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Pixel Art Converter

Turn a photo into retro game pixel art. Pick the color count, palette and dithering, then save a crisp PNG. Nothing is uploaded.

Turn your profile picture into an 8-bit game character โ€” free photo to pixel art converter

How is this different from pixelating?

A plain pixelate filter just averages each block, keeping millions of colors, so you end up with a blurry-looking photo. A true pixel art conversion adds color quantization (reducing the image to a small palette) and dithering (mixing dot patterns to fake the missing shades), which is what makes the result look like real retro game graphics. Choose an authentic console palette such as Game Boy (4 colors) or PICO-8 (16 colors) and the effect really comes alive.

How to use it

  1. On the first screen, click Choose a photo or drag a file onto the dashed box. If an image is on your clipboard, Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac) pastes it straight in.
  2. The converted result appears immediately with the defaults: 96 pixels across, an automatic 16-color palette and dithering on. It is drawn over a checkerboard so transparent areas stay visible.
  3. Drag the Pixels across slider (24 to 256 in steps of 8) in the side panel; the image is redrawn each time you release it. The height follows the original aspect ratio.
  4. Pick one of the six palettes and switch dithering on or off to set the texture.
  5. The status line under the preview reads something like "96ร—72 px ยท 16 colors ยท saves at 1536ร—1152 px (ร—16)" โ€” the pixel grid, the number of colors actually used and the output size.
  6. Save PNG downloads a file named after the original with "_pixel" appended. On devices that support file sharing (mostly phones) a Share button appears as well, and Another photo swaps the source without leaving the editor.

Choosing the options

  • Pixels across โ€” 32โ€“64 gives an icon or sprite look, 96โ€“128 keeps the outline of the photo as a pixel illustration, 200+ is a subtle pixel filter.
  • Auto N colors โ€” builds a palette from the most common colors in the photo (median cut). 16 works well for portraits, 32 for landscapes.
  • Dithering โ€” on, gradients turn into natural-looking dot patterns; off, you get a flat style with hard color edges. The Game Boy palette usually looks best with dithering on.

The six palettes

Auto 8 ยท 16 ยท 32A palette built from the photo itself with median cut. Because only colors that actually appear in the image are used, this keeps the original mood best.
Game Boy (4)The four greens of the original Game Boy screen: #0F380F, #306230, #8BAC0F, #9BBC0F. With only four shades, dithering is what keeps faces readable.
PICO-8 (16)The fixed 16-color palette of the PICO-8 fantasy console: black, dark blue, dark purple, dark green, brown, dark gray, light gray, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, lavender, pink and peach. Bold primaries that suit both characters and landscapes.
Grayscale (4)Black, dark gray, light gray and white (0 ยท 85 ยท 170 ยท 255). For monochrome sprites and stamp designs.

What happens during conversion

  1. Downscale โ€” the photo is drawn at the chosen width, keeping its proportions. Several source pixels merge into each cell, which sets the base color of every dot.
  2. Palette โ€” a preset uses its fixed table; the automatic modes run median cut: all dots start in one box, the box is split at the median of whichever channel (R, G or B) spans the widest range, and this repeats until the requested number of boxes exists. The average color of each box becomes a palette entry.
  3. Quantization โ€” every dot is replaced by the palette color with the smallest RGB distance.
  4. Dithering โ€” when enabled, Floydโ€“Steinberg error diffusion passes the rounding error on to the neighbors: 7/16 to the right, 3/16 down-left, 5/16 down and 1/16 down-right. That is how four colors can still suggest a gradient.
  5. Upscale โ€” the finished grid is enlarged by the largest whole number that keeps the longer side within 1600 px, with smoothing disabled. Fully transparent pixels are skipped from the start, so they stay transparent.

Output quality

The tiny pixel image is scaled up by a whole-number factor with no interpolation, so every pixel edge stays sharp in the PNG. Use it as an avatar, thumbnail or print design. Everything is processed in your browser โ€” the photo goes nowhere. To remove the background first, make a transparent PNG with the background remover and load that: transparent areas are preserved.

Frequently asked questions

I chose 16 colors but the status line shows fewer

If the photo has a flat background or a narrow range of colors, median cut runs out of boxes to split and stops early. The count in the status line is the number of colors actually used.

How big is the saved file?

The scale factor depends on the grid. A landscape photo at 96 pixels across saves at ร—16 (1536 px wide), 256 pixels saves at ร—6 (1536 px), and 24 pixels at ร—66 (1584 px). If you need it larger, enlarge it in an image editor with "nearest neighbor" interpolation so the edges stay crisp.

My iPhone photo comes out sideways

The converter reads the rotation stored in the photo (EXIF) and applies it, so this is rare. HEIC files the browser cannot decode fail with an error instead; convert them first with the HEIC to JPG converter.

Does it work on drawings, not just photos?

Yes. Artwork that already has flat colors looks most like a real sprite with dithering off and either Auto 8 or PICO-8. A PNG with a transparent background keeps its transparency.

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