~ TURN YOUR PHOTO INTO RETRO PIXEL ART ~
8-bit & 16-bit Image Converter
Create a retro version of a photo, illustration or icon. Start with an 8-bit, 16-bit or four-color handheld look, adjust the pixel detail and shading, and compare your result with the original. Download the small pixel image or an enlarged PNG with sharp edges. Everything runs in your browser, without an account.
Drop a PNG, JPEG or WebP here
Up to 20 MB · Processed on your device
Choose an image or try the demo to see the effect.
How to turn an image into 8-bit or 16-bit style art
- Choose an image or try the demo. Open a PNG, JPEG or WebP file, or drag it onto the upload area. A clear subject and simple background usually survive reduction better than fine textures or small text. Crop your image beforehand if you want to focus on a face, object or part of a scene.
- Choose a starting style. 8-bit starts at 64 pixels on the longer side with 16 colors. 16-bit starts at 128 pixels with 32 colors. Handheld starts at 96 pixels with four green tones. These are MakeBead style presets, not an emulation of a particular console. Selecting a preset resets detail, dithering, brightness and contrast.
- Tune the result. Lower pixel detail for chunkier shapes or raise it for finer features. Try ordered dithering for a repeating texture, or Floyd–Steinberg for scattered dots that suggest intermediate tones. Keep dithering off for larger flat areas. Adjust brightness and contrast when important parts of your subject disappear.
- Choose an export scale and save. Use 1× to save one output pixel per grid cell, or 2×, 4× or 8× for a larger image with equal square pixels. The download dimensions are shown beside the button. PNG preserves the converted colors and transparent areas without adding JPEG compression artifacts.
What 8-bit and 16-bit mean in this converter
Here, 8-bit and 16-bit describe a visual style inspired by older pixel graphics. They do not mean that every 8-bit game used 16 colors or that every 16-bit game used 32. Actual systems had different palettes, screen sizes, sprite rules and limits on how many colors could appear together. The presets give you practical starting points for an image effect, without claiming hardware accuracy.
The download is a normal static PNG made by your browser. This tool does not export a palette-indexed PNG-8, a 16-bit-per-channel image, a game ROM or a console-ready asset. If a pipeline requires a specific file bit depth or indexed format, check its requirements and use a format-aware editor after creating your artwork.
Pixel detail and export size solve different problems
Pixel detail determines how much information remains in the picture. A 64 × 48 conversion has 3,072 cells, each with one palette color or transparency. Raising the detail can make eyes, lettering and edges easier to recognize. Lowering it produces larger shapes and a stronger mosaic effect, but small features may disappear completely.
Export scale only enlarges the finished grid. A 64 × 48 result saved at 4× becomes 256 × 192, with each grid cell occupying a 4 × 4 square. It adds no new detail or colors. Choose the grid first, then the download size. Fit preview expands both images to their available spaces; use 100% to inspect their actual pixel sizes.
Choose dithering for the image, not just the era
A restricted palette cannot reproduce every shade in a photograph. Dithering alternates available colors to suggest some of the missing tones. Ordered dithering creates a regular pattern; Floyd–Steinberg spreads color error into neighboring pixels and creates a less regular texture. Neither option adds new palette colors. The visible color count can be lower than the palette size if some colors are not used.
Dithering can help gradients, skies and softly shaded objects, but it can also make faces or small icons look noisy. Compare it with the off setting before downloading. For a cleaner sprite, try fewer source details, a simpler background or modest contrast adjustments. An automatic conversion is a starting point; carefully placed outlines and clusters still need manual editing.
Transparency, image quality and supported files
The converter accepts PNG, JPEG and WebP up to 20 MB, with a maximum of 8,192 pixels on either side and 16 million source pixels. The pixel grid keeps the image's proportions, rounded to whole pixels, with 16–256 pixels on its longer side. The 8× export is at most 2,048 pixels on its longer side. Files are processed locally and are not uploaded to a server.
Transparent images use a sharp alpha cutoff: sampled pixels below 50% opacity become transparent, and the rest become opaque palette colors. Soft transparent edges may therefore change. The checkerboard is only a preview aid and is not saved. JPEG backgrounds remain part of the image. Animated PNG or WebP files are flattened to the browser-decoded still image; GIF input and animated export are not supported.
Retro image conversion questions
What is the difference between the 8-bit and 16-bit presets?
The 8-bit preset uses a 16-color MakeBead palette and a 64-pixel longer side. The 16-bit preset uses 32 colors and a 128-pixel longer side, giving it more detail and shading options. Both are adjustable style presets, not exact console simulations or file bit-depth settings.
Can I turn a photo into pixel art without uploading it?
Yes. Image reading, conversion and PNG export all happen in your browser. The tool does not send the image to a server and does not require an account.
Why does my converted image look too noisy?
Try turning dithering off. Increase pixel detail if a face or small object is hard to recognize, or simplify the source image by cropping it first. Strong dithering and busy backgrounds can hide the shapes that make a small image readable.
Will the download have sharp pixels?
Yes. The 1× download saves the converted grid directly. Larger scales copy each grid cell into an equal square without smoothing. Preview zoom does not affect the downloaded dimensions.
Can I preserve a transparent background?
Yes, with binary transparency. Pixels below 50% sampled opacity become fully transparent and other pixels become opaque. This is useful for crisp pixel silhouettes, but it does not preserve soft semi-transparent edges or remove a solid background.
Is the output a real PNG-8 or a 16-bit-per-channel PNG?
No. The names refer to the effect's visual style. Downloads are standard browser-generated PNG images. Use an image editor with explicit encoding options if you need an indexed palette file or a particular channel bit depth.
Can I edit individual pixels after conversion?
Download the result at 1×, then import it into the linked pixel art editor. The 1× file makes each converted grid cell one editable pixel. A larger export contains repeated pixels and is better suited to sharing or display.