Pixel Art Converter
Pixel Art Converter is a free image tool that runs directly in your browser with no account required.
About this tool
This converter downsamples any photo or graphic into blocky pixel art with a controllable grid width, palette reduction, and optional Floyd-style dithering, all in your browser. Beyond a scaled PNG, JPG, WebP, or AVIF export, it builds a true SVG mosaic with one rectangle per visible pixel and extracts the dominant palette as downloadable JSON, CSS variables, or a GIMP .gpl file. Sprite-sheet guides and a frame CSV support game development workflows.
How to use
- Choose an image under Image file and pick a Preset such as Icon 96 columns / 4x, or set your own Pixel grid width and Export scale.
- Select a Palette option like Retro 216 colors or Game Boy 8 colors, and toggle Use dithering to smooth color banding.
- Optionally enable Export grid overlay with a Grid color, set Sprite columns and Sprite rows for sprite sheets, and flatten transparency with a Background color if needed.
- Download the pixel-art image, the SVG mosaic, or the frame CSV, and grab the palette swatches in JSON, CSS, or GPL format.
Frequently asked questions
Is the image processed locally?
Yes. Downsampling, palette reduction, and SVG generation all happen in your browser on canvases; the image is never uploaded to a server.
What do the palette options mean?
Each option quantizes the red, green, and blue channels to a number of levels: 6 levels per channel gives up to 216 colors (Retro), 4 gives 64 (Arcade), 3 gives 27 (Poster), and 2 gives 8 (Game Boy). Keep source colors skips quantization entirely.
What does dithering do?
Dithering diffuses the rounding error from palette reduction into neighboring pixels, trading flat color bands for a textured pattern that reads as smoother gradients. It only applies when a reduced palette is selected.
What is the SVG mosaic download?
It is a vector file containing one rectangle per non-transparent pixel cell, so it scales to any size without blurring. The result panel shows the rectangle count, and grid or sprite guides are included when enabled.
How do the sprite settings work?
Sprite columns and Sprite rows (each 1 to 24) divide the output into equal frames, and the frame CSV download lists each frame's position and dimensions for use in game engines. Guide lines for the frames are drawn into the SVG export.
How large can the pixel grid be?
Pixel grid width accepts 8 to 512 columns, with the row count derived from the image's aspect ratio, and Export scale multiplies each cell by 1 to 16 for the raster output. Larger grids preserve more detail but look less like classic pixel art.