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.

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.

44 palettes

Game Boy DMG

4 colors

The four green shades of the original Game Boy screen: the strictest possible shading exercise.

Nintendo (hardware)

console
gameboy
retro

Forest Canopy

12 colors

Layered leaf greens with a bark ramp: dense woodland tiles that keep depth.

MagicPixel

nature
forest
green

Spring Meadow

10 colors

Fresh grass greens plus two blossom pinks for cheerful overworld tiles.

MagicPixel

nature
green
bright

Swamp Mire

10 colors

Murky olive greens and wet bark for bogs, moss, and stagnant water.

MagicPixel

nature
green
dark

Slime Green

8 colors

A gooey green ramp for slimes, poison, ooze, and toxic pools.

MagicPixel

green
monsters
vibrant

Ranger Leathers

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

characters
fantasy
green

Alchemy Lab

10 colors

Warm workbench neutrals with two reagent accents for lab and shop interiors.

MagicPixel

items
fantasy
muted

Fairy Glade

10 colors

Moonlit greens with two fae pinks for enchanted clearings and glow motes.

MagicPixel

fantasy
nature
pastel

Alien Flora

10 colors

Bio-luminescent greens with alien magentas for strange plants and spores.

MagicPixel

sci-fi
green
purple

Retro CRT

8 colors

Phosphor greens for terminal screens, scanline overlays, and CRT UI.

MagicPixel

retro
green
monochrome

Monsters & Goblins

12 colors

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

MagicPixel

characters
monsters
green

Game Boy Light

4 colors

The teal-lit four shades of the backlit Game Boy Light: cooler and cleaner than the DMG greens.

Nintendo (hardware)

console
gameboy
retro

Oasis

12 colors

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

MagicPixel

environment
nature
water

Humid Jungle

12 colors

Layered green depth for dense foliage, plus a wet-bark ramp so trunks read against the leaves.

MagicPixel

environment
nature
forest

Bamboo Grove

8 colors

A single calm yellow-green ramp: bamboo, tall grass, and quiet Japanese-garden tiles.

MagicPixel

environment
nature
green

Sewer Runoff

10 colors

Damp mossy stone and stagnant water: underground tunnels and drainage tilesets.

MagicPixel

environment
dark
dungeon

Rice Fields

10 colors

Flooded terrace greens over reflective water: farmland maps and quiet countryside scenes.

MagicPixel

environment
nature
green

Reactor Core

10 colors

Radioactive green glow against neutral machine gray: reactors, vats, and hazard lighting.

MagicPixel

sci-fi
industrial
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

Orc Warband

12 colors

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

MagicPixel

characters
monsters
green

Slime & Ooze

8 colors

A translucent green ramp with a bright rim value so blobs read as gel, not stone.

MagicPixel

monsters
green
effects

Mossbound Druid

11 colors

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

MagicPixel

characters
nature
green

Greenhouse

10 colors

Sun-through-glass greens with a warm frame ramp for conservatories and plant rooms.

MagicPixel

interior
nature
green

Poison VFX

9 colors

Toxic greens with a violet secondary so poison never reads as plain foliage.

MagicPixel

effects
vfx
green

Healing VFX

9 colors

Soft restorative greens rising to white, with a gold sparkle value.

MagicPixel

effects
vfx
green

Terminal Green

8 colors

Phosphor green from near-black to bloom: CRT terminals and hacking screens.

MagicPixel

terminal
retro
green

Monochrome Green

6 colors

Six steps of one green: value studies, foliage passes, and single-hue mockups.

MagicPixel

monochrome
green
low-color

Four-Color Forest

4 colors

A four-value woodland set: the minimum that still separates canopy, trunk, and ground.

MagicPixel

low-color
green
nature

Bog Lantern

7 colors

Marsh greens climbing to a lantern-yellow highlight for nighttime wetlands.

MagicPixel

environment
forest
green

Tide Pool

7 colors

Shallow saltwater greens for rock pools, kelp and wet stone.

MagicPixel

environment
water
cool

Terraced Hills

7 colors

Stepped farmland greens that read clearly at small tile sizes.

MagicPixel

environment
nature
green

Aurora Veil

7 colors

Deep polar night lifted by ribbon greens for aurora skies.

MagicPixel

sky
night
cool

Moss and Ruin

7 colors

Overgrown masonry greens for crumbling walls and forgotten roads.

MagicPixel

environment
stone
forest

Kelp Forest

7 colors

Submerged green ramp for kelp stalks, murk and filtered light.

MagicPixel

water
forest
green

Bio Lab

7 colors

Sterile containment greens for labs, vats and specimen lighting.

MagicPixel

sci-fi
green
interior

Terraformer

7 colors

Half-seeded world greens for colony domes and reclaimed soil.

MagicPixel

sci-fi
nature
green

Dropship Olive

7 colors

Military transport olives for hulls, crates and field gear.

MagicPixel

sci-fi
armor
muted

Goblin Market

7 colors

Grubby gold and mildew green for cluttered underworld stalls.

MagicPixel

fantasy
town
monsters

Bog Troll

7 colors

Warty swamp greens for large brutes and mud-caked hides.

MagicPixel

monsters
fantasy
green

Mermaid Scale

7 colors

Iridescent aquatic greens for scales, fins and underwater folk.

MagicPixel

fantasy
water
green

Garden District

7 colors

Trimmed hedge greens for courtyards, planters and quiet streets.

MagicPixel

city
nature
green

Chalkboard Slate

7 colors

Dusty slate greens for classrooms, menus and hand-lettered signs.

MagicPixel

interior
muted
green

Glass Vials

7 colors

Cool apothecary glass tones for bottles, flasks and liquids.

MagicPixel

items
water
cool

Acid Burn VFX

7 colors

Caustic greens for corrosion, sludge splashes and toxic pools.

MagicPixel

vfx
effects
green

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.