What is the difference from pixelate?

Pixelate keeps your photo's size and covers it with blocks. Pixel art makes a small, palette-limited picture — 64 art pixels across, say — meant to be shown crisp, then enlarges it by a whole number so every art pixel is an exact square in the file.

How do I keep pixels sharp when I enlarge it?

Use the Pixel size choice in the Export panel (2×, 4×, 8× or 16×). The lab enlarges by whole numbers with nearest-neighbour, so each art pixel becomes an exact block of identical pixels. Enlarging a 1× file in another app with smoothing on is what blurs pixel art.

Which palette should I pick?

From the photo gives the truest colours for the count you choose. 1-bit and Four greens are deliberately limited, retro looks. 16 and 32 colours are general fixed sets that keep a family of images consistent.

Why does my picture look blocky at small grid sizes?

That is the point of pixel art, but below about 32 art pixels across a face or a detailed scene stops being recognisable. Start around 64 and go down until it just holds together.

Does the ordered dither help?

On gradients like skies and skin, yes: a fixed checker of in-between steps lets few colours suggest many. On flat graphics it adds texture you may not want, so it is off by default.

Image to Pixel Art — Crisp Pixels, Real Palettes

A rebuild: your photo, remade

This is a rebuild: your photo is remade as a small grid of art pixels in a limited palette. Each art pixel is the area average of the part of the photo it covers (not a single sampled pixel), then snapped to the palette you choose, with an optional ordered dither.

Pixelate is the other door: it keeps your photo’s size and blocks it over. Pixel art produces a small picture to be displayed crisp — the strip and the preview show it enlarged without smoothing, and the file can be saved at true size or enlarged by 2× to 16×.

The controls

Pixels across: How many art pixels span the short side, 8 to 256. The same number gives the same picture from any source size.
Palette: From the photo (2 to 64 colours, median cut), 1-bit, four greens, 16 colours or 32 colours.
Ordered dither: A 4×4 threshold pattern between palette colours, for smoother gradients.
Pixel size (export): 1× true size, or nearest-neighbour enlargement by 2, 4, 8 or 16 so each art pixel is an exact square.

Where it falls short

Below about 32 pixels across, faces and fine detail stop being recognisable.
Strength is not available: pixel art is a smaller picture, so there is nothing to mix back pixel for pixel.
SVG export of the pixel grid is not in this version.

The strip, the preview and the saved file run the same code on the same settings, with every size a fraction of the picture, so the file you download is the frame you approved.

Nothing is uploaded

There's no upload step on this page — your picture is decoded in the tab, drawn to a canvas, and gone the moment you close it. The filter runs in this tab, on your device, and the file is written here too.

Questions

What is the difference from pixelate?: Pixelate keeps your photo's size and covers it with blocks. Pixel art makes a small, palette-limited picture — 64 art pixels across, say — meant to be shown crisp, then enlarges it by a whole number so every art pixel is an exact square in the file.
How do I keep pixels sharp when I enlarge it?: Use the Pixel size choice in the Export panel (2×, 4×, 8× or 16×). The lab enlarges by whole numbers with nearest-neighbour, so each art pixel becomes an exact block of identical pixels. Enlarging a 1× file in another app with smoothing on is what blurs pixel art.
Which palette should I pick?: From the photo gives the truest colours for the count you choose. 1-bit and Four greens are deliberately limited, retro looks. 16 and 32 colours are general fixed sets that keep a family of images consistent.
Why does my picture look blocky at small grid sizes?: That is the point of pixel art, but below about 32 art pixels across a face or a detailed scene stops being recognisable. Start around 64 and go down until it just holds together.
Does the ordered dither help?: On gradients like skies and skin, yes: a fixed checker of in-between steps lets few colours suggest many. On flat graphics it adds texture you may not want, so it is off by default.

Related on this site

Rendered on your computer, not on a server.