24, 36 or 48 Colours: How Many Does Your Painting Need?
The colour count is the one setting that changes everything else: how big the areas are, how long the painting takes, and whether a face looks like the person. It is not a quality slider where higher is better. It is a trade-off, and which end you want depends on the subject.
What the number actually does
The generator reduces your photo to exactly that many colours. Every pixel gets assigned to the closest one, and neighbouring pixels with the same colour become one area with one number.
So a higher colour count does not add detail to your photo. It splits what is already there into more, smaller pieces. A gradient that was one area at 24 colours becomes three narrow bands at 48. More faithful to the photo — and three times as fiddly to paint.
The three options, in plain terms
| 24 colours | 36 colours | 48 colours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Look | Bold, graphic, poster-like | Balanced | Smooth, close to the photo |
| Areas | Fewer and larger | Medium | Many, some very small |
| Time | Least | Middle | Most, by a lot |
| Best for | Landscapes, animals, graphic subjects, first canvas | Almost everything, including most portraits | Close-up portraits, skin tones, large canvases |
Why 48 is not automatically the best choice
Two reasons, and both bite in practice.
The areas get too small for a brush. The canvas size is fixed, so splitting into more areas means each one shrinks. On a 30x40 cm canvas at 48 colours, the smallest areas end up around 2 mm. That is smaller than the tip of the finest brush in most kits. You end up either skipping them or painting over them, and then you have paid for detail you did not use.
Forty-eight pots is a lot of swapping. Every extra colour is another full pass over the canvas: find the areas, paint them, rinse, dry, next. The painting time does not go up by a quarter from 36 to 48 — in our experience it goes up by closer to half.
The rule that actually decides it
Match the colour count to the canvas size, not to the photo.
A large canvas can carry more colours because there is more room per area. A small canvas cannot, no matter how detailed the photo is.
| Canvas | Sensible maximum |
|---|---|
| 30x40 cm | 24, or 36 for a tight close-up |
| 40x50 cm | 36 |
| 50x70 cm | 36 or 48 |
| 60x80 cm | 48 |
If you want 48 colours, the honest advice is to go up a canvas size rather than squeeze them onto a small one.
Faces are the exception
Skin is a continuous gradient, and flat areas represent that badly. At 24 colours a face is recognisable but poster-like — fine as a style, not fine if you wanted a likeness. At 36 the transitions get soft enough that it looks like the person. At 48 you get subtlety around the eyes and mouth, but only if the canvas is big enough to hold it.
For a portrait: 36 on a 40x50 cm, or 48 on a 50x70 cm. Below that, expect graphic rather than lifelike.
Pencils are different from paint
If you are making a colouring page rather than a painted canvas, go lower. With pencils you blend on the paper, so fewer flat areas actually looks better, and the areas need to be bigger because a pencil covers less ground than a brush. Twenty-four is usually the right answer there. That is a separate tool: color by numbers.
Just compare them
The preview is free and instant, so the fastest way to decide is to generate the same photo at 24 and at 36 and look at them side by side. The difference on your own photo is more informative than any table — especially for the part you care about, which is usually the face.