Pixel Art Color Guide
How to Choose Color Palettes
Color choice is one of the biggest factors in pixel art quality. Learn how to create attractive palettes even with a limited number of colors.
A warm palette creates sunset atmosphere. Color choice defines the mood of pixel art.
Why Does Color Matter?
Pixel art has low resolution, which limits how much detail you can show through shape alone. This makes color choice crucial — the same shape with different colors can give a completely different impression.
Professional pixel artists often choose their color palette before drawing shapes. Master color selection and your pixel art will level up dramatically.
Color Basics: Hue, Value, Saturation
Colors have three components. Understanding these makes palette selection much easier.
Hue
The type of color — red, blue, green, etc. Colors adjacent on the color wheel harmonize well.
Value (Brightness)
How light or dark a color is. Value contrast is the most important factor for creating depth in pixel art.
Saturation
How vivid a color is. Lower saturation creates a calm mood; higher saturation gives a pop art feel.
The most important thing in pixel art is "value contrast." Even different hues will look blurry if they have similar brightness. Make sure there's enough contrast between shadows and highlights.
↑ Clear difference in grayscale
↑ Almost identical in grayscale
How Many Colors to Use
Adjust your color count based on canvas size.
- 8x8 — 2-4 colors. A size where constraints are part of the fun
- 16x16 — 4-8 colors. Base color + shadow + highlight is the standard
- 32x32 — 8-16 colors. Enough for gradients and fine detail
- 64x64 — 16-32 colors. But too many can break visual consistency
3 Approaches to Creating Palettes
1. Ramp Method (Value Gradient)
Create a palette by gradually changing the value of a single hue. This gives a unified look within the same color family.
2. Hue Shifting
Instead of just darkening shadows, shift the hue as well (see also the glossary). Adding blue or purple to shadows creates a rich, natural look. This technique is widely used by professional pixel artists.
A red ramp, but shadows shift toward purple and highlights toward orange-yellow
Same red hue, only brightness changes
Shadows → purple, highlights → yellow
General rule: Shift shadows toward cool colors (blue/purple) and highlights toward warm colors (yellow/orange) for a natural look.
3. Complementary Color Accents
Using complementary colors (opposite on the color wheel) as accents creates eye-catching palettes. For example, adding a small orange accent to a blue background makes it pop.
Classic complementary color pairs
Ready-to-Use Recommended Palettes
Fantasy RPG Style
Natural / Earth Tones
Retro Game Style
Game Boy inspired 4-color palette
Pastel / Kawaii
Pixel art made with Pixnote. Palette choice changes the impression.
How to Practice Color Selection
- Extract colors from pixel art you like and analyze the palette
- Draw the same shape in several different color schemes
- Practice drawing with a 4-color limit (it sharpens your color sense)
- Create palettes by extracting colors from nature photos
Try Your Color Palette
Find your perfect palette with Pixnote Editor Lite's 255-color palette.
Open Editor Lite →