Tool 01 · The Tomodachi Life pixel-art converter

Tomodachi Life Grid Maker — free, in your browser

Drop any image and our grid maker converts it into a paint-by-numbers blueprint for the in-game Palette House. Calibrated palette, snap-aligned brush, complete recipe card.

🎨 Open the tool How it works
84palette swatches
4brush sizes
256²game-pixel canvas
100%browser-local

Pixel Art Maker

Image → pixel art with 4 dithering algorithms.

Grid Sizes

Canvas dimensions, brush sizes, pixel math.

Island Planner

Drag-and-drop your island layout before you build.

Designs Gallery

Curated Palette House art with one-click recipes.

1 · Upload an image

⬆

Drop a PNG / JPG here

Or click to browse · stays on your device

No image? → Try the demo smiley

2 · Pick brush size

3 · Tune the output

Preview & recipe

Your preview will appear here

Drop an image on the left, or click Try the demo smiley to see how the recipe card works.

Recipe card

Upload an image to see the recipe.

How it works

From image to in-game design in five steps

The Grid Maker doesn't import directly to Tomodachi Life — no third-party tool can. Instead, it gives you the perfect blueprint: which brush, which colour, which cell.

1

Upload

Drop a PNG or JPG. Your image is processed locally — never uploaded.

2

Resize

The image is downscaled to your chosen grid (64², 32², 16² or 8²) using nearest-neighbour.

3

Quantise

Each pixel is mapped to the closest swatch in our 84-colour Palette House approximation.

4

Recipe

The recipe card tells you which brush, which mode, and which swatches you'll need.

5

Paint

Open the Palette House on Switch (or Switch 2) and paint cell-by-cell with your reference open.

5-step flow
📷Image input
↓
🔍Resize to grid
↓
🎨Map to palette
↓
📋Recipe card
↓
🖌️Paint in-game

Related Tomodachi Life topics

tomodachi life grid sizetomodachi life island layout gridtomodachi life grid arthow to use living the gridtomodachi life pixel artliving the grid tomodachi life

Grid Maker · FAQ

Common questions about using the Tomodachi Life Grid Maker.

How does the Tomodachi Life Grid Maker work?
Upload any image (PNG or JPG), pick a brush size, and the Grid Maker resizes your image to the in-game canvas, quantises the colours to a Palette House-style 84-swatch palette, and outputs a paint-by-numbers reference plus a recipe card telling you which brush and mode to select in-game.
Is it really free?
Yes. No signup, no account, no upload to a server. Everything runs locally in your browser — your image never leaves your device.
Why does my output look different from the source image?
The Palette House canvas is only 256×256 pixels with a limited palette, so detailed photos always lose fidelity. Try lowering the brush size (smaller brush = more cells = more detail) and turning Dither on for gradient-heavy images.
What brush size should I pick?
For detailed designs (faces, logos), use 4 px (a 64×64 effective grid). For simple icons or chunky pixel art, 16 px or 32 px is cleaner and faster to paint. The Grid Maker recipe card always shows the brush you picked.
How do I use the recipe card?
In Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, open the Palette House, pick the brush and stroke style shown on the recipe card, then paint cell-by-cell using the numbered grid as your guide. The grid is read left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
Can I save my project?
Yes. The Grid Maker auto-saves to your browser's local storage. You can also export the result as PNG for printing, or as a JSON snapshot to back up or share.