Photo to Pixel Art Converter

This pixel art converter turns your photo into a small grid with a limited palette and optional dithering. Download a crisp PNG or a layered PSD. Free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Photo to Pixel ArtFree · runs in your browser

No photo at hand? Try one:

Free, no sign-up, no watermark
Processed on your device
PNG and layered PSD
Auto or 10 preset palettes

Photo to Pixel Art Examples

Six original photos run through this pixel art converter. Open one to get the same result.

Neon alley at night

Before → After

Neon alley at night

96 × 128 px · 16 colors

96 pixels wide holds the signs, the lanterns and their reflections.

Before → After

Bowl of ramen

64 × 64 px · 23 colors

The Endesga 32 palette with Sharp edges: crisp noodles, a bright yolk.

Before → After

Instant camera

64 × 48 px · 8 colors

Only 8 colors and Sharp edges give a clean, icon-like product shot.

Portrait in the rain

Before → After

Portrait in the rain

64 × 85 px · 24 colors

24 automatic colors keep the skin tones apart from the neon.

Cat in sunglasses

Before → After

Cat in sunglasses

64 × 64 px · 16 colors

The default settings: 64 pixels wide, 16 colors from the photo.

Lighthouse at sunset

Before → After

Lighthouse at sunset

96 × 72 px · 4 colors

A Game Boy style palette of 4 shades, with ordered dithering in the sky.

Neon alley at night

Before → After

Neon alley at night

96 × 128 px · 16 colors

96 pixels wide holds the signs, the lanterns and their reflections.

Before → After

Instant camera

64 × 48 px · 8 colors

Only 8 colors and Sharp edges give a clean, icon-like product shot.

Portrait in the rain

Before → After

Portrait in the rain

64 × 85 px · 24 colors

24 automatic colors keep the skin tones apart from the neon.

Lighthouse at sunset

Before → After

Lighthouse at sunset

96 × 72 px · 4 colors

A Game Boy style palette of 4 shades, with ordered dithering in the sky.

Cat in sunglasses

Before → After

Cat in sunglasses

64 × 64 px · 16 colors

The default settings: 64 pixels wide, 16 colors from the photo.

Before → After

Bowl of ramen

64 × 64 px · 23 colors

The Endesga 32 palette with Sharp edges: crisp noodles, a bright yolk.

How to Convert a Photo to Pixel Art in 3 Steps

Add a picture, set the look, download. Changes update live.

Drop, choose or paste a JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF up to 50 MB.
Set the width (64 pixels by default), palette, edges and dithering. Drag the slider to compare.
Save a crisp PNG at real size or scaled up, a layered PSD, or the palette.

What this photo to pixel art converter does best

Six things this converter does best: good results by default, and files you can keep editing. Every pixel comes from your photo, so the result stays true to it.

Before
Looks right by default
64 pixels wide, 16 colors from your photo and Auto levels on: portraits, pets, food, products and buildings stay recognizable, and dark photos keep their subject visible.
Before
Layered PSD, one layer per color
Each color on its own layer, named by its hex code, an outline layer if you add one, and the original hidden below. This instant camera has 8 colors, so its PSD opens in Photoshop with 8 color layers, each one ready to recolor.
Before
Colors matched the way eyes see
The automatic palette is chosen in OKLab, a perceptual color space, closer to what eyes see than RGB. Skin tones stay apart from neon light, as in this rainy portrait with 24 colors.
Clean edges for sprites, logos and cartoons
Each pixel is fully transparent or solid, ready for game engines, with an optional 1 pixel outline. Set Edges to Sharp for logos, cartoons and screenshots, and transparent PNGs keep crisp edges with no half-transparent pixels.
Before
Retro palettes and dithering
PICO-8, Game Boy, NES, CGA and C64 style palettes, Sweetie 16 and more, plus three dithering styles. This lighthouse uses the 4 shades of a Game Boy style palette, with ordered dithering in the sky.
Free and private
No sign-up, no watermark, no usage limit. Your image is processed on your device and never uploaded, and a 96 pixel wide night scene like this one converts in moments.

Photo to Pixel Art Guide: Size, Colors and Dithering

How the conversion works and how to tune it.

How image to pixel art conversion works

Four steps run in your browser. The photo shrinks to a grid: Smooth takes each cell's average color, Sharp its most common one. Colors are reduced to a palette, matched in OKLab, with optional dithering. Then the image is scaled up by whole numbers with nearest neighbor, so every pixel stays a crisp square.

What size should pixel art be?

Width shapes the look most. 32 pixels wide gives a bold, icon-like result; 64, the default, keeps a face or pet readable; 96 to 128 hold a detailed scene. Sprites and icons are often 16×16, 32×32 or 64×64. The output size, such as 64 × 36, shows with the preview.

How many colors should pixel art have?

Fewer colors look more like pixel art. A Game Boy style palette has 4 shades; PICO-8 and C64 style palettes have 16. For photos, 8 to 16 automatic colors keep the subject and look hand-made; use 32 or more for skin and skies. Export the palette as .gpl, .hex or .aco.

Dithering: ordered, Floyd-Steinberg or Atkinson

Dithering mixes two palette colors in a pattern to suggest a shade between them. Off, the default, keeps areas flat and clean. Ordered uses a Bayer 4×4 pattern, the regular dots of classic pixel art. Floyd-Steinberg gives the smoothest photos and gradients; Atkinson, stronger contrast. Lower the strength for a subtler pattern.

Dithering: ordered, Floyd-Steinberg or Atkinson

Save PNG, not JPEG, or a layered PSD

Save pixel art as PNG: it is lossless, so each block stays one exact color, while JPEG compression adds stray colors at block edges. Download real size for a game engine, or 2× to 32× for sharing, scaled with nearest neighbor. No Photoshop? Open the layered PSD in the free PSD viewer.

What People Make with Photo to Pixel Art

A few ways to use this pixel art converter.

Game sprites
Reference photos become sprites with clean transparency, an outline and a reusable palette.
Avatars
A retro portrait of you or your pet for Discord, Twitch or a game profile.
Prints and gifts
A pet or favorite place as pixel art, scaled up sharply for print.
Design and social posts
Retro visuals for posts and merch, with each color on its own PSD layer.

Photo to Pixel Art FAQ

How to convert, price, selfies, AI, size and colors, uses, privacy and Photoshop.

Convert Your Photo to Pixel Art Now

Drop a photo, pick a size and palette, and download a PNG or PSD. Free, nothing uploaded.