Dither an image online
Floyd–Steinberg dithering with Game Boy, NES and CGA palettes. Toggle it on and off to see the difference. Free, in your browser.
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ℹ️ Ads keep Pixelateme free — quick tips to get the most out of the site
Pixelateme has no paywall and no account system. The ads you see are what pay for the servers, so everything stays free with no sign-up. A few tips so they never get in your way:
- A sponsor tab or popup may open the first time you click or tap. Just close it and come back — your image is untouched, since everything happens right in your browser.
- The real controls are the ones in the editor above. Anything labeled “sponsored” is an ad, and no feature here ever requires clicking one.
- On ad pages, stay safe: if one claims “your download is ready”, asks you to install software, or requests personal details — just close it. Your finished image saves directly from this page (nothing is ever uploaded), and we never ask for personal info.
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Drop an image or video
or browse files · max 15MB
LIVE PREVIEW
Drop a photo of people
or browse files · stays on your device
Now in 3D.
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How it works
Upload
Drop in a photo or video — it never leaves your browser.
Pixel Art or Hide Faces
Make retro pixel art, or pixelate faces for privacy.
Tune it
Set pixel size & palette, or auto-detect / draw over faces.
Download
Save your result as PNG (or animated GIF for video).
Why Pixelateme
100% private
Everything runs on your device — no uploads, no accounts.
Hide faces fast
Auto-detect faces or draw boxes to pixelate people & objects.
Retro palettes
Gameboy, NES & CGA looks with optional dithering.
Video → pixel GIF
Turn clips into animated pixel art with adjustable FPS.
What dithering does
Dithering fakes colours you don't have. When an image is squeezed into a small palette, every pixel has to be rounded to the nearest available colour, and smooth gradients collapse into flat, ugly bands. Dithering scatters pixels of the colours you do have, so that from a normal viewing distance your eye mixes them into the missing shades. It's how old computers, consoles and newspapers showed photographs with very few inks or colours.
How to dither an image here
- Upload a photo into the box above. It stays on your device.
- Pick a palette. This page starts on CGA (16 colours) because the dither pattern is very visible there. Game Boy (4 colours) is the most dramatic; NES (54) is the subtlest.
- Toggle Dithering on and off to see exactly what it adds.
- Set the width. 128 pixels keeps the pattern fine; lower values make it chunky.
- Download the PNG.
Which dithering algorithm is this?
Pixelateme uses Floyd–Steinberg error diffusion (1976). Each pixel is rounded to the nearest palette colour and the rounding error is pushed onto its unprocessed neighbours: 7/16 to the right, and the rest to the row below. The result is an organic, grainy texture that keeps detail well. Other algorithms you may have seen, such as Bayer ordered dithering (a regular cross-hatch grid) and Atkinson (the early Macintosh look, which throws away some error for higher contrast), are not offered here.
When to dither, and when not to
- Dither: photos, skies, skin, anything with gradients, and any time you want the retro “printed” texture.
- Don't dither: logos, flat illustrations, text and pixel art that is meant to look clean. Turn it off for crisp, flat colour areas.
Dithering also works on video: drop in a clip and export a dithered animated GIF with the pixel art GIF maker. For the full handheld look, see the Game Boy camera filter.
Frequently asked questions
What is dithering in an image?
Dithering scatters pixels of the available colours so your eye blends them into shades the palette doesn’t have. It stops smooth gradients from turning into flat bands when an image is reduced to a few colours.
How do I dither an image online for free?
Upload it above, pick a palette (CGA is preselected), make sure Dithering is on, and download the PNG. Nothing is uploaded; it runs in your browser.
Which dithering algorithm does Pixelateme use?
Floyd–Steinberg error diffusion. Bayer (ordered) and Atkinson dithering are not available here.
Is this a Dither Boy alternative?
For the common case, yes: retro palettes with error-diffusion dithering, free in the browser and nothing to install. It has fewer algorithms and settings than dedicated dithering apps.
Can I dither a GIF or video?
You can dither a video: drop in a short clip and it exports a dithered animated GIF. Animated GIF input is not supported.
Does dithering reduce file size?
Fewer colours usually means a smaller file, but dithering adds noise, which can make PNGs a bit larger than flat colour. The big saving comes from the small palette and low resolution.
People also ask
Does pixelating an image reduce its quality or file size?
It destroys detail permanently — that is the point — but the exported file is not necessarily smaller. The pixel dimensions stay the same; only the content becomes blockier. As it happens, large flat areas of a single colour compress very well, so a heavily pixelated PNG often ends up smaller than the original. Keep your untouched original, because you cannot undo it from the export.
My photo went pixelated on its own and I want it fixed — can this help?
No, and it is worth being straight about that: this tool adds pixelation on purpose. If your picture went blocky by itself, the usual causes are a low-resolution original being displayed larger than its real size, a site re-compressing your upload, or generation loss from a file that has been saved and re-uploaded many times. The fix is to go back to the highest-resolution original you have and upload it at the size it will actually be shown — not to run it through an editor.
Do free online pixelate tools upload and keep my photos?
Most of them do — they receive your file, process it on their servers and hand back a link, which means a copy exists on someone else’s machine, usually under terms that let them retain it. That is a poor trade when the reason you are pixelating is that the image shows something private. Pixelateme is built the other way round: the work is done by your own browser with the Canvas API, so nothing is transmitted. If you want to prove it, load this page, switch off your network, and it still works.
Is there a catch — a watermark, a sign-up, or a paid tier?
No. Every feature is free, there is no account, nothing is watermarked, and there is no resolution or export limit beyond the 15 MB input cap. The site is paid for by the ads you see, and a $5 donation turns those off for a year. That is the entire business model.