and enable the `USE_SHARED_` flag (set its value to `ON`) of the
library that you want to be linked dynamically.

# Building Skia dependency

When you compile Aseprite with [Skia](https://skia.org) as back-end on
Windows or macOS, you need to compile a specific version of Skia. In
the following sections you will find straightforward steps to compile
Skia.

You can always check the
[official Skia instructions](https://skia.org/user/build) and select
the OS you are building for. Aseprite uses the `aseprite-m71` Skia
branch from `https://github.com/aseprite/skia`.

## Skia on Windows

Download
[Google depot tools](https://storage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra/depot_tools.zip)
and uncompress it in some place like `C:\deps\depot_tools`.

[It's recommended to compile Skia with Clang](https://github.com/google/skia/blob/master/site/user/build.md#a-note-on-software-backend-performance)
to get better performance. So you will need to [download Clang](http://releases.llvm.org/7.0.0/LLVM-7.0.0-win64.exe),
and install it on a folder like `C:\deps\llvm` (a folder without whitespaces).

Open a [developer command prompt](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/developer-command-prompt-for-vs)
or command line (`cmd.exe`) and call:

    call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat"

Then:

    set PATH=C:\deps\depot_tools;%PATH%
    cd C:\deps\depot_tools
    gclient sync

(The `gclient` command might print an error like
`Error: client not configured; see 'gclient config'`.
Just ignore it.)

    cd C:\deps
    git clone -b aseprite-m71 https://github.com/aseprite/skia.git
    cd skia
    python tools/git-sync-deps

(The `tools/git-sync-deps` will take some minutes because it downloads
a lot of packages, please wait and re-run the same command in case it
fails.)

Finally, if you've downloaded Clang, use this command:

    set PATH=C:\deps\llvm\bin;%PATH%
    gn gen out/Release --args="is_official_build=true skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false target_cpu=""x64"" cc=""clang"" cxx=""clang++"" clang_win=""c:\deps\llvm"""
    ninja -C out/Release skia

If you haven't installed Clang, and want to compile Skia with MSVC
(anyway it's not recommended because the performance penalty is too
big), you can use the following commands instead:

    gn gen out/Release --args="is_official_build=true skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false target_cpu=""x86"" cc=2017"
    ninja -C out/Release skia

More information about these steps in the
[official Skia documentation](https://skia.org/user/build).

## Skia on macOS

These steps will create a `deps` folder in your home directory with a
couple of subdirectories needed to build Skia (you can change the
`$HOME/deps` with other directory). Some of these commands will take
several minutes to finish:

    mkdir $HOME/deps
    cd $HOME/deps
    git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
    git clone -b aseprite-m71 https://github.com/aseprite/skia.git
    export PATH="${PWD}/depot_tools:${PATH}"
    cd skia
    python tools/git-sync-deps
    gn gen out/Release --args="is_official_build=true skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_icu=false skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false extra_cflags_cc=[\"-frtti\"]"
    ninja -C out/Release skia

After this you should have all Skia libraries compiled.  When you
[compile Aseprite](#compiling), remember to add
`-DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia` parameter to your `cmake` call as
described in the [macOS details](#macos-details) section.

More information about these steps in the
[official Skia documentation](https://skia.org/user/build).

## Skia on Linux

These steps will create a `deps` folder in your home directory with a
couple of subdirectories needed to build Skia (you can change the
`$HOME/deps` with other directory). Some of these commands will take
several minutes to finish:

    mkdir $HOME/deps
    cd $HOME/deps
    git clone https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/tools/depot_tools.git
    git clone -b aseprite-m71 https://github.com/aseprite/skia.git
    export PATH="${PWD}/depot_tools:${PATH}"
    cd skia
    python tools/git-sync-deps
    gn gen out/Release --args="is_debug=false is_official_build=true skia_use_system_expat=false skia_use_system_icu=false skia_use_system_libjpeg_turbo=false skia_use_system_libpng=false skia_use_system_libwebp=false skia_use_system_zlib=false"
    ninja -C out/Release skia

After this you should have all Skia libraries compiled.  When you
[compile Aseprite](#compiling), remember to add
`-DSKIA_DIR=$HOME/deps/skia` parameter to your `cmake` call as
described in the [Linux details](#linux-details) section.

More information about these steps in the
[official Skia documentation](https://skia.org/user/build).