PhotoInto

Photo to Pixel Art

Free, in your browser — pick a size and colors, then download a PNG.

Drop a photo hereor paste with Ctrl/⌘ + V · Your photo stays on your device
No photo handy? Try one:

How to turn a photo into pixel art

  1. Choose a photo — or drop it on the page, or paste it with Ctrl+V. No photo handy? Try one of the samples.
  2. Pick the pixel size — how many pixels across. Smaller looks more retro; larger keeps more detail.
  3. Pick the colors: 16 or 8 colors taken from your photo, or a classic palette.
  4. Drag the line across the picture to compare it with the original.
  5. Press Download PNG.

Which size to choose

  • 16–24 px — tiny icons, emoji-like avatars.
  • 32–48 px — classic 8-bit look; faces and pets are still recognisable.
  • 64–96 px — detailed pixel portraits and landscapes.
  • 128–160 px — close to the photo, for pixel-art posters and bead or stitch patterns.

The color options

16 colors and 8 colors pick the colors that best cover your photo, so it keeps its own look. Game Boy uses the four greens of the 1989 handheld. PICO-8 is the 16-color palette of the fantasy console, bright and cartoon-like. Black & white and Grayscale give a newspaper or early-computer look — try them with dither on.

How it works

The photo is cut into a grid of equal blocks, as many across as the width you choose. Each block becomes one pixel of the block’s average color. The pixels are then snapped to the nearest color in the chosen set, measured the way the eye sees color, and drawn back as sharp squares with no blurring.

More things to make from your photo

Prefer outlines to blocks? Turn your photo into a coloring page with black lines on white, ready to download or print. For another hands-on activity, make a photo jigsaw puzzle to play in your browser or print and cut out.

More photo tools

  • Image to Puzzle — Turn a photo into a jigsaw puzzle — play it here or print it.
  • Pixelate Image — Pixelate a whole photo, or brush over faces and text to hide them.
  • Image to Coloring Page — Turn a photo into black outlines — download or print a coloring sheet.
  • Sliding Puzzle — Turn a photo into a sliding tile puzzle, or play the 15 puzzle.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn a photo into pixel art?

Choose a photo, pick how many pixels wide the art should be (32–64 works for most pictures) and a color set, then press Download PNG. The picture is split into blocks and each block becomes one pixel of its average color.

Is this pixel art converter free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many pictures you convert.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. The conversion runs in your browser; the photo never leaves your device.

What size should pixel art be?

For a recognisable face or pet, 48–64 pixels wide. For a small icon or a retro game sprite, 16–32. Fewer pixels look more “8-bit”; more pixels keep more detail.

What does dither do?

With few colors, dithering mixes neighbouring pixels of the available colors to fake the ones in between, so skies and skin tones get a smooth, speckled gradient instead of flat bands. Turn it off for clean, flat pixel art.

Why is the downloaded image bigger than the pixel size?

Download PNG scales every pixel up to a sharp square (up to about 2048 px on the long side) so it prints and shares well. Use “Actual size” for a file that is exactly one image pixel per art pixel, e.g. for a game sprite.

Can I use it for cross-stitch, perler beads or Minecraft builds?

Yes. Turn on grid lines and choose 8 or 16 colors: each square is one stitch, bead or block, and the color swatches show the palette you need.