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Pixel art palettes and indexed colour

A limited palette keeps pixel art coherent. In indexed colour every pixel is a palette entry, so changing an entry recolours every pixel that uses it: night versions, team colours and palette swaps in seconds.

Open Pixelight

Step by step

  1. Pick a palette. The menu above the palette has built-in palettes; Load a palette opens .gpl, .hex, .pal or an image's colours.
  2. Build ramps. Choose two colours and Add a ramp between the two colours for smooth shading steps.
  3. Switch to indexed colour. Sprite › Colour mode › Indexed. If the sprite has more colours than fit, a palette of up to 255 is made, with dithering if you like.
  4. Recolour. Double-click a palette entry and change it: every pixel using it follows.
  5. Shade. Shift-click two palette entries to mark a ramp, then use the Shading ink: each stroke moves pixels one step along the ramp.
  6. Save the palette. Save as .gpl (and .hex, .pal, PNG) for other apps.

Related guides

Dithering in pixel artPatterns that mix two colours without adding a third.Draw pixel art onlineStart a sprite, draw with crisp tools and save it, all in the browser.