---
title: "Pixel Art Maker – Turn a Photo into Pixel Art"
description: "Turn any photo into retro pixel art: big square pixels and a reduced set of colours, like an old video game. Adjust block size and colours with two sliders."
url: "https://imagecompressor.si/pixel-art-maker"
lang: "en"
---

# Turn a photo into pixel art

Make a picture look like an 8-bit game: chunky pixels, flat colours and crisp edges, saved as a PNG.

## How it works

1. **Add your images** Drag and drop, paste, or pick files. They upload over an encrypted connection.
2. **Pick a quality or a target size** Use the quality slider, or tell it exactly how many KB or MB you need.
3. **Download** Save each file, or grab them all at once as a ZIP.

Pixel art is the look of early computer and console games, where every character was drawn from a few dozen large squares in a handful of colours. Turning a photo into that style makes avatars, stickers, game mock-ups and nostalgic posters, and it is a favourite effect for pets and portraits.

Add your photo and two effects are applied together. Pixelate breaks it into square blocks, and posterize reduces each colour channel to a few tones, which gives the flat, banded colours of real pixel art. Move either slider to taste: bigger blocks for a rougher sprite, fewer tones for a bolder palette.

The result is saved as a PNG, which keeps the edges of every block sharp and the flat colours exact; a JPEG would smear them. Change the format in Advanced if you need something else.

## Getting a good sprite

Simple pictures make the best pixel art: one subject, a plain background and strong light. Crop close to the face or object first, so it fills the frame, then pixelate; a small figure in a wide scene turns into a few unreadable blocks.

Raising contrast and saturation in the same panel before the effect makes the final colours livelier, closer to the bright palettes of old games.

## Block size and colours

A block size in the lower third keeps faces recognisable. The posterize slider at around the middle gives roughly six tones per colour, a classic look; at the top it leaves two per channel, eight colours in all, like the earliest home computers.

Try a few combinations and keep the one you like: the original is never changed, so every setting can be undone by moving the slider back.

## Sizes for icons and avatars

For a profile picture or an emoji-style sticker, crop to a square first with the square crop page, then make the pixel art here. Make it at the size you will use it, because shrinking it afterwards softens the edges of the blocks.

## Privacy

Your photo is processed on our server and deleted once the pixel art is ready.

## Transparent backgrounds

To use the sprite on any background, remove the photo's background first with the background remover, then bring the transparent PNG here. The pixel art keeps the transparency.

## Animated pictures

The effect is made for still images; animated GIFs keep their frames unchanged.

## Ideas to try

Pets and cartoon-like portraits turn out especially well, as do landmarks with strong outlines and simple logos. Food, foliage and crowds lose their detail fastest, so give them bigger, bolder subjects or crop to one item.

## Printing pixel art

Large prints of pixel art look deliberate rather than blurry, because the blocks are the point. For a poster, make the picture here at a large size, then print it without any extra smoothing in the printer settings.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I make the pixels bigger?

Move the pixelate slider to the right.

### How do I use fewer colours?

Move the posterize slider to the right.

### Why is it saved as PNG?

PNG keeps the block edges and flat colours exact.

### Can I keep a transparent background?

Yes. Start from a PNG with transparency.

### Is my photo stored?

No. It leaves our server as soon as the pixel art is made.

### Can I make many at once?

Yes. Each picture gets the same settings.

### Does it work on GIFs?

Not on animations; use a still picture.

## Related tools

- [Pixelate an image](https://imagecompressor.si/pixelate-image): Turn a whole picture into square blocks, from a fine mosaic to large chunky squares, and download it in any common format.
- [Get a colour palette from an image](https://imagecompressor.si/color-palette-from-image): See the main colours of a photo with their hex codes, and copy them for your design, website or slides.
- [Convert an image to black and white](https://imagecompressor.si/black-and-white-image): Drop a colour photo in, and get it back in shades of grey, with contrast and brightness to fine-tune.