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.

8 palettes

Desert Dunes

8 colors

Eight sand values from shadowed dune to blown-out highlight.

MagicPixel

  • nature
  • warm
  • desert

Sand & Ruins

8 colors

Sun-bleached sandstone with one dusty green for scrub: desert temples and buried ruins.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • desert
  • warm

Oasis

12 colors

Palms and still water against warm sand: a green island in an otherwise dry tileset.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • nature
  • water

Salt Flats

6 colors

Cracked pale mineral crust for sun-bleached flats and dry lakebeds.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • desert
  • muted

Canyon Strata

7 colors

Layered sandstone bands from shadowed base rock to sunlit rim.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • desert
  • warm

Badlands Dusk

7 colors

Purple shadow into ember light for arid country at last light.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • desert
  • sunset

Wheat and Dust

7 colors

Golden crop tones for late-summer fields and dry farm paths.

MagicPixel

  • nature
  • warm
  • desert

Desert Nomad

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • characters
  • desert
  • warm

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.