Image to Pixel Art

Drop in a photo: it breaks into large pixels, and the colors shrink to the 16 most noticeable ones in the frame. The slider sets how many pixels fit across the width, and the "Colors" list picks the palette. The result saves as PNG, the format that keeps pixel edges crisp.

Palette

"Colors from photo" builds the palette from the photo itself, so a portrait still looks like the same person even in four colors. The ready-made palettes give a familiar look:

• Game Boy: four green shades of the handheld console;
• PICO-8: 16 colors of a fictional game console used for small games;
• CGA: four colors of the early IBM PC machines.

"Dithering" alternates neighboring pixels where the palette has no matching color. With few colors, faces and skies look smoother, but the image gets grainy.

Grid

The grid outlines every pixel with a thin dark line. That makes it easier to copy the picture onto graph paper, an embroidery pattern, or a block build.