Turn a photo into a brick mosaic

A pet, a wedding, the dog dressed as a wizard. Faces and bold shapes work best.

Upload an image

Drop it here or browse your files · stays on your device

How it works

Your photo is cropped to the shape and size you choose, then each stud-sized square is matched to its nearest real brick colour in CIELAB, the colour space that matches how eyes actually judge difference. You get a preview that is the mosaic, brick for brick — not an artistic impression of one.

What you get

A bill of materials listing every colour and how many you need, a build map, a printable build sheet at true size with a calibration bar, and a wanted list you can paste straight into BrickLink to price the parts.

Questions people ask

Does my photo get uploaded anywhere?: No. The whole pipeline runs in your browser — there is no server, no account and no upload. Close the tab and nothing is kept.
Is this cheaper than buying a mosaic kit?: Usually not, and it would be easy to pretend otherwise. Sourcing 2,300 individual 1×1 plates secondhand runs roughly two and a half times what a prepackaged kit costs, because kits are made from bulk-manufactured bricks. This is the better option when you already own bricks, want genuine LEGO® parts, want to choose the parts and palette yourself, or want a size nobody sells.
What size should I pick?: Detail comes from stud count, and people consistently choose too small. A face needs roughly 30 studs across before eyes and a mouth read at all, so a whole person in a 32×32 frame comes out as a silhouette. Medium (48×48, about 15 inches square) fits one face well.
What parts do I actually order?: 1×1 plates (BrickLink part 3024) by default, which give the classic studded look. 1×1 tiles (3070b) give a flat, stud-free finish and usually cost more. You will also need baseplates to build on — the build list works out how many.
Can I print the design at real size?: Yes. The build sheet prints at exactly one stud per cell, so at 100% scale the paper is the finished piece's true size — hold it against the wall before you buy anything. Every page carries a 100 mm bar to check your printer didn't silently shrink it.

Frame it up

Drag the photo to move it, and zoom until it looks right. Crop in close — detail comes from studs, and a face needs about 30 across to show eyes and a mouth.

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Shape

Size

Pick your look

This is your mosaic, brick for brick. Try a few — you can always come back.

Style

Detail

Blend colors
Mixes bricks to smooth out skies and skin — lettering and sharp edges stay crisp automatically. Off gives a bolder, posterized look.

Background

Replace the background
Works best when the background behind your subject is fairly plain.

Fine-tune the colors

Brightness 0

Contrast 0

Color punch 0

Open up shadows 0

Your build list

Everything you need to source the bricks and follow the map.

Simplify for ordering
Merges barely-used colors into their nearest match.

Brick color	Part	BrickLink #	You need

Each line is one lot to order: a color and a part. BrickLink color numbers are there so you can filter straight to the right thing. Studs left empty by "Subject only" aren't listed, because you don't buy them.

Check what you already have

The list above is what this design needs, not what you have to buy. If there's a bin in the closet, start there — sorting out the colors you already own is the cheapest part of this by a wide margin, and it costs nothing.

If you need to buy them

Price per piece Per baseplate

BrickLink's upload page wants the text pasted into a box, not a file — so copy is usually the one you want. Paste it at Wanted → Upload.

Where to order

Paste the wanted list at whichever of these you use.