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.

25 palettes

Cozy Cottage

12 colors

Soft interior warmth for cottages, inns, and cozy farm-sim rooms.

MagicPixel

  • environment
  • warm
  • cozy

Space Station

12 colors

Corridor grays with alert red and console cyan for interior sci-fi tiles.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • cool
  • metal

Derelict Hull

10 colors

Cold ship metal with failing amber lighting: abandoned stations and horror-in-space corridors.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • metal
  • dark

Reactor Core

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • industrial
  • green

Mecha Cockpit

12 colors

Panel grays with warning reds and readout cyans: cockpit interiors and HUD-heavy scenes.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • interior
  • ui

Factory Floor

11 colors

Machine gray with hazard yellow and rust: conveyor belts, presses, and warehouse tiles.

MagicPixel

  • industrial
  • metal
  • interior

Subway Tile

11 colors

Grimy white tile and shadowed grout, with station green and signage red for accents.

MagicPixel

  • city
  • interior
  • texture

Tavern at Night

10 colors

Candle-warmed timber with cool shadow tones: inns, taverns, and firelit rooms.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • town
  • warm

Dusty Library

10 colors

Old paper, leather bindings, and shelf shadow, with a green shade-lamp accent.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • wood
  • texture

Blacksmith Forge

11 colors

Soot-dark stone with a hot coal ramp and cold anvil grays: smithies and workshops.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • metal
  • fire

Apothecary Shelf

12 colors

Warm wood shadow with three distinct bottle hues: herbs, tinctures, and shop clutter.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • items
  • muted

Temple Marble

10 colors

Warm-gray marble steps with gilt trim: shrines, halls, and boss arenas.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • stone
  • gold

Greenhouse

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • nature
  • green

Bio Lab

7 colors

Sterile containment greens for labs, vats and specimen lighting.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • green
  • interior

Gravlift White

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • ui
  • cool

Witch Hut

7 colors

Candle-warmed clutter tones for hedge-magic cottages and shelves.

MagicPixel

  • fantasy
  • interior
  • dark

Noble Court

7 colors

Royal violets for courtly dress, drapes and throne rooms.

MagicPixel

  • fantasy
  • purple
  • characters

Laundry Line

7 colors

Soft washed-fabric tones for tenement alleys and hanging linen.

MagicPixel

  • town
  • muted
  • cozy

Clocktower Brass

7 colors

Aged brass and oak for gear rooms, clock faces and workshops.

MagicPixel

  • town
  • gold
  • metal

Train Platform

7 colors

Soot-stained concrete greys for stations, tracks and shelters.

MagicPixel

  • city
  • industrial
  • muted

Chalkboard Slate

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • muted
  • green

Stained Glass

7 colors

Saturated leaded-glass jewels bound by dark lead lines.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • vibrant
  • fantasy

Porcelain Tea

7 colors

Quiet ceramic neutrals for tea sets, tiles and calm interiors.

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • pastel
  • muted

Glass Vials

7 colors

Cool apothecary glass tones for bottles, flasks and liquids.

MagicPixel

  • items
  • water
  • cool

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.