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Pixelate

Node icon
Filter

Reduces an image to chunky pixel blocks with adjustable block size and nearest, average, or median sampling.

The Pixelate node applied to a source image: original (left) and result (right).
Side-by-side comparison: the original image on the left and the same image after the Pixelate node on the right.

Pixelate divides the image into square blocks and fills each with one color:

  • Nearest takes the block’s top-left pixel.
  • Average blends the whole block.
  • Median takes the middle value, which ignores stray outlier pixels.

With Match Input Size on (the default), the blocky result is scaled back up to the original resolution with hard pixel edges; turn it off to keep the actual reduced-resolution image, for example for game assets.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

Pins

ImagePixels
InputRequired
ImagePixels
Output

Pixelate

Pixel Size (px)Integer
Default: 8 Range: 2–64

Size of each pixel block. Higher values produce a more pixelated look

ModeChoice
Default: Nearest
  • NearestUse the top-left pixel of each block: sharp, with no blending.
  • AverageAverage all pixels in each block for smooth, blended color.
  • MedianUse the median pixel value, reducing the impact of outliers and noise.

Output

Match Input SizeToggle
Default: true

Where the output lands after the blocks are built.

  • On: upscaled back to the original resolution with nearest-neighbor filtering (hard pixel edges).
  • Off: left at the smaller pixelated resolution.

Usage Tips

Section titled “Usage Tips”
  • Median suits noisy source images; Average gives the smoothest color per block.
  • Follow with Posterize or Quantize to limit the palette for a full retro look, or use Pixel Art for the whole conversion in one node.
Section titled “Related Nodes”