Image to pixel art converter
Turn a photo, drawing or logo into a genuine low-res sprite, locked to a palette, and then refine it pixel by pixel in the editor.
Showing a sample landscape until you choose your own picture.
How the conversion works
Three steps happen every time you move a slider:
- Downsampling. The picture is resized to your chosen width with high-quality averaging, so each output pixel is the average colour of the block it covers. That is why a width of 48 looks cleaner than simply scaling up a thumbnail.
- Palette mapping. Every pixel is replaced by the closest colour in the palette, measured with a perceptually weighted RGB distance. With “Auto”, the palette is first built from your image with the median-cut algorithm, which repeatedly splits the colour cloud along its widest channel.
- Optional dithering. When a palette can’t represent a gradient, dithering mixes two nearby colours in a pattern so the eye blends them. See the dithering guide for an interactive comparison of ordered and Floyd–Steinberg dithering.
Tips for a result that looks hand-made
- Crop tightly around the subject before converting. Background detail wastes pixels.
- Raise contrast a little: small images lose edge definition.
- For characters and objects, enable the white-background knock-out and outline, then open it in the editor to fix the eyes and hands by hand. Those details rarely survive automatic conversion.
- Want a different style? Describe a subject to the AI pixel art generator instead of starting from a photo.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a picture into pixel art?
Choose an image, set the width in pixels (32–96 works well for portraits and objects), pick a palette or let it extract one, and add dithering if the picture has smooth gradients. The result is a real low-resolution image, one pixel per block, that you can download or open in the editor to clean up by hand.
Why does my converted image look noisy?
Photos contain far more detail and colour than a small sprite can show. Lower the width, reduce the number of colours, raise contrast, or turn dithering off. Converters give you a starting point; hand clean-up of the outline and stray pixels is what makes it read as pixel art.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. Conversion runs entirely in your browser using the Canvas API. The image never leaves your device.
What is the difference between this and pixelating an image?
Pixelating keeps the original size and just draws big blocks. Converting to pixel art produces a genuinely small image restricted to a palette, which is what you need for sprites, game assets and bead or cross-stitch patterns. For the blocky-filter look, use the pixelate tool.
Which palette should I choose?
“Auto” extracts the most representative colours from your photo using median cut, which keeps it recognisable. A console palette such as NES, Game Boy or PICO-8 gives an authentic retro look but may shift colours.