👾 Pixel Art Maker

Photo to Pixel Art and Bead Patterns

Convert any photo into pixel art from 16 to 256 pixels wide, with retro palettes, a counting grid and per-colour totals. Ideal for gamers, crafters and teachers, and it runs in your browser.

  • ✓ Game Boy, PICO-8, NES and Minecraft palettes
  • ✓ Perler/Hama bead pattern with legend
  • ✓ Crisp upscaled PNG downloads
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Drop a photo here

or click to choose – JPG, PNG or WebP up to 50 MB

What is a photo to pixel art converter?

Pixel art is an image built from a small number of visible square pixels and a limited colour palette, the look of classic video games. A photo to pixel art converter shrinks a picture to a chosen grid size, then maps every cell to the closest colour in a palette.

The result is useful far beyond nostalgia. Each cell can stand for a fuse bead, a cross-stitch, a LEGO plate or a Minecraft block, so the converter doubles as a pattern maker. This one shows the grid, labels cells with symbols and counts exactly how many of each colour you need.

How to turn a photo into pixel art in 5 steps

  1. Add a photo

    Drop a JPG, PNG or WebP. Simple subjects with clear outlines work best.

  2. Set the width

    Choose 16–256 pixels wide; the height follows the photo's proportions.

  3. Pick a palette

    Use limited colours, a retro console palette, bead colours or Minecraft blocks.

  4. Adjust the look

    Try dithering, then toggle the grid and symbols to check the pattern.

  5. Download

    Save an upscaled PNG, a 1:1 PNG or a printable pattern with legend.

Supported formats

JPG / PNG / WebPinput

Up to 50 MB; GIF and BMP also open.

Upscaled PNGoutput

Each pixel enlarged with hard edges, about 2048 px by default.

1:1 PNGoutput

One image pixel per cell, for editors and games.

Pattern PNGoutput

Grid, symbols and colour legend with counts.

Width 16–256 cells; height up to 1,024 cells for very tall images. Images over 100 MP are refused, and large photos are reduced to a 1,600 px working copy first.

How does it work?

Your photo is copied to a canvas and reduced to the target grid by area averaging, so each cell gets the true average colour of the region it covers. The colours are then reduced and mapped. Everything runs locally on your device.

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Smart palettes

K-means clustering or median cut finds the best 2–64 colours for your photo.

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Fixed palettes

Game Boy, PICO-8, NES-style, 21 bead colours, Minecraft wool and concrete.

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Dithering

Floyd–Steinberg for smooth gradients or ordered 4×4 Bayer for a retro texture.

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Counts and legend

Colours are listed by how many cells use them, with symbols for patterns.

Picking the right size and palette

Width is the most important choice. Fewer pixels give a bolder, more iconic look; more pixels keep likeness and detail.

  • 16–32 px: game sprites, emoji-style avatars and tiny bead magnets. Only strong shapes survive.
  • 48–64 px: recognisable portraits and pets; a good default.
  • 100–256 px: detailed scenes, cross-stitch charts and large Minecraft builds.

Palette tips

Limited colours with k-means usually look best for photos, because the palette adapts to your image. Median cut can keep small accent colours that k-means merges. Fixed palettes give an authentic retro feel: Game Boy's four greens, PICO-8's 16 colours or an NES-style set. Crop tightly around the subject first with the image crop tool; background detail wastes precious pixels.

Making Perler and Hama bead patterns

Fuse beads are a natural fit for pixel art: one bead equals one pixel. Choose the Perler / Hama beads palette, which maps colours to 21 common bead shades, and turn dithering off so areas stay flat and easy to place.

Planning the board

  • A standard large square pegboard holds 29 × 29 beads, so a 29 px wide design fits one board. Larger designs span several boards joined together.
  • Midi beads are about 5 mm, so 58 px across comes to roughly 29 cm. Mini beads are about half that size.
  • Bead shades vary between brands and sets; use the legend as a guide and match to the colours you own.

Download the Pattern PNG and print it. The thick grid line every 10 cells makes counting easy, symbols help where similar colours sit side by side, and the legend tells you how many beads of each colour to sort out before you start.

Cross-stitch, Minecraft and game sprites

Cross-stitch and knitting charts

Each cell becomes one stitch. On 14-count Aida, 14 stitches fill an inch, so a 140 px wide pattern is about 10 inches across. Use a limited palette of 8–20 colours and match legend colours to your thread brand's chart.

Minecraft pixel art

Choose the Minecraft wool or concrete palette and every cell maps to one of 16 block colours. The counts tell you how many blocks to gather; divide by 64 to get stacks. Keep builds under about 128 blocks wide so they stay visible in-game.

Game sprites and digital art

Use the Small 1:1 PNG as the source for game engines and pixel editors. For sharing, use the upscaled PNG: it enlarges pixels with nearest-neighbour scaling, so edges stay crisp. For a censorship-style mosaic over part of a photo, use pixelate image instead.

Frequently asked questions

Upload the photo, choose a width in pixels, pick a palette and adjust dithering until you like the look. Then download an upscaled PNG for sharing, a 1:1 PNG for game or pixel editors, or a printable pattern with grid and colour legend.
For sprites and icons, 16–32 pixels wide gives a classic retro look. Portraits and pets are usually recognisable at 48–64 pixels. Bead and cross-stitch projects often use 29–100 pixels, depending on how many boards or how much fabric you plan to use.
Yes. Select the Perler / Hama beads palette, choose a width that suits your pegboards and keep dithering off. Download the Pattern PNG, which shows a numbered grid, symbols in each cell and the number of beads needed in every colour.
A standard large square Perler or Hama midi pegboard has 29 × 29 pegs, which is 841 beads. Set the width to 29 for a single-board design or a multiple of 29 for larger pieces. Check your board, as sizes vary between brands and shapes.
Dithering mixes pixels of two palette colours in a pattern to suggest a colour in between, which smooths gradients when only a few colours are available. Floyd–Steinberg gives a natural look; ordered dithering gives a regular retro texture. Turn it off for bead patterns.
Yes. The palette menu includes the Game Boy's four greens, the 16-colour PICO-8 palette and a 54-colour NES-style set. Every cell is mapped to its nearest palette colour, which gives your photo an authentic console look. Dithering can be added to suggest extra shades.
Choose the Minecraft wool or Minecraft concrete palette. Each cell becomes one of 16 block colours, and the legend counts how many of each block you need. Use the grid lines every 10 cells to keep your place while building.
Most image viewers smooth images when scaling, which blurs hard pixel edges. Download the upscaled PNG instead of enlarging the 1:1 file; it is scaled with nearest-neighbour sampling, so every pixel stays a sharp square at any zoom level or screen size.
Yes. Treat every cell as one stitch and use a limited palette of 8–20 colours. The pattern PNG gives symbols and stitch counts per colour. On 14-count Aida fabric, every 14 pixels of width equal one inch of finished design.
No. All processing happens inside your browser on a canvas element. Your photo is never sent to a server, which makes the tool safe for family pictures and children's portraits, and it keeps working even with a weak or interrupted internet connection.