Builds

Make a block grid from a photo

Set the converter width to the number of blocks across your build, limit the colors to blocks you can actually place, and export the large PNG with the grid on. One cell is one block. The meta line is the build size.

People do this for block games, LED panels, tile walls, and pegboards. The page doesn't export a world file. There's no schematic, no coordinate list for a specific game, and no claim that the hex values match an in-game block. Minecraft is a trademark of its owner. Pixelate Tools isn't affiliated. If you're placing blocks in that game, you still choose the block whose color is closest, with the game's own palette in your head or on a wiki you trust.

Size the grid to the build, not the screen

A 64-wide preview looks nice on a laptop and might be 64 blocks across in the world, which is a large build. Decide the wall first. A 32×32 face is 1,024 blocks if it's one layer and fully filled. A 16×16 icon is 256. Start smaller than your ambition. You can reconvert at a higher width from the same photo in a minute. Tearing down a 96-wide wall is an afternoon you don't get back.

Turn Square on if the build footprint is square. Leave it off if you're wrapping a rectangle. Height follows the photo unless Square is on. Read the meta line after you upload. "64 × 48 px" means 64 by 48 blocks, and the "source pixels per cell" phrase is about the photo, not about the game. Ignore that half of the line for a build. Keep the first half.

Colors are a materials list

Set Colors to the number of block types you'll walk to the chest for. Eight is plenty for a first build. The legend's count is the number of blocks of that color, if one cell is one block and you fill every cell of that hex. Empty cells, if you dropped the background, are air. Don't place a block there.

Apply grid, then download large PNG. The lines exist so you can count without losing the place. The small PNG is the true pixel size and is a bad reference on a phone, because the squares are one pixel. This split is the small vs large page. Counting technique, row by row, is copy the grid by hand.

Check the silhouette at build size

Shrink the preview until it's about as wide as your thumb and stand back from the monitor. If you can't tell what it's, the people looking at the build from the path won't either. Thicken shapes by painting. A 1-cell eye disappears outdoors. Make the eye 2 by 2. Painting is allowed. The photo is a reference, not a contract. The converter starts you on a sample so you can practice the grid checkbox before you use your own picture.

If the "build" is actually beads or thread, switch tools. Those pages add symbols and counts aimed at a table, which a block reference doesn't need. Color-count advice still applies: fewer materials, cleaner silhouette.

Photograph the finished build from the path, not from on top of it. A 32-block face that reads in the large PNG at full screen can turn into a brown rectangle outdoors if the outline is one block thick. If the photo of your test build fails, thicken the outline in the tool and export again before you place the rest of the wall. The grid is cheap to redo. The blocks aren't. Keep the large PNG on your phone while you build, with the written size "32 × 32" in the filename so you don't count pixels in the screenshot viewer and start a 320-block mistake.

When a block grid reference fails

When the build is taller than you can see in survival mode without scaffolding, when block types in game don't match any hex in the legend, or when the photo needs 200 colors and you own eight block dyes. Simplify the subject or pick a smaller width before you place the first block.

Build night checklist

Night builds outdoors: bring the large PNG on a phone at full brightness and still stand back once. Distance reveals whether the outline is thick enough. Fix in the tool, not with another layer of blocks you'll tear down.

Questions

Keep going

• Pixel converter
• Copy the grid by hand
• Large PNG for counting
• Limit the colors

Updated 30 September 2026