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.

34 palettes

Forest Canopy

12 colors

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

MagicPixel

nature
forest
green

Autumn Woods

10 colors

Rust, amber, and ochre for fall foliage, hay, and harvest scenes.

MagicPixel

nature
warm
forest

Spring Meadow

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

nature
green
bright

Desert Dunes

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

nature
warm
desert

Arctic Tundra

8 colors

Cold blue-grays for snowfields, frozen rock, and overcast winter light.

MagicPixel

nature
cool
ice

Glacier Ice

10 colors

Translucent glacier blues with a white break for cracks and specular hits.

MagicPixel

nature
cool
ice

Ocean Depths

12 colors

A twelve-step descent from surface teal to abyssal near-black.

MagicPixel

nature
cool
water

Coral Reef

12 colors

Tropical reef colors: teal water against hot coral pinks and oranges.

MagicPixel

nature
water
vibrant

Swamp Mire

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

nature
green
dark

Mushroom Grove

10 colors

Violet shade with capped pinks: fungal forests and spore-lit clearings.

MagicPixel

nature
fantasy
purple

Wood & Bark

8 colors

A single clean wood ramp for planks, crates, trunks, and furniture.

MagicPixel

nature
warm
texture

Farm Harvest

12 colors

Soil, wheat, and crop greens for farming games and harvest scenes.

MagicPixel

environment
warm
nature

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

Warm Earth 16

16 colors

A dense warm ramp for terrain, wood, leather, and autumn scenes.

MagicPixel

warm
nature
general

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

Cherry Blossom

12 colors

Pink blossom values with a muted foliage and bark ramp: spring maps that don’t go candy-sweet.

MagicPixel

environment
nature
pink

Winter Pines

10 colors

Cold blue-greens and snow whites for evergreen slopes and frozen trails.

MagicPixel

environment
ice
cool

Mountain Pass

10 colors

Cool granite values with two greens for hardy alpine growth: cliffs, scree, and ridge lines.

MagicPixel

environment
stone
cool

Rice Fields

10 colors

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

MagicPixel

environment
nature
green

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

Thatch & Straw

8 colors

Dry straw values for roofs, haystacks, baskets, and rural rooftops.

MagicPixel

texture
warm
town

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

Wheat and Dust

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

nature
warm
desert

Terraformer

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

sci-fi
nature
green

Bog Troll

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

monsters
fantasy
green

Garden District

7 colors

Trimmed hedge greens for courtyards, planters and quiet streets.

MagicPixel

city
nature
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.