8-bit Avatar

About the 8-bit Avatar generator

An identicon is a visual hash — a unique image generated deterministically from a piece of text (typically a username or email). GitHub popularized the concept with their retro-blocky default avatars. This tool takes that idea and runs it through an 8-bit retro filter: the same djb2 hash algorithm, but the output is a symmetric 8×8 pixel grid with colors drawn from classic game console palettes.

Type anything — a username, an email, a project name, a word — and get an avatar that is unique to that input and always reproducible. Use the Palette Extractor to grab colors from your project's art, then match them here. Pair with Pixel Text to build a complete retro brand kit.

How it works

Your input string is hashed with the djb2 algorithm (a fast, classic non-cryptographic hash) to produce a 32-bit integer seed. That seed initializes a linear congruential generator (LCG) — the same family of PRNG used in early game consoles and C's rand(). The LCG draws two colors from the palette (foreground and background) then fills the left 4 columns of an 8×8 grid with random foreground/background cells, mirroring them to the right half to produce symmetric designs that read as faces or shields.

Use cases

Profile pictures — pixel-art PFPs are immediately distinctive. Download at 512px for a crisp avatar on any platform.

GitHub READMEs — embed a project-name avatar as a visual identity marker for your repository.

Placeholder assets — generate a unique avatar for every user in a prototype or demo app, with no real profile photos needed.

Game dev — seed with a player name to auto-generate consistent NPC portraits, faction icons, or player tokens.

Discord & community servers — give each member role or sub-group a unique visual identity derived from its name.

FAQ

Will the same text always give the same avatar? Yes — the hash and PRNG are fully deterministic. Same input, same seed, same avatar every time, in any browser.

Is it truly unique? Two different strings could theoretically hash to the same seed (hash collision), but djb2 collisions are extremely rare in practice for short strings like names.

Can I use the avatar commercially? Yes — it's generated by you, in your browser, using open-source algorithms and palette data.

Is my input sent anywhere? No. The hash and rendering happen entirely in your browser.

Why 8×8? That's the native sprite resolution of the NES, Game Boy, and most 8-bit consoles. It produces recognizable patterns at the smallest possible scale, and scales up cleanly to 64×512px with zero blur.