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.

24 palettes

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 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

Potion Shelf

12 colors

Distinct liquid hues on one neutral glass base so every potion reads at 16px.

MagicPixel

  • items
  • fantasy
  • vibrant

Chrome & Glass

10 colors

Clean cool metals with a cyan tint for polished sci-fi surfaces and HUD frames.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • metal
  • cool

Retro CRT

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • retro
  • green
  • monochrome

Retro CRT Amber

8 colors

The amber monitor variant: warm monochrome for old computers and consoles.

MagicPixel

  • retro
  • warm
  • monochrome

UI Parchment

8 colors

Warm paper values for dialog boxes, scrolls, maps, and inventory panels.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • warm
  • fantasy

UI Dark Mode

8 colors

A neutral dark-interface ramp for HUDs, menus, and pixel-art tooling.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • cool
  • grayscale

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

Mecha Cockpit

12 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • interior
  • ui

Hologram

8 colors

One clean cyan ramp for holograms, scan lines, projected UI, and glow passes.

MagicPixel

  • sci-fi
  • ui
  • cool

UI Light Mode

10 colors

A light interface ramp with one action blue and one danger red: menus, HUDs, and dialogs.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • accents
  • general

UI Status Colors

10 colors

Success, warning, danger, and info at two values each, over a neutral pair.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • accents
  • accessible

Terminal Green

8 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • terminal
  • retro
  • green

Terminal Blue

8 colors

A cold single-hue ramp for terminals, blueprints, and diagnostic overlays.

MagicPixel

  • terminal
  • retro
  • blue

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

Chalkboard Slate

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • interior
  • muted
  • green

Scroll and Ink

7 colors

Parchment and iron-gall ink for maps, notes and quest logs.

MagicPixel

  • items
  • ui
  • warm

Sound Wave VFX

7 colors

Ringing blue ramp for sonar pings, shouts and shockwave rings.

MagicPixel

  • vfx
  • effects
  • blue

UI Cool Slate

7 colors

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

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • cool
  • dark

UI Warm Paper

7 colors

Warm light-mode neutrals for readable panels and printed styling.

MagicPixel

  • ui
  • warm
  • muted

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.