Turn a Photo into Pixel Art
Chunky pixels, limited palettes, optional dithering — the look of 8-bit games in one click. Everything runs in your browser.
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Image to Pixel Art — how it works
Make 8-bit pixel art from a photo with retro palettes like PICO-8 and Game Boy.
Pixels first, then the palette
The photo is first reduced to large blocks — each block takes the average color of the area it covers. Then every block is snapped to the nearest color of the chosen palette, measured in the perceptual OKLab space so skin tones and skies land on the closest-looking color rather than the closest number.
Retro palettes
PICO-8 gives the bright 16-color fantasy-console look, Game Boy the four famous greens, CGA the cyan-magenta PC look of the 80s. “Image colors” builds a palette from the photo itself, so the result stays true to the original while still looking hand-pixeled.
Dithering for smooth gradients
With only a few colors, gradients turn into hard bands. Ordered (Bayer) dithering mixes neighbouring colors in a regular checker pattern, the way old consoles faked extra shades. Use it with small palettes like Game Boy; switch it off for a flat, poster-like look.
Frequently Asked Questions
For portraits and sprites 6–12 px per pixel keeps faces readable; 16–30 px gives a bold icon-like look. The value scales with your image, so the full-size download looks the same as the preview.
Every block is a single solid color from the palette, with hard edges — you can open the PNG in Aseprite or Photoshop and keep editing it pixel by pixel.
No. The conversion runs on a canvas in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.
Open the image in Image Flow — the Palette Dither effect there can load any palette from the Jinero palette library.