Working with Limited Color Palettes

Why Limit Your Colors?

Some of the most iconic pixel art was made with severe color limitations. The Game Boy used 4 shades of green. The NES had 25 colors on screen. These constraints forced artists to be creative — and the results are timeless.

Starting Points

• 1-bit (2 colors): Pure black and white. Forces you to focus entirely on shape and silhouette.
• 4 colors: Classic Game Boy style. Pick one dark, two mid-tones, and one light.
• 8 colors: Enough for a full character with shading. A great sweet spot for learning.
• 16 colors: The standard for most indie pixel art. Plenty of room for detail.

Palette Selection Tips

• Start with a pre-made palette like PICO-8, Endesga-32, or Sweetie-16
• Make sure your palette has good value range — when converted to grayscale, you should see clear light-to-dark steps
• Include at least one warm and one cool color for contrast

Making Every Color Count

With limited colors, you can reuse the same shade for different purposes:

• A dark blue can be outlines on one sprite and shadows on another
• A warm yellow works for both skin highlights and gold items
• Gray doubles as stone texture and metal armor

The key is context — the same color reads differently depending on what surrounds it.