Game assets
Sprite sizes: 16, 32, and 64
Use 16×16 for an icon, 32×32 for a character, and 64×64 when the face has to stay a face. Those three sizes cover most indie-game slots, and they are the ones to try before you invent a 47-pixel-wide sprite.
The sprite converter starts at 32 cells, 8 colors, dithering off, with "drop the corner color" on. That last switch clears the color shared by at least two corners, which is how a white studio background becomes transparent. Check the checkerboard behind the canvas. If the subject disappeared, the corners were the subject. Turn the switch off.
What survives at each size
At 16×16 you've 256 cells. A sword can be a diagonal of 6 pixels and a crossguard of 3. A person is a head blob, a body blob, and two leg pixels. Detail you add past that turns into noise. NES-era character sprites often lived in this band, sometimes as 16 wide and 24 tall rather than a square. If your engine allows a non-square frame, leave Square unchecked and set width to 16. Height follows the photo.
At 32×32 you've 1,024 cells. A character can have eyes, a mouth, hair, and a held object, as long as each of those is at least 2 pixels thick. One-pixel lines vanish when the sprite is shown at 1× on a phone. Draw the outline at 2 pixels if the sprite will be tiny on screen. The converter won't invent that outline. You paint it: click a dark swatch, then the cells around the silhouette.
At 64×64 you've 4,096 cells. This is a portrait size. Glasses, a collar, and a highlight in the hair can all exist. It's also where people accidentally keep too many colors and the sprite stops looking like pixel art. Cap colors at 8 or 16. A 64×64 image with 200 colors is a downsized photo.
Match the file to the engine
Download the small PNG. If the meta line says 32×32, the file is 32×32. Put that in the game. The large PNG is for a pitch deck or a chat message, where a 32-pixel image would be a speck. Scaling in an engine should use nearest-neighbor. If Unity or Godot blurs the sprite, the filter is on the importer, and the PNG was already correct. The small vs large PNG note shows the same split.
Transparency belongs in the small PNG too. JPG can't store it. If you need a transparent sprite, export PNG and read transparent pixel sprites before you flatten the image into a screenshot.
A practical test
Shrink the preview in your mind to the size of a thumbnail, about 32 CSS pixels if the sprite is 32 cells. If you can't tell what it's, the design is too detailed for that grid, or the contrast is too low. Cut two colors and thicken the outline. Don't jump to 128. A 128-wide "sprite" is a picture that happens to be blocky, and it won't animate cleanly.
Color budgets sit next to size budgets. Eight colors at 32×32 is a normal indie limit. Sixteen at 64×64 is comfortable. The color count guide goes further, including when a fixed palette like Pico-8 is the right constraint.
Animation changes the budget again. A 4-frame walk cycle at 32×32 is 4,096 cells you may have to repaint by hand when the converter guesses a sleeve wrong. Do the conversion on a single front view, paint the outline until it's stable, and only then draw the other frames in an editor. Re-running the converter on each animation frame will shimmer, because a one-pixel shift in the source moves every cell. Pixel art animation wants a locked silhouette. The converter is the first frame, not the whole clip.
When not to force 16, 32, or 64
Don't pick 64 because the photo is high-res. Pick 64 when glasses, hair layers, or a prop must read. Author 24×24 UI icons at 24; scaling 32→24 in code with bilinear blur defeats the point.
Pre-export checklist
Meta line matches target size. Legend length fits your engine palette. Corner drop didn't eat the subject. Outline is at least two cells thick if the sprite displays below 64 CSS pixels. Dithering off for flat UI and chat emoji; Floyd–Steinberg on only when a gradient must survive. Download small PNG and verify dimensions in the file inspector before you commit the asset. Pair with transparency and color counts if anything still looks soft.
Questions
Is 16×16 big enough for a face?
Only for a symbol: a helmet, a blob, a letter. Eyes and a mouth together usually need 32×32.
Should sprites be square?
Game engines often want square textures, 16, 32, or 64 on a side. Turn on Square if your engine requires it. Leave it off if you're matching a photo's shape.
Which download is the sprite?
The small PNG. A 32×32 sprite should be a 32×32 file, not a 320×320 enlargement.
Why does my 64×64 sprite look like a photo?
Too many colors for the grid. Cap at 8 or 16 and paint the outline. Thousands of colors on 64 cells is a downsized JPEG.
Can I use a non-square sprite?
Yes. Turn Square off and set width. Height follows the crop. Many retro frames were 16×24 or 32×48, not perfect squares.
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Updated 30 September 2026