Build pixel art with cells and a fixed palette

Pixel Art samples square cells, then maps their colors to a chosen palette. Center uses one exact source texel; Smoothed combines nine evenly spaced samples to reduce fine detail before quantization. Optional ordered dithering uses neighboring palette colors to suggest intermediate shades.

Creative applications

• Portrait and pet studies with simplified shapes.
• Limited-palette illustrations, avatars, and graphic backgrounds.

Starting workflow

1. Choose a source with a clear silhouette and a background that separates from the subject.
2. Adjust Pixel size until eyes, edges, or other defining details remain readable.
3. Compare palettes with dithering off, then raise Dithering to add texture to broad tonal areas.
4. Inspect at your intended viewing size and export with Mix at full strength to keep the fixed palette.

Key controls

Pixel size

Set the square cell width in output pixels. Partial cells at the image boundary use a clamped source sample.

Default: 16 · Range: 1 to 128

Sampling

Center preserves sharp local detail with one texel. Smoothed combines nine evenly spaced, alpha-weighted samples per cell; it is smoothing, not a full area average.

Default: Center · Choices: Center, Smoothed

Palette

Keep the sampled source colors or map them to an authored palette. Original Colors bypasses palette mapping and dithering.

Default: Retro 16 · Choices: Original Colors, Monochrome, Green 4, Retro 16, Color 32

Dithering

Introduce a fixed ordered pattern between the two nearest palette colors. The pattern follows cells and does not change over time.

Default: 0% · Range: 0% to 100%

Mix

Blend the treated image with its input. Intermediate values reintroduce source colors beyond the selected palette.

Default: 100% · Range: 0% to 100%

Practical tips

• Reduce Pixel size before adding dithering if a face has lost its eyes or mouth.
• Compare Retro 16 with Color 32 when the source contains skin, foliage, and sky together.
• Place Pixel Outline, Pixel Tiles, or Pixel Relief after Pixel Art with matching Pixel size values to align their grids.

Limitations

• This is a deterministic image treatment, not hand-drawn sprite reconstruction.
• Palettes are fixed presets; custom palette import and automatic extraction are not available.
• Export uses the existing image dimensions and export controls, without a dedicated sprite-resolution mode.