Pixel Art for Indie Game UI: Tips for Clean Results
Tips to make pixel UI assets readable: contrast, consistent pixel grid, integer scaling, and palette choices. Includes quick presets.
Readable UI beats fancy details
For UI, readability is everything. Favor strong silhouettes, consistent spacing, and a small set of colors.
Practical tips (what to test)
These small changes usually improve UI assets immediately.
- Use consistent pixel size across the entire UI kit
- Prefer grayscale or limited colors for text-heavy UI
- Avoid thin 1px lines if the final UI is scaled down
Scaling rule (important)
If you scale UI assets by non-integers, they will shimmer or blur.
- Export at a base size and scale by 2x/3x/4x
- Align elements to the pixel grid
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