MagicPixel

Pixel art color palettes

Free palettes with every hex code listed: hardware classics like Game Boy, PICO-8 and NES, plus ramps built for dungeons, characters and tilesets. 256 palettes, one click to save any of them.

Every retro color palette here lists its full hex codes. Copy them straight off any palette page, or add a palette to your account and it shows up in the pixel art editor color sidebar, ready to draw with or to snap an existing sprite onto. Already have favourites from Aseprite or another editor? MagicPixel also imports .gpl, .pal and .hex palette files. New to working inside a limited set? Start with the color palette guide.

Chasing that 8-bit and 16-bit look? pulled straight from the consoles and computers that defined them.

Popular palettes: Game Boy DMG, PICO-8, NES, Commodore 64, CGA 16, ZX Spectrum.

29 palettes

Skin Tones 12

12 colors

A broad twelve-step skin ramp covering deep to light tones on one continuous curve.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • skin
  • warm

Hair Colors 12

12 colors

Black, brown, blonde, ginger, and gray hair ramps compressed into one palette.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • warm
  • general

Knight & Squire

12 colors

Steel plate with tabard reds and leather browns: ready-made knight sprites.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • fantasy
  • metal

Ranger Leathers

10 colors

Forest greens over worn leather for rangers, hunters, and scouts.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • fantasy
  • green

Wizard Robes

10 colors

Arcane purples with gold trim: robes, spell circles, and enchanted cloth.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • fantasy
  • purple

Necromancer

16 colors

Deathly greens and violet shadow with a blood accent for undead-themed sprites.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • fantasy
  • horror

Ghost Veil

8 colors

Pale, cold translucency for spirits, mist forms, and phase-out frames.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • horror
  • cool

Monsters & Goblins

12 colors

Sickly greens with fleshy warms for goblins, orcs, and dungeon fauna.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • monsters
  • green

Space Marine

11 colors

Armor plate grays with a fatigue-green and a warning-orange for trim and insignia.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • characters
  • armor

Android Porcelain

10 colors

Pale synthetic skin over cool grays, with cyan optics and one red fault light.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • characters
  • cool

Orc Warband

12 colors

Olive hide, leather straps, and blood-red war paint for greenskin mobs.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • monsters
  • green

Undead Pallor

11 colors

Bloodless gray-greens with bruised purples: zombies, revenants, and plague victims.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • monsters
  • horror

Vampire Court

10 colors

Wine reds over violet shadow with a single gold accent: gothic nobility and crypt courts.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • horror
  • purple

Fae Wings

10 colors

Iridescent violets with mint and pollen accents for sprites, moths, and fae creatures.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • fantasy
  • purple

Gilded Paladin

12 colors

Polished steel plate trimmed in gold, with one heraldic blue for tabards and banners.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • armor
  • gold

Assassin

10 colors

Near-black blues that still separate at low light, with dried-blood reds and a cloth highlight.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • dark
  • cool

Mossbound Druid

11 colors

Moss and bark tones for nature casters, treefolk, and overgrown armor.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • nature
  • green

Skin Tones Deep

8 colors

An eight-step ramp built for deep skin tones, with enough value spread to shade faces at 32px.

MagicPixel

  • skin
  • characters
  • warm

Skin Tones Cool

8 colors

A cool-leaning flesh ramp for pale, undead, or moonlit characters without going gray.

MagicPixel

  • skin
  • characters
  • cool

Eyes & Accents

12 colors

Paired dark/light values for eye colors, gems, and small character accents.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • accents
  • vibrant

Cloth & Linen

8 colors

Undyed fabric values: tunics, sails, bandages, and anything that should look woven.

MagicPixel

  • texture
  • muted
  • warm

Leather & Hide

8 colors

Tanned-hide browns with enough separation for straps, boots, and armor detailing.

MagicPixel

  • texture
  • warm
  • armor

Harpy Plume

7 colors

Feathered brown-rose ramp for beast-folk plumage and talons.

MagicPixel

  • monsters
  • fantasy
  • warm

Beast Fur

7 colors

Neutral fur browns that layer cleanly under any accent color.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • monsters
  • warm

Noble Court

7 colors

Royal violets for courtly dress, drapes and throne rooms.

MagicPixel

  • fantasy
  • purple
  • characters

Sellsword Grit

7 colors

Worn traveling-gear neutrals for mercenaries and road-weary kit.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • armor
  • muted

Mermaid Scale

7 colors

Iridescent aquatic greens for scales, fins and underwater folk.

MagicPixel

  • fantasy
  • water
  • green

Desert Nomad

7 colors

Sun-worn cloth browns for wraps, tents and caravan gear.

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • desert
  • warm

Bandage and Blood

7 colors

Field-medicine reds and cloth pales for wounds and healing kits.

MagicPixel

  • items
  • red
  • horror

Sign in to save palettes to your account. Browsing and copying hex codes is free.

Provenance and licensing. Hardware and system palettes here (Game Boy, PICO-8, CGA, C64, ZX Spectrum, NES and friends) are factual color sets from the machines themselves, credited on each card. Community palettes are included only when released CC0, credited to their authors. Every other palette is authored by MagicPixel. All of them are free to use in your projects, commercial work included, and color values themselves are not copyrightable.

Pixel art color palettes, explained

What is a pixel art color palette?
A pixel art color palette is a fixed, deliberately small set of colors you commit to for a sprite, a tileset, or a whole game. Limiting yourself forces clearer values and keeps every asset looking like it belongs to the same world, which is why hardware palettes like the Game Boy’s four greens still produce such readable art.
How many colors should a palette have?
For a single 16×16 or 32×32 sprite, 4 to 16 colors is plenty: one dark, one mid, one light per material, plus an outline. Reach for 32 or more only when a scene needs many materials at once. Fewer colors read better at small sizes and are far faster to shade consistently.
How do I use these palettes in MagicPixel?
Browsing and copying hex codes is free, and saving a palette takes a free account. Add a palette to your account here, then open the editor and it appears in the palette picker in the color sidebar. You can also snap an existing artboard to it from the palette button beside the canvas, which remaps every pixel to the nearest color in the set.
Can I import my own palette file?
Yes. The editor imports .gpl (GIMP / Aseprite), .pal (JASC and RIFF), and .hex files, so any palette file you download from a community site or export from another tool can be loaded as a custom palette.
How do I copy the hex codes?
Every palette has its own page listing each hex code. Click a single swatch to copy that one value, or use the copy button to grab the whole palette as a newline separated list you can paste into Aseprite, GIMP, Godot, Unity, or a CSS file.
Are these palettes free to use commercially?
Yes. Hardware and community palettes listed here are factual color sets or CC0 releases, and the MagicPixel-authored palettes are free to use in any project, commercial or otherwise. Colors themselves are not copyrightable.