Image to Pixel Art Converter
Turn any image or photo into real pixel art — free, in your browser, with no upload and no watermark. Pick a size and palette, and download a clean PNG.
Tip: the 1× PNG is the real sprite — import it into your game or the editor. The 10× version is upscaled for posting.
How this converter works
Real pixel art is a small grid of cells where each cell is exactly one color from a small palette. A "pixelate" filter only does half the job: it averages blocks, which leaves hundreds of muddy in-between colors. This tool does both halves:
- Box-average downscaling. Every output cell is the weighted average of all the source pixels it covers — not a single sampled point — so shapes stay recognizable at 32 or 64 pixels wide.
- Median-cut palette reduction. The thousands of averaged colors are reduced to the palette size you choose (2–64 colors) by recursively splitting the color space at its widest axis — the same class of algorithm classic image editors use for indexed color.
- Optional Floyd–Steinberg dithering. For photos and gradients, dithering diffuses the quantization error to neighboring cells, trading a little noise for much smoother tones — the technique 8- and 16-bit games used for skies and shading.
Everything runs client-side on a canvas. There is no upload, no queue, and no server: the conversion is instant and private.
From converted image to finished sprite
A converter gets you 80% of the way; the last 20% is deliberate pixels. The usual cleanup after converting: fix the silhouette, re-draw the face or logo cells by hand, and merge stray colors into your palette. Our image-to-pixel-art guide walks through that workflow, and the SpriteGen editor is built for it — it keeps a true grid with a locked palette, so what you fix stays fixed. If you want to start from a text prompt instead of a photo, see how to generate pixel art with AI.
Frequently asked questions
Is this image to pixel art converter free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark, and no upload. It runs entirely in your browser.
Does my image get uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion happens locally in your browser using the canvas API. Your image never leaves your device.
What settings make the best pixel art?
For game sprites, 32–64 pixels wide with 8–16 colors is the sweet spot. Turn on dithering for photos and gradients; leave it off for logos and flat art.
Can I edit the result pixel by pixel?
Yes — download the 1× PNG and open it in the SpriteGen editor (free, browser-based) to clean up edges, fix the palette, add layers, or animate it.
Why does this look better than a pixelate filter?
A pixelate filter only averages blocks, leaving hundreds of muddy colors and blurry "mixels". This tool box-samples every cell AND reduces the result to a small, locked palette with median-cut quantization — the two steps that make real pixel art.
Want AI that outputs real pixel art?
SpriteGen generates sprites on a true fixed grid — ask for 16×16 and it is exactly 16×16, with a locked palette. Then hand-edit every pixel in the same editor.