How to Turn a Photo Into Pixel Art
This is the guide I'd hand my past self. When I first started converting photos I ended up with a lot of muddy, unrecognisable blobs, until it clicked that three things decide everything: the photo you feed in, how big the pixels are, and the palette. Once those are right, it's genuinely a two-minute job. This version of the guide has grown to cover what the tool is actually doing, a worked example, and the problems people run into most.
By Richard Wallace · Published 5 August 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026
What's actually happening
Real pixel art gets drawn by hand, one pixel at a time. Converting a photo is a shortcut. The tool shrinks your image down so clumps of pixels collapse into big blocks, averaging the colours inside each one, then snaps every block to the nearest colour in a small palette, then scales it back up with hard edges. You get the look without the hours. The trade-off is that you're steering with three controls instead of drawing, so how you set them is the whole game. If you want the technical detail there's a separate guide on how the converter works.
Step 1: pick a photo that suits it
This is the part I skipped at first, and it's the part that matters most. Pixelation throws detail away, so a busy photo turns to soup. What works well:
- A clear subject. One face, one pet, one object beats a crowded scene every time.
- Decent contrast. Strong light and shadow survive the reduction; flat, hazy photos lose their shape.
- A simple background. Plain or blurred keeps the attention where you want it once the detail is gone.
- A reasonable size. A bigger source gives the tool more to work with before it shrinks things. Anything from a modern phone is plenty.
A portrait, a pet, a single object on a plain wall: all brilliant. A wide holiday snap with fifty things happening: not so much. If the photo you love is busy, crop it first. Cropping is the single most effective edit you can make before converting.
Step 2: load it in
Open the converter, then either hit Select Image or just drag a file straight onto the canvas. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and most other common formats work. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing gets uploaded anywhere. That part mattered to me when I built it. I didn't want to fling personal photos at somebody's server just to pixelate them. You'll see a preview the moment the image loads.
Step 3: set the pixel size
The slider decides how chunky it gets. Small keeps the shapes, which is what you want for faces. Big goes bold and low-res. There's no magic number, but there is a useful way to think about it: the pixel size is how many of your photo's pixels get merged into one block. So a 1200-pixel-wide photo at pixel size 10 gives you 120 blocks across, which is a very convincing retro image. The same photo at pixel size 40 gives you 30 blocks across, which is a mosaic.
| Photo width | Pixel size | Blocks across | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1200 px | 4 | 300 | Fine pixel art, faces fully readable |
| 1200 px | 8 | 150 | Classic 8-bit, still clearly a photo |
| 1200 px | 12 | 100 | Chunky, portraits still hold |
| 1200 px | 20 | 60 | Bold, faces only just hold |
| 1200 px | 40 | 30 | Abstract mosaic |
What I do is push it up until it looks properly retro, then pull it back a notch or two until the subject reads again. The full breakdown, including the maths for hitting a specific output size, is in the pixel size guide.
Step 4: choose a palette
This is where the mood gets set. Keep Original colours for a clean, modern pixelation, or switch to a console palette to really change the feel. The same photo can look calm in Game Boy green and completely electric in ZX Spectrum. A quick rule of thumb:
- Want it to still look like the photo? NES or PICO-8. Both have enough colours to keep skin, sky and clothing apart.
- Want warmth? Commodore 64. My own soft spot, and it flatters skin.
- Want drama? ZX Spectrum or CGA. Loud, graphic, few colours.
- Want nostalgia? Game Boy. Four greens, decided purely by brightness.
Try a couple. Every palette is one click apart and the preview updates instantly. The palette guide compares them side by side on the same image, and each has its own reference page listing the exact colours.
That's the theory. The fastest way to learn it is to just have a go.
OPEN THE CONVERTERStep 5: save it
When you're happy, hit Download 8-Bit and you'll get a PNG at the same size as your original. Keep it as a PNG. If you re-save it as a JPG later, the compression smears those crisp pixel edges and quietly undoes the whole effect. If you need to resize it for somewhere specific, resize by a whole number (exactly 2x, 3x, half) with "nearest neighbour" resampling if your image editor offers it, so the blocks stay square.
Common problems and how to fix them
| What you see | Why | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A muddy blob with no subject | Pixel size too large for the photo, or the subject was small in the frame | Crop tighter, then drop the pixel size until the eyes or outline come back |
| Face looks like a mask, all one colour | Flat lighting plus a small palette | Pick NES, PICO-8 or C64, or add contrast before converting |
| Sky turned grey | Commodore 64 pulls muted colours towards its greys | Boost saturation first, or use NES for skies |
| Everything is pink and blue | CGA only has four colours | That is the CGA look. Try ZX Spectrum for more colour with the same energy |
| Speckled, noisy areas | Neighbouring blocks flipping between two similar palette colours | Increase pixel size slightly, or choose a palette with more colours |
| Result looks blurry | The PNG was re-saved as JPG, or resized with smoothing | Export PNG, resize only by whole numbers with nearest neighbour |
Stuff I got wrong early on
- Starting too small. A tiny source photo has barely any detail to begin with, so pixelating it leaves almost nothing.
- Over-cooking faces. Push the pixel size too far and a portrait becomes an anonymous blob. Ease off until the eyes and mouth still read.
- Picking too bold a palette for a subtle photo. All those gentle skin tones look rough in two colours. Save the extreme palettes for high-contrast shots.
- Re-saving as JPG somewhere else and wondering why it went blurry.
Ideas for what to make
- An avatar for Discord, Twitch or a forum, with a matching banner in the same palette.
- A Game Boy Camera style portrait for a birthday card or a print.
- Placeholder sprites and mock-ups for a game prototype.
- A sliding puzzle of your own photo, using the 8-Bit Slide game.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn a photo into pixel art for free?
Yes. The 8-bit photo converter is free, has no watermark and no sign-up, and runs entirely in your browser so your photo is never uploaded.
What pixel size should I use for a portrait?
On a full-size phone photo, start near the top of the slider (25 to 40) or resize the photo first, then adjust until the eyes and mouth are clearly readable. Faces start losing their shape below about 60 blocks across.
Which palette keeps a photo most recognisable?
Apart from Original colours, NES keeps the most detail because it has the most colours. Of the 16-colour palettes, PICO-8 handles skin tones best, with Commodore 64 close behind.
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