Corgi
64 px wide · 16 auto colors
The default settings: 64 pixels wide and 16 colors picked from the photo keep the face, the scarf and the sofa readable.
FREE · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER
Photo to Pixel Art Converter
Turn any photo or image into pixel art: choose the grid size, an automatic or retro palette and optional dithering, recolor the swatches you don't like, then download a crisp PNG, a layered PSD with one layer per color, or a printable bead pattern. Free, and your photo never leaves your device.
Preview
Palette
Free. Your photo is converted on this device and never uploaded.
EXAMPLES
Photo to Pixel Art Examples
Six photos converted with this tool, each with different settings. Open one to load the photo and its settings into the converter.
Corgi sprite
48 px wide · Sweetie 16 · Sharp · outline
A transparent cutout with Sharp edges, the Sweetie 16 palette and a dark 1-pixel outline: a game-ready sprite.
Strawberry cake
64 px wide · Endesga 32
The Endesga 32 palette keeps the strawberries red and the cream bright, with no dithering.
Retro camera
48 px wide · 10 auto colors · Sharp
Ten colors, Sharp edges and a little extra contrast and saturation give a clean, icon-like product shot.
Portrait
80 px wide · Game Boy · Bayer 4×4 50%
Four Game Boy greens and ordered dithering turn a studio portrait into a handheld-screen photo.
Coastal town
96 px wide · PICO-8 · Floyd–Steinberg 50%
96 pixels wide holds the sea, the flowers and the walker; light dithering softens the PICO-8 colors in the sky and stone.
HOW IT WORKS
How to Convert a Photo to Pixel Art
Three steps, all in your browser. The preview updates as you change a setting.
01
Add a photo
Drop, paste or choose a JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF up to 50 MB, or open one of the six samples.
02
Set size, palette and dithering
Pick the pixel width, an automatic or retro palette and a dithering style, then click any color to recolor or remove it. Use Compare to check against the photo.
03
Download
Save a crisp PNG at real size or scaled up to 32×, a layered PSD with one layer per color, the palette as .hex, .gpl or .aco, or a printable bead pattern.
BEAD AND CROSS-STITCH PATTERNS
Turn a photo into a Perler bead or cross-stitch pattern
The Bead pattern download is a printable chart of your pixel art. Every pixel is a cell you can count, the rows and columns are numbered, and a legend lists each color with the number of beads or stitches it needs, most used first.
- A bold line every 10 pixels, and orange lines at the edges of each 29 × 29 square pegboard.
- Each color gets a letter, number or symbol, printed in its cells on grids up to 185 pixels on the long side, so the chart still reads in black and white.
- Transparent areas stay empty: no beads to place in the background.
- Colors are given as hex codes; match them to your bead or thread brand's color chart.
Outline #1A1C2C · 128 px
#5D275D · 3 px
#333C57 · 5 px
#566C86 · 14 px
#1A1C2C · 27 px
#94B0C2 · 39 px
#B13E53 · 123 px
#EF7D57 · 174 px
#FFCD75 · 193 px
#F4F4F4 · 200 px
Original photo
EDIT EVERY COLOR
Recolor any swatch, then keep editing in Photoshop
Each palette color shows how many pixels use it. Click one, or click a pixel in the preview, to change it to any color, merge it into another palette color or remove it to make those pixels transparent. Colors that end up identical are combined, so the files stay clean.
- The layered PSD puts each color on its own layer, named by hex code and pixel count.
- The outline gets its own top layer, and the original photo can sit hidden at the bottom for reference.
- Palettes download as .hex for Lospec, .gpl for GIMP, Aseprite and Krita, or .aco for Photoshop swatches.
PALETTES
Retro and Modern Pixel Art Palettes
Start with Auto, or lock the picture to a classic console's colors. You can also load your own .hex or .gpl palette, such as one from Lospec.
Auto (from your photo)
2 to 64 colorsPicks the colors that best describe your photo, chosen in OKLab so they match how eyes see color. Set anywhere from 2 to 64.
Game Boy
4 colorsThe four greens of the original handheld screen. Matched by brightness, so every photo uses all four shades.
PICO-8
16 colorsThe fixed palette of the PICO-8 fantasy console: bright, saturated and instantly retro.
NES
55 colorsA common version of the Nintendo Entertainment System's wide but uneven palette.
Commodore 64
16 colorsThe Commodore 64's muted, earthy colors in the widely used Pepto version.
CGA
4 colorsBlack, cyan, magenta and white: the loudest four colors of early PC games.
ZX Spectrum
15 colorsThe ZX Spectrum's pure primaries in normal and bright intensities.
Endesga 32
32 colorsA popular modern palette for games, with warm skin tones, greens and deep shadows.
Sweetie 16
16 colorsA soft modern palette that suits characters, sprites and pastel scenes.
Grayscale
8 colorsEight even grays matched by brightness, for a printed or newspaper look.
Black and white
2 colors1-bit art in two colors. Try it with Atkinson or ordered dithering.
The NES, Game Boy and Commodore 64 never had one official set of RGB values; these are the versions most pixel artists use.
