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.

32 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

Game Boy Pocket

4 colors

Four neutral grays from the Pocket revision: ideal for reading value before you commit to color.

Nintendo (hardware)

console
gameboy
grayscale

Virtual Boy

4 colors

Four reds from the Virtual Boy's LED display: value studies with a headache.

Nintendo (hardware)

console
monochrome
red

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

Grayscale 4

4 colors

Four evenly spaced values: the fastest way to block out light before coloring.

MagicPixel

grayscale
monochrome
low-color

UI Accent Six

6 colors

Six evenly spaced accent hues at matched saturation: status icons and tags.

MagicPixel

ui
vibrant
low-color

High Contrast 8

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

high-contrast
ui
low-color

Monochrome Blue 6

6 colors

Six-step single-hue blue: perfect for one-color mockups and moonlight passes.

MagicPixel

monochrome
cool
low-color

Monochrome Purple 6

6 colors

A single violet ramp for magic passes, dusk overlays, and shadow studies.

MagicPixel

monochrome
purple
low-color

Four Color Warm

4 colors

A Game Boy-style four-tone set in warm tones: tight constraint, warm mood.

MagicPixel

low-color
warm
monochrome

Four Color Cool

4 colors

A four-tone cool set for moonlit, underwater, and winter constraint pieces.

MagicPixel

low-color
cool
monochrome

Six Color Jam

6 colors

A tiny six-color kit that still covers dark, light, warm, and cool: ideal for jams.

MagicPixel

low-color
general
starter

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

Teletext

8 colors

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

Broadcast standard (hardware)

retro
high-contrast
bright

Blizzard

8 colors

Eight steps of cold gray-blue for whiteout weather, snowfall vfx, and frozen skies.

MagicPixel

environment
ice
cool

Slime & Ooze

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

monsters
green
effects

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

Lightning VFX

8 colors

Cool arc values with a white core and a warm afterglow for electric attacks.

MagicPixel

effects
vfx
blue

Ice VFX

8 colors

Frost blues to white for freeze effects, ice shards, and cold-damage frames.

MagicPixel

effects
vfx
ice

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

Monochrome Green

6 colors

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

MagicPixel

monochrome
green
low-color

Monochrome Amber

6 colors

A warm amber ramp for lamplight studies, sepia scenes, and CRT-amber mockups.

MagicPixel

monochrome
warm
low-color

Monochrome Rose

6 colors

One rose hue in six values: dusk scenes, romance UI, and soft single-tone art.

MagicPixel

monochrome
pink
low-color

Two-Bit Sepia

4 colors

Four aged-paper values: the Game Boy exercise in a warm, old-photograph key.

MagicPixel

low-color
monochrome
retro

Four-Color Noir

4 colors

A cool four-value set for high-contrast noir sprites and silhouette-first layouts.

MagicPixel

low-color
grayscale
cool

Four-Color Sunset

4 colors

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

MagicPixel

low-color
warm
sunset

Four-Color Forest

4 colors

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

MagicPixel

low-color
green
nature

Accessible Eight

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

accessible
general
ui

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.