Hey HN, I built a tool that turns your photos into (buildable) brick-based pixel art. It is a web generator that processes images locally in your browser to create mosaic designs with custom colors and layouts.

The tool gives you control over baseplates, plate sizes, and cropping. You can pick specific brick colors, use themed palettes, or enter custom colors to match the bricks you have on hand.

Once you are happy with the design, you can export the final result as a detailed PDF building guide.

I started this a few years ago after my son got a mosaic maker kit for his birthday. I thought it would be fun to build my own generator, but I ended up setting it aside for a long time.

I finally picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and used AI to help me refactor and polish the final product. I know other brick generators exist, but I wanted to build one with my own spin. It's built vanilla HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP.

PRIVACY: All image pixelation and color mapping happens locally in your browser. When you generate a PDF, a low-resolution pixelated version is sent to the server to create the PDF cover page. This data is processed entirely in memory and is discarded immediately after the PDF is generated.

I’d love for you to check it out at https://brickhippo.com and let me know what features or improvements you think it needs. Thanks for looking!

Note: The tool works best on desktop due to the canvas size, but it is mobile-friendly.