Skip to content
Start making
Start makingLog in

Palettes

Keep every asset on your game's palette.

Start from a classic palette, generate one from a mood, and lock it so AI output matches your hand-drawn sprites.

Start making. It's free.Log in

Start on a proven palette in one click. Classic palettes are built in and credited to their authors. Pick one when you create an artboard, or search them by name or colour count.

  • DawnBringer 3232 colours
  • DawnBringer 1616 colours
  • PICO-816 colours
  • NES55 colours
  • Game Boy4 colours
  • ENDESGA 3232 colours
  • ENDESGA 6464 colours
  • Sweetie 1616 colours
  • AAP-6464 colours
  • Resurrect 6464 colours
  • Arne 1616 colours

Know the moment a colour drifts. When your colour isn't in the palette, the picker says so. Add it in one click, or step back onto the palette with [ and ].

AI

Find your game's colours before you draw a pixel. Describe a mood and pick from three dark-to-light palettes. Replace yours or append the new colours.

Make AI use your colours. With the palette locked, every sprite, edit and fill AI makes snaps to your artboard's palette. You set the lock before you generate.

Illustrative output
The Illustrative engine's smooth original
In your file
Slime in 16 free coloursSlime in 16 free colours, ordered ditherSlime locked to DawnBringer 32Slime locked to DawnBringer 32, ordered ditherSlime locked to PICO-8Slime locked to PICO-8, ordered ditherSlime locked to Game BoySlime locked to Game Boy, ordered ditherSlime locked to Sweetie 16Slime locked to Sweetie 16, ordered dither
Palette

In Pixelart Makers you choose the lock before you generate.

Rendered with Pixelart Makers' own pixel clean-up.

Make the red team in one pass. Replace color previews the swap on the current frame, then applies it to every frame.

New

Get a shading ramp without picking every step. Gradient ramp fills in the colours between two picks, blended in RGB or around the hue wheel. Sort by hue, brightness or saturation to line up the rest.

New

Ship art that is already on your palette. Convert an artboard to Indexed and every pixel becomes a palette index, with a before and after preview and optional dithering. Check palette flags any colour that drifted off.

Pull a tight palette out of any art. New palette from sprite builds a palette from what's on the artboard, with as many colours as you choose.

Bring palettes in, take them anywhere. Drop a .gpl or .hex file to replace or extend your palette. Save yours as .gpl, .hex or a PNG strip.

Palette credits

  • DawnBringer 32 — DawnBringer
  • DawnBringer 16 — DawnBringer
  • PICO-8 — Lexaloffle Games
  • NES — Nintendo (hardware palette)
  • Game Boy — Nintendo (hardware palette, bgb emulator shades)
  • ENDESGA 32 — ENDESGA
  • ENDESGA 64 — ENDESGA
  • Sweetie 16 — GrafxKid
  • AAP-64 — Adigun A. Polack
  • Resurrect 64 — Kerrie Lake
  • Arne 16 — Arne Niklas Jansson

Some sprites use Sweetie 16 by GrafxKid.

Palette questions

Does changing the palette recolour my art?

On an RGB artboard, no: choosing a palette changes the colours you paint with, and existing pixels keep their colours. To recolour that art, use Replace color, or Restyle to palette to snap it to your palette. On an Indexed artboard, pixels follow their palette entries, so editing the palette recolours the art; after switching palettes, Remap palette puts every pixel back on the nearest new colour.

Can I bring my own palette?

Yes. Drop a .gpl, .hex, .pal, .act or .col file on the canvas to replace or extend your palette, or use Import palette…, which also reads PNG palettes. You can save yours in any of those formats or as a PNG strip.

Does AI use my palette?

Turn on palette lock on the prompt card before you generate, and every sprite, edit, fill and animation frame is matched to your artboard's palette. For art you already have, Restyle to palette snaps it to your colours.

All questions

Paint your game in its own colours. Signing up is free.

Start making. It's free.