PICO-8 palette

The 16-colour PICO-8 fantasy console palette as hex codes in index order, why it works so well for tiny sprites, and ready-made downloads.

Click a swatch to copy its hex code.

Limits you’re designing around

16 colours on a 128×128 screen with 8×8 sprites (a 128-sprite sheet shared with the map). Palette swaps (pal) let you remap colours at draw time.

About the PICO-8 palette

PICO-8 is a "fantasy console" by Lexaloffle Games. Its palette was designed so every colour has a useful darker neighbour, which makes 2–3 step shading ramps easy.

The index order matters in PICO-8 code: colour 0 is black and is transparent for sprites by default, colour 7 is off-white, colour 8 is red.

Many artists use this palette outside PICO-8 because its warm/cool balance makes small sprites pop against dark backgrounds.

Draw with it now in the pixel art editor, or convert a picture to these colours.

Hex codes

#ColourHexRGB
0#0000000, 0, 0
1#1D2B5329, 43, 83
2#7E2553126, 37, 83
3#0087510, 135, 81
4#AB5236171, 82, 54
5#5F574F95, 87, 79
6#C2C3C7194, 195, 199
7#FFF1E8255, 241, 232
8#FF004D255, 0, 77
9#FFA300255, 163, 0
10#FFEC27255, 236, 39
11#00E4360, 228, 54
12#29ADFF41, 173, 255
13#83769C131, 118, 156
14#FF77A8255, 119, 168
15#FFCCAA255, 204, 170

Other palettes

Frequently asked questions

How many colours are in the PICO-8 palette?

This version has 16 colours. 16 colours on a 128×128 screen with 8×8 sprites (a 128-sprite sheet shared with the map). Palette swaps (pal) let you remap colours at draw time.

How do I use the PICO-8 palette in PixelMint?

Open the editor and pick “PICO-8” from the palette menu beside the canvas. To convert an existing picture to these colours, choose PICO-8 in the image to pixel art converter.

Which file should I download?

GPL for Aseprite, GIMP, Krita and Inkscape; HEX for Lospec-compatible tools and quick copy-paste; PNG for anything else (and for loading as a palette image in Aseprite or Pyxel Edit).