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.

23 palettes

PICO-8

16 colors

The 16 colors of the PICO-8 fantasy console: punchy, readable, and famously hard to make ugly.

Lexaloffle

  • console
  • retro
  • high-contrast

CGA 16

16 colors

The IBM CGA 16-color set every DOS game grew up on: harsh, saturated, unmistakably 1985.

IBM (hardware)

  • console
  • retro
  • high-contrast

ZX Spectrum

15 colors

Sinclair's bright/dark pairs: pure hues at two intensities and nothing in between.

Sinclair (hardware)

  • console
  • retro
  • high-contrast

NES Sampler

16 colors

A working 16-color slice of the NES master palette, kept to hues the PPU can actually pair.

Nintendo (hardware)

  • console
  • retro
  • high-contrast

Macintosh 16

16 colors

The classic Mac OS 16: clean primaries plus a proper gray ramp for interface pixel art.

Apple (system)

  • ui
  • retro
  • high-contrast

VGA System 16

16 colors

The default Windows/VGA sixteen: the palette of early icons, cursors, and toolbars.

IBM / Microsoft (system)

  • ui
  • retro
  • high-contrast

1-Bit

2 colors

Pure black and white. No shading, only silhouette and pattern dithering.

MagicPixel

  • monochrome
  • grayscale
  • high-contrast

1-Bit Ink

2 colors

A softened two-tone pair: off-black ink on warm paper for comic-style pixel art.

MagicPixel

  • monochrome
  • low-color
  • high-contrast

Sweetie 16

16 colors

Sixteen balanced colors with clean dark-to-light ramps: a modern PICO-8 alternative.

GrafxKid

  • general
  • vibrant
  • high-contrast

High Contrast 8

8 colors

Eight maximally distinguishable colors: readable at 16×16 and for color-blind checks.

MagicPixel

  • high-contrast
  • ui
  • low-color

Amstrad CPC Sampler

16 colors

Sixteen of the Amstrad CPC’s 27 firm-hued colors: blunt primaries with just enough mid tones to shade.

Amstrad (hardware)

  • console
  • retro
  • high-contrast

Teletext

8 colors

The eight pure teletext colors: black, white, and full-blast RGB corners. Brutally readable.

Broadcast standard (hardware)

  • retro
  • high-contrast
  • bright

Master System Sampler

16 colors

A 16-color slice of the Master System VDP: two-bit-per-channel steps, arcade-bright.

Sega (hardware)

  • console
  • retro
  • 16-color

Atari ST

16 colors

The default Atari ST 16: full-strength hues plus their halves, the classic demo-scene starting point.

Atari (hardware)

  • retro
  • 16-color
  • high-contrast

Thomson MO5

16 colors

France’s school-computer palette: saturated primaries with a handful of pastel softeners.

Thomson (hardware)

  • retro
  • 16-color
  • bright

Duotone Red & Blue

8 colors

Two opposing three-step ramps plus a shared light: hard-edged, poster-like sprites.

MagicPixel

  • low-color
  • high-contrast
  • illustration

Duotone Teal & Orange

8 colors

The film-grade complementary pair, ramped for pixel art without muddying the mids.

MagicPixel

  • low-color
  • high-contrast
  • illustration

Eight-Color Jam

8 colors

Four neutrals and four hues: a deliberately tiny working set for jam sprites.

MagicPixel

  • starter
  • general
  • low-color

Four-Color Sunset

4 colors

Four steps from night violet to sun gold: tiny palettes that still feel atmospheric.

MagicPixel

  • low-color
  • warm
  • sunset

Accessible Eight

8 colors

Eight hues chosen to stay distinguishable for the common forms of color blindness.

MagicPixel

  • accessible
  • general
  • ui

Gravlift White

7 colors

Clean-room whites and greys for polished sci-fi architecture.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • ui
  • cool

Stained Glass

7 colors

Saturated leaded-glass jewels bound by dark lead lines.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • vibrant
  • fantasy

UI Cool Slate

7 colors

Balanced dark-UI slate ramp with an accessible top contrast step.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • cool
  • dark

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.