How to Create a Pixel Heart

Pixel hearts are simple and easy to create in any graphic program. They are cute and make cute bullets or accents to any webpage/graphic.

Below you will find a simple way to create these adorable hearts in your Microsoft paint program. This step-by-step how-to-do is so easy that even a beginner with little graphic experience can create them within mintues. They are often the first step in learning how to pixel.

1: Using a dark color of your choice and the 'Pencil' tool in your paint program, draw the outline of your pixel heart. If may need to zoom in so you can better view what you are drawing. I tend to zoom in to 800% when I am creating a pixel heart. Because the image is so tiny when finished, it is better to zoom in to make sure each line is exactly the way you would like it to be. Plus zooming in helps you prevent little mistakes you may do otherwise. (see photo one on the side)

2: Next, using the 'Fill' button, fill the middle of your pixel heart with a lighter version of your outline color. You can find an exact lighter version of the color by clicking on your color table. Click on the color you had chosen for your outline. A little pop up box will appear. Click on define custom colors. You will see a bar appear on the right side with your color. You then can move the arrow up or down to find a darker or lighter version of the outline color. (see photo two)

3: Then all you need to do is highlight the appropriate area (s) of your pixel heart. I prefer to use an even lighter color of the outline color (or even just use white) and then use the 'Pencil' tool to do this. I usually just highlight the top right or left corner of the heart. The example shows the highlight in the right corner of the heart. The highlight is simply a small dot in the corner in the lighter version of the color. Some people tend to highlight the heart more then others. The choice is up to you, but I believe less is actually more. (see photo three)

4: Now copy your pixel heart into Paintshop pro or another similar program to make the background transparent! (Make the pixel heart into a gif format) and Poof.. You now have an adorable little pixel heart to use on your website, buttons, pixels, graphics and so forth!