Browser-based · no upload · free
Tomodachi Life Pixel Art Converter
A free pixel art converter built specifically for the Tomodachi Life Palette House. Source image goes in; pixel-art output comes out — colour-matched in CIE Lab space against the 84-swatch in-game palette, with four selectable dithering algorithms.
CIELab colour match
4dithering modes
4style presets
3export formats
Technical features
- CIE Lab nearest-colour match
- Floyd–Steinberg, Atkinson, Bayer 4×4 dithering
- Unsharp-mask edge enhancement
- HSL saturation adjustment
- URL + file + CORS proxy input
- PNG / compare / recipe export
- Shareable settings via URL params
Image converter
1 · Source image
⬆
Drop a PNG / JPG here
Or click to browse
No image? → Try the demo gradient
2 · Pick a style
Detailed = 64×64 grid · Balanced = 32×32 · Retro = 16×16 · Chunky = 8×8
3 · Dithering algorithm
4 · Adjustments
Side-by-side compare
Original
Pixel art
Your pixel art preview appears here
Upload an image on the left, or click Try the demo gradient to test the dithering algorithms.
Output specs
Upload an image to see the output.
How the converter works
Five-step conversion pipeline
- Downsample. Your source image is fit into the chosen cell grid (8 / 16 / 32 / 64 cells per side) on a hidden canvas with image smoothing disabled. Aspect ratio is preserved, padded with white if needed.
- Optional edge enhance. A 3×3 unsharp-mask convolution sharpens silhouettes before the colour reduction step. Useful for photographs; off by default.
- Tonal adjustment. Brightness and contrast are applied per pixel, then saturation in approximate HSL space.
- Dithering. Floyd–Steinberg and Atkinson use error-diffusion kernels that push quantisation error to forward neighbours. Bayer 4×4 uses an ordered threshold matrix. None skips this step.
- Palette quantisation. Every cell is matched against the 84 Palette House swatches in CIE Lab space (ΔE76) — perceptually accurate, much better than naive RGB distance.
Pixel Art Converter · FAQ
How the algorithm picks colours, dithering, and exports.
Is the Tomodachi Life pixel art converter free?
Yes. No signup, no account, no upload to a server. The converter runs entirely in your browser using HTML5 Canvas. Your images never leave your device.
What palette does the converter target?
It targets an 84-swatch approximation of the in-game Palette House palette. Each pixel of your source image is matched to the nearest palette colour in CIE Lab colour space — not naive RGB — which gives perceptually accurate matches.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The converter is fully responsive — drag-and-drop on desktop, tap-to-pick on mobile. URL pasting works the same on every platform. The compare view stacks vertically on narrow screens.
Can I export the result for printing?
Yes — three export modes: pixel art PNG (just the result), side-by-side compare PNG (with original), and a printable recipe card (pixel art + brush + grid + dither settings on one sheet, optimised for paper).
Why dither at all? Can't the converter just pick the nearest colour?
For flat-colour sources it can — that's what the "None" mode does. But for photos and gradient-heavy art, naive nearest-colour quantisation produces banding (visible colour stripes). Dithering distributes the quantisation error across neighbouring cells so the eye perceives smooth gradients instead of bands.