Convert Image to 8-Bit Pixel Art
8-bit graphics come from two limits: low resolution and a small fixed palette. This tool applies both. It groups the image into large pixels (you set how many across) and maps each one to the nearest colour of a real retro palette: the NES, Game Boy, PICO-8, Commodore 64, IBM CGA and EGA, classic Mac OS, four greys, or pure black and white.
- Processed locally
- No upload, no wait
- No sign-up
- No watermark
Drop images here
or choose files · paste with Ctrl/⌘ V
JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, AVIF, GIF, TIFF, SVG, RAW, PSD, JXL, BMP, ICO and more
How to use Image to 8-Bit
- 1
Drop your images, choose files, or paste from the clipboard.
- 2
Adjust the options. The preview updates as you change them.
- 3
Click Apply. Files are processed on your device.
- 4
Download each result or everything as a ZIP.
Why use Aback Images for image to 8-bit
Real hardware palettes
Colours from the NES, Game Boy, PICO-8, Commodore 64, IBM CGA and EGA, classic Mac OS and 1 and 2-bit greys, rather than a palette guessed from your image.
Chunky pixels on demand
Set how many pixels across the picture should be, from full resolution down to a few dozen.
Dithering
Optional dithering mixes palette colours to suggest shades a small palette lacks.
Processed on your device
Your images are decoded, edited and encoded inside this browser tab by Web Workers. Nothing is uploaded to a server.
About Image to 8-Bit
Limitations
- Each pixel is mapped to the nearest colour in the palette. Real hardware also limited how many colours could share a tile or a scanline; those rules are not applied, so photos keep more colour variety than the original machine could show.
Related tools
Downsample to a pixel grid with a limited palette for retro 8-bit art.
Enlarge sprites and pixel art by whole-number factors with crisp nearest-neighbour pixels or Scale2x smoothing. GIFs stay animated.
Make any picture look like an original Game Boy screen: 160 chunky pixels across, four shades of green, dithered.
Convert photos to 1-bit black and white with dithering, the classic Macintosh and e-paper look, keeping shading a hard threshold loses.
20 film and colour looks: vintage, noir, Kodachrome, lomo, polaroid, thermal, pop art and more.
Turn photos grayscale with accurate luminance weighting.
Gaussian or motion blur with adjustable strength.
Unsharp-mask sharpening to bring back detail in soft photos.
Frequently asked questions
What does 8-bit mean here?
It refers to the look of 8-bit consoles and home computers such as the NES and Commodore 64, which had 8-bit processors and showed a fixed set of colours at low resolution. The output is an ordinary PNG.
Dithering or not?
Dithering mixes palette colours in fine patterns to suggest shades the palette lacks, which helps small palettes such as the Game Boy's four greens. With large pixels it can look noisy, so try both.
How is this different from Pixel Art?
Pixel Art builds a palette from your image's own colours. This tool uses fixed palettes from real hardware, so the result looks like it came from that machine.
Are my images uploaded anywhere?
No. Processing happens inside your browser with WebAssembly and Web Workers. The site only downloads the app code and codecs; your files never leave your device. You can confirm this with the live upload counter on the tool, or in your browser's network panel.
Can I process many files at once?
Yes. Drop a whole selection or folder. Files are processed in parallel on several worker threads, each result can be downloaded on its own, and everything can be saved as one ZIP.
Is it free? Is there a file limit or watermark?
It is free with no account, no watermark and no daily limit. The only limit is your device's memory: very large images (over roughly 100 megapixels) may be refused to keep the tab from crashing.