Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your PAL file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert PAL to another file type
To convert PAL Palettes to another format, you need Paint.NET or other Settings software.
Convert a file to PAL
To convert other file formats to the "Color Swatch File" file type, you need software like Paint.NET or a similar tool.
About PAL files
The .PAL file is primarily used to store color palettes and swatches for raster graphics editors and digital painting software. Originally popularized by Microsoft in the RIFