How many colours?
8 colours is strongly stylised (Game Boy feel), 16 is the classic sweet spot, 24-32 keeps portraits readable, and beyond 32 the art starts to look like a filtered photo rather than pixel art.
Let the image choose
Good palettes come from the image itself. Median-cut quantisation - what this converter uses - samples the actual colours and picks the most representative ones, so the palette always fits the subject instead of forcing a fixed set.
Warm vs cool palettes
If your image is dominated by one hue, drop the colour count so the converter merges the near-identical tones. Fewer, well-chosen colours read as intentional; many similar colours read as noise.
Craft palettes
For cross-stitch or beads, cap the palette at the number of threads or bead colours you actually have - usually 12-24. Fewer colours also means fewer thread or bead changes while you work.
- 8 = bold retro
- 16 = classic
- 24-32 = detailed portraits
- 12-24 = craft projects