Photo Pixel-Art

No image
Pixel Palace
Zoom
;
Drop a photo to begin
Downscale · quantize · dither; pure pixel art, in your browser.

About this photo-to-pixel converter

This turns a photograph or a piece of high-resolution art into pixel art: it reduces the resolution, cuts the colour count down to something a sprite palette can hold, and dithers the result so gradients survive the reduction instead of banding.

A straight downscale in an image editor gives you a small blurry photo. The difference here is the colour quantisation and dithering happening together, which is what makes the output read as pixel art rather than as a thumbnail.

How to use it

  1. Load an image. Set the output width and height, with the aspect-ratio lock on if you want it kept in proportion.
  2. Choose a dither: none for flat blocks, ordered 4 × 4 Bayer for a regular cross-hatch, or Floyd–Steinberg for a softer scattered look.
  3. Reduce to a set number of colours with median-cut, snap to a preset palette, or paste your own hex list.
  4. Optionally add a 1px outline around the opaque regions to give the sprite a defined edge.
  5. Compare before, after and side-by-side, then export.

Formats and options