Retro Palette Helper

Click swatches to build a custom palette, auto-pick N colours, import/export common formats — including a strict NES 0x00–0x3F list and FCEUX .pal export.








Import palette (HEX lines, GIMP .gpl, JASC-PAL text; also accepts “index: #RRGGBB”)
Ready.
Click swatches to add to custom.

FAQ

A fixed palette is an explicit list of colours (e.g., C64-style 16). A colour space is a larger set the hardware can output (e.g., RGB 3-3-3 = 512), and games typically select a smaller palette from it.

CGA is best known for its 4-colour graphics modes (e.g., 320×200). Text modes used 16 attribute colours, so this tool separates “CGA graphics (4-colour)” from “IBM PC DOS 16-colour (text)”.

Some tools/emulators store NES colours in an indexed order (0x00–0x3F). If you need that exact ordering, use NES strict 64 and export NES indexed text or NES FCEUX .pal.

NES colour output varies by hardware, region and emulator interpretation. The included strict-64 is a practical default. If you have a preferred strict-64 palette, import it and export it as FCEUX .pal.

AGA supports full 24‑bit colour (16.7M), which is too large to render as a swatch grid. This tool instead encourages you to auto-pick a workable palette size, or import/curate colours and export them.

Paste or import HEX lines (#RRGGBB), GIMP .gpl, or JASC-PAL text. It also accepts lines like 0A: #3cbcfc (handy for indexed palettes).