Import and export

Convert a picture… turns an existing image into a still Pixl you can edit. It crops, resizes and reduces the colours before opening the result in Pixl Studio. Conversion is useful when you want a small pixel version of a drawing, rather than copying every pixel by hand.

Choose a picture#

Open New Pixl, then Convert a picture…. Drop an image into the conversion dialog, paste one from the clipboard or press Choose a picture.

The file picker accepts PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF and AVIF. The browser must be able to decode the chosen format. Conversion makes one still drawing; importing an animated file does not import all its frames as a Pixl animation.

The input must be no larger than 32 MiB, with no edge over 32,768 pixels and no more than 40 million pixels in total. An unreadable or oversized picture gets This picture could not be read. Try a PNG, JPEG or WebP. Try a smaller copy in one of those formats.

Compare Before and After#

Before shows the selected image. After follows your settings. The conversion uses a centred square crop, so a wide photograph can lose material at its left and right edges. Prepare a square crop first if the subject is off centre.

Choose Resolution from 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 64 × 64 or 128 × 128. A cursor or emoji conversion is limited to 16 or 32. A smaller grid simplifies the picture more strongly.

The Colours slider runs from 2 to 64. This is the conversion’s colour-reduction choice; after conversion, the editor still supports freely chosen colours. The preview can use fewer colours than requested if the image does not need them.

Styles and detail controls#

The three Conversion style choices set several controls together:

You can change these settings after choosing a style. Choosing another style resets them to that style’s values.

Dithering offers None, Ordered and Floyd–Steinberg. Dithering uses patterns of available colours to suggest intermediate shades. Try None for flatter shapes and one of the other choices for smoother-looking gradients at a small colour count.

Remove background removes similar-coloured regions connected to the image’s corners. Background tolerance, shown when removal is on, controls how far that removal spreads through similar colours. It runs from 0 to 96. An enclosed region of a matching colour is kept when it is not connected to the corner background.

Enhance edges sharpens local colour differences before reducing the palette. Compare the result at the chosen grid size; more defined edges can also emphasise unwanted details.

Continue editing#

Enter a Name (optional) and choose Convert to Pixl. The result opens as a draft with one layer and one frame. Continue drawing, add layers or animate it, then Save the artwork.

The conversion calculation itself uses no AI and spends no credits. Keeping the result as an account draft or saved Pixl still needs the normal save flow. A conversion preview is not confirmation that the artwork reached your account.

If the dialog says The picture could not be converted. Try again., try the conversion again or choose another picture. Choose another picture replaces the input.

Output and export#

Pixl Studio’s user controls save artwork for use in Glob Social. It has no artwork Export or Download button for PNG, GIF, video or sprite sheets. Saving does not put a file into your device’s Downloads folder.

Use canvas placement, avatars and cursors or sharing to use the saved result. Save Pixl on another artist’s work keeps a collection entry; it is not a file export. Copy hex and palette-copy actions copy colour values rather than an image.