Pixel Art Converter
Turn an ordinary photo into the 16-bit version of you, your pet or your character that feels made for a game—and impossible to confuse with anyone else’s.
One photo, one sprite
A real sprite conversion from this page’s model. Drag the divider: the same tabby cat, the same upright pose, the same pale-blue background — now drawn on a coarse grid with flat colour blocks and hard aliased edges. Look at the whiskers and the eyes: they survive as deliberate single-pixel lines, which is exactly what a pixelate filter would have destroyed. Use it as your benchmark: a recognisable subject rebuilt with deliberate pixel-art decisions instead of blur.
Drag to compare before and after
What does a pixel art converter actually do?
It rebuilds your photograph in the visual language of a retro video game: a coarse grid of large square pixels, a deliberately small palette of flat colours, hard aliased edges and stair-stepped diagonals, with no gradients or soft blur anywhere. The subject stays recognisable — your cat is still your cat — but every surface is now made of discrete blocks of colour.
This is not the same as pixelating an image, and the difference is the whole reason the tool exists. Pixelating averages the pixels you already have into bigger squares, which destroys information: faces turn to mush and thin features vanish. Converting redraws the subject for the low-resolution grid, deciding which shapes survive and which get simplified, the way a sprite artist would.
That is why the eyes, whiskers and stripes in the example below are still legible at a size where an averaged version would be a coloured smear. It works in the browser with free credits — no sprite editor, no palette setup, no grid maths.
Creative engine
How the conversion works
Upload a photo and art-direct the sprite in plain English — a chunky 8-bit look, a four-colour palette — with the credit estimate on screen before you commit.
Coarse grid redraw
The subject is redrawn for a coarse grid instead of your pixels being averaged into larger squares. Every decision a sprite artist makes — which line survives, which curve becomes a staircase — has to be made somewhere, and this is where.
Hard-edged sprites
Flat 2D sprite art with hard edges and a limited palette: no gradients, no blur, no anti-aliased halo around the subject. If the result has soft edges it is a pixelate, not a conversion, and it will not sit next to real sprite work.
Works in the browser with free credits — no sprite editor, no palette setup, no grid maths. Pixel art is flat by definition — the Minecraft photo generator rebuilds the same picture from cubes with real depth, and the parkour video generator puts that blocky look in motion.
Convert a picture in three steps
From one photograph to a finished sprite, with the cost shown before you commit.
Pick a high-contrast photo
One clear subject that separates cleanly from its background. The coarse grid has very few pixels to spend, so contrast does the work detail cannot.
Name the look you want
Say which era or resolution — a chunky 8-bit sprite, a 16-bit game character, a fine modern pixel illustration — and mention the palette if the colours matter.
Check credits and generate
Generate, then export the sprite at the size your project needs. New accounts start with free credits for the first looks, and a failed run is refunded.
What people convert
Give your jam game its sprites, your itch.io page its look, and your profile a 16-bit avatar that stands out in any feed.
Avatars and profile pictures
Portraits are one of the strongest subjects: hair colour, glasses, expression and head shape become the pixels that make your sprite unmistakably yours, distinctive at any size.
Game mockups and jam assets
Turn reference photos into distinctive jam-ready sprites, so your prototype looks like a game from the first playable build.
Craft patterns and prints
A flat, limited-palette grid is the starting point for perler beads, cross-stitch and pixel posters — the art step, before any charting tool.
Sprite conversion FAQ
Common questions about turning a photograph into flat retro sprite art with Kavel.
A pixelate filter averages the pixels you already have into bigger squares, so information is destroyed: faces smear, thin features disappear, and the result looks censored rather than drawn. This redraws the subject for the coarse grid, choosing which shapes to keep and which to simplify. That is why fine features like whiskers or the line of an eye can survive here as deliberate single-pixel marks, and cannot survive a blur.
You describe both in words rather than setting them numerically. Ask for a chunky 8-bit look, a 16-bit sprite, or a fine modern pixel illustration, and name a palette if the colours matter — muted earth tones, a Game Boy green, four colours only. Treat it as art direction rather than an exact pixel count; if you need a literal 32×32 grid, do the conversion here and resize afterwards.
No. This is flat 2D sprite art on a grid. A Minecraft-style rebuild makes the scene out of cubes that have volume and cast shadows, which is a 3D look — we have a separate tool for that. Pick this one for avatars, sprites and craft patterns; pick the block one for anything meant to look like the game.
Yes, and a portrait is one of the better subjects because the composition is simple. The coarse grid distils you down to your most recognisable traits — hair colour, glasses, the shape of the head and the expression — and gives you a bold, stylised avatar that still clearly feels like you.
Crowded, low-contrast and fine-texture shots give the grid the most to fight. For the strongest sprite, start with one clear subject, strong contrast and a clean silhouette, and crop tight so the features you care about get the whole grid.
The terms of service set out what you can do with images you generate — read those before shipping the result in a product or a store listing. Also remember that the input matters: converting someone else's photograph or a copyrighted character does not make the result yours to sell.
The estimate shifts with the format and resolution you select, so the cost is visible first. Failed runs are refunded automatically, and new accounts start with free credits — enough to try a couple of looks before spending anything.
Not directly. This produces the artwork, not a chart with a colour key and a stitch count. It is the step before that: convert the photo here, then feed the flat image into whichever charting tool your craft uses, which is far easier than charting straight from a photograph.
One purchase, and everything you make here is yours to post
Any plan or pack — even a $19.90 one — unlocks a clean copy of every image you have made here, starts each new run instantly, and refunds one that fails.
Starter
- 23,100 Credits Per Year · 1,925/mo
- Up to 2,310 videos
- Up to 4,620 images
- No Queue, Instant Start
- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
Creator
- 75,000 Credits Per Year · 6,250/mo
- Up to 7,500 videos
- Up to 15,000 images
- No Queue, Instant Start
- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
Pro
- 94,500 Credits Per Year · 7,875/mo
- Up to 9,450 videos
- Up to 18,900 images
- No Queue, Instant Start
- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
Free plan
- Get 100 credits a week with check-ins
- 20 Free Credits with login
- Up to 2 videos
- Up to 4 images
- No Card, No Account
- Free Images And 4s Videos When Signed In
- Free Engine Every Day
Pay safely and securely with
Payments are processed by Stripe over an encrypted checkout. Your card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored by Kavel.
Other retro and blocky looks
Other ways to restyle a photo you already have, and the model behind the edit.
Turn your photo into a sprite
A real sprite, not a photo blurred into big squares — name the palette that feels like your game. New accounts start with free credits for a couple of looks, and a failed run hands its credits back.
