Pixel Art Guides
Quick backstory: I'm a nerd with a soft spot for coding, tech and old games, and I built this converter because I wanted an 8-bit version of a photo one day and couldn't find a single decent generator online. So I made my own. These are the guides I wish I'd had while I was figuring it out, all illustrated with real output from the converter. Read whichever one you need.
Start here
How to Turn a Photo Into Pixel Art
Start here. How to pick a photo that actually works, and get a clean result instead of a muddy blob.
EXPLAINERPixel Size Explained
What that slider is actually doing, and how chunky to go for faces, logos and everything else.
COMPARISONGame Boy vs NES vs C64 vs PICO-8
Every palette has a personality. How I choose between them, and why the C64 always wins for me.
TUTORIALHow to Make an 8-Bit Avatar
A profile picture for Discord, Twitch or wherever that still reads when it's shrunk down tiny.
HISTORYThe History of 8-Bit Graphics
Why old machines looked the way they did, and why the blocky look refuses to die.
GAME DEVPixel Art for Game Development
Using pixelated photos as quick placeholders and mock-ups while you build a game.
TUTORIALHow to Get the Game Boy Camera Look
Recreate the 1998 Game Boy Camera aesthetic from a modern photo, step by step.
EXPLAINER8-Bit vs 16-Bit vs Pixel Art
The terms get mixed up constantly. Here is what each one actually means.
EXPLAINERHow the 8-Bit Converter Works Under the Hood
Exactly what happens to your photo, in three steps, and why it never leaves your browser.
Looking for a specific palette?
Every retro palette in the converter has its own reference page with the exact hex and RGB values, the history of the machine it came from, and side-by-side examples: Game Boy, NES, ZX Spectrum, PICO-8, Commodore 64 and CGA. Or start from the palette overview, which shows the same scene in all of them.
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