Pixel art maker & halftone generator: how Pixelator works
Pixelator turns any picture into pixel art, a coarse raster or a classic halftone —
and lets you draw pixel by pixel from scratch. It runs entirely in your browser: no account, no
sign-up, and your image is never uploaded to a server.
Bring in an image. Drag a file onto the canvas or press Import image.
The file is read locally by your browser.
Set the raster.Cell size decides the resolution — small cells keep
detail, large cells give you chunky pixels or fat halftone dots. Raster angle rotates the
grid (45° is the classic print look), gap pushes the cells apart.
Pick a tone mode.Solid is 1-bit black and white, grayscale
keeps photographic tones per cell, halftone varies the dot size like offset printing.
Export. Download a PNG for screens or an SVG
for print, plotters and cutting machines — in SVG every cell stays a real vector shape.
What the controls do
Cell size
The size of one pixel of the raster. This is the resolution — independent of zoom, which only
scales the view.
Shape & rounding
Squares or circles, with a rounding slider in between: 0 % is a hard square, 100 % a full circle,
everything else a rounded or bevelled corner.
Filled or outline
Solid cells, or stroked outlines with an adjustable stroke width — useful for plotter output.
Tone mode
Solid (1-bit), grayscale, or halftone. Brightness and contrast sliders let you tune how the
photo maps onto the raster before you commit.
Background grid
Faint guide lines that stay on screen only, or a dot grid that becomes part of the artwork and is
exported with it — the pegboard look.
Draw & corner tools
Click a cell to toggle it, or use the corner tool to round and bevel individual corners — inner
and outer. That is how you clean up a rasterized photo by hand.
Colours
Ink and background are free colour swatches, and Invert swaps them in one click.
What you can use it for
Pixel-art avatars, icons and game sprites drawn from scratch.
Photos rasterized for posters, zines and risograph-style prints.
Halftone graphics for screen printing, where a dot pattern beats a smooth gradient.
Vector output for cutting plotters and CNC — one SVG path per cell.
Pegboard, bead and cross-stitch patterns via the dot grid.
Questions
Is Pixelator free?
Yes. Free to use, no account, no sign-up.
Are my images uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole tool is client-side — it makes no network request with your picture. Your image never
leaves your device.
Which formats can I export?
PNG and SVG.
Can I use the results commercially?
Yes, the artwork is yours — as long as you hold the rights to the image you feed in.