Pixel art color palettes
The palettes that shaped pixel art, from the NES and Game Boy to PICO-8, with exact hex codes, the rules each machine imposed, and downloads for your tools.
Why limited palettes make better pixel art
Early consoles restricted colour because memory was expensive: a Game Boy pixel is 2 bits, so it can only be one of four shades. Those limits forced artists to design with contrast and silhouette rather than detail, and that discipline is exactly why the art still reads so well. Picking a small palette on purpose gives you the same benefit today.
Building your own palette
- Start from ramps, not single colours. Plan 3–5 steps per material: skin, foliage, metal.
- Shift hue as you shift value. Shadows lean towards blue or purple, highlights towards yellow. The tutorial has an interactive ramp demo.
- Share colours between ramps. A common dark shared by every ramp ties the image together, a trick Sweetie 16 uses.
- Test at 1×. Colours that look distinct zoomed in can merge at real size.
Ready to paint? Every palette here loads with one click in the PixelMint editor, and the image converter can remap any picture to them.
Frequently asked questions
How many colours should a pixel art palette have?
Most sprites use 4 to 16 colours. Fewer colours make art more cohesive and easier to read at small sizes; the NES managed with 3 per sprite. Start with 8 and add colours only when you need a new shade.
What is a colour ramp?
A sequence of shades of one material from dark to light, for example five steps of skin tone. Good ramps shift hue as they change brightness (warmer highlights, cooler shadows) instead of only mixing in black and white.
How do I import these palettes into Aseprite or Photoshop?
Download the .gpl file for Aseprite, GIMP, Krita and Inkscape, or the .hex file for Lospec-style tools. The 1×N PNG works almost everywhere: in Aseprite choose Palette → Load palette, in Photoshop sample it into Swatches.