GUIDE
How the Converter Works, and Tips for Good Pixel Art
What happens to your photo, and how to choose the size, colors and dithering.
How a photo becomes pixel art
The photo is shrunk to a grid: Smooth takes each cell's average color, Sharp its most common one. Auto levels, brightness, contrast and saturation apply next. The colors are then reduced to the palette, matched in OKLab, with optional dithering. Finally every cell is scaled up with nearest neighbor, so it stays a crisp square.
Pick the right width
Width shapes the look most. 32 pixels wide is bold and icon-like, 48 to 64 keeps a face or a pet readable, and 96 to 128 holds a whole scene. Sprites and icons are often 16, 32 or 64 pixels square. Crop close to the subject first: every pixel spent on background is detail lost.
Fewer colors look more like pixel art
Classic hardware had tight limits: 4 shades on the Game Boy, 16 colors on the PICO-8 and Commodore 64. For photos, 8 to 16 automatic colors look hand-made; use 24 to 32 for skin and skies. For beads, fewer colors also means fewer bead colors to buy.
Dithering: when and which
Dithering mixes two palette colors in a pattern to suggest a shade in between. Leave it off for flat, clean sprites. Ordered (Bayer) dithering gives the regular cross-hatch of classic games, Floyd–Steinberg the smoothest gradients and Atkinson more contrast. Lower the strength if it looks noisy.
Save as PNG, not JPEG
PNG is lossless, so every block keeps one exact color; JPEG compression adds smudges and stray colors at block edges. Download at 1× for a game engine and scale up by whole numbers for sharing or print, which keeps every pixel square.
Clean sprites from transparent PNGs
Start from a cutout with a transparent background. Transparent areas stay transparent, half-transparent edge pixels become fully solid or fully clear, and the optional 1-pixel outline traces the shape. Need a cutout first? Make one with Photo to Sticker.
USE CASES
What People Make with Photo to Pixel Art
Game sprites
Turn reference photos or cutouts into sprites with hard-edged transparency, a 1-pixel outline and a palette you can load into your pixel editor.
Avatars and profile pictures
A retro portrait of you or your pet for Discord, Twitch or a game profile. Download at 8× or more for a sharp, large image.
Perler and Hama bead art
Plan fuse-bead projects: 29 pixels wide fits one square pegboard, and the pattern counts the beads of each color.
Cross-stitch and knitting charts
The numbered grid and symbol legend work as a counted chart: one pixel is one stitch.
What Converts Well, and the Limits
Every pixel comes from your photo; nothing is redrawn or invented.
Works well
- Pets, portraits, food and products with one clear subject.
- Logos, cartoons and screenshots, with Edges set to Sharp.
- Transparent PNG cutouts, for sprites with an outline.
- Dark or flat photos: Auto levels stretches the tones first.
Limits
- It does not redraw like AI: on a tiny grid, eyes and small text get lost.
- Still images only. An animated GIF gives its first frame.
- The grid goes up to 256 pixels wide (512 tall), and downloads up to 4,096 pixels on the longest side.
- No pixel-by-pixel drawing. Edit the PNG in a pixel editor or the PSD in Photoshop.
- Bead and thread brands are not matched automatically; the pattern lists hex colors.
Photo to Pixel Art FAQ
How do I turn a photo into pixel art?
Add a photo to the converter above, pick a pixel width, a palette and a dithering style, then download. The default of 64 pixels wide and 16 colors from the photo works for most pictures.
Is this pixel art converter free?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser: no sign-up, no credits and no watermark.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. Your image is read and converted on your own device, in a background worker in the browser. It is never sent to a server.
What size should pixel art be?
It depends on the subject. 32 pixels wide gives a bold icon, 48 to 64 keeps a face or pet recognizable, and 96 to 128 holds a scene. Classic sprites are often 16, 32 or 64 pixels square. For a bead project, 29 pixels fits one square pegboard.
How many colors should pixel art have?
Fewer colors look more like pixel art. A Game Boy palette has 4 shades and PICO-8 has 16. For photos, 8 to 16 automatic colors work well; use 24 to 32 for skin tones and skies.
Can I make a Perler bead pattern from a photo?
Yes. Set a width that fits your pegboards (29 pixels fits one square board), keep the colors low, then download Bead pattern: a printable chart with numbered rows and columns, symbols for each color and a bead count per color. Match the hex colors to your bead brand yourself.
Can I edit the pixel art in Photoshop?
Yes. The layered PSD puts each palette color on its own layer, named by hex code and pixel count, with the outline on top and, if you like, the original photo as a hidden bottom layer. The .aco palette loads into Photoshop's Swatches panel.
Is PNG or JPEG better for pixel art?
PNG. It is lossless, so each block stays one exact color. JPEG compression smears block edges and adds colors that are not in your palette.
Can AI make pixel art from a photo?
AI image generators can imitate a pixel art style, but their pixels rarely sit on a real grid and the colors drift. This converter keeps your own photo and produces true pixel art: an exact grid, a fixed palette and files you can edit.
PHOTO TO PIXEL ART
Make Your Pixel Art Now
Drop a photo, pick a size and palette, and download a PNG, PSD or bead pattern. Free, nothing uploaded.
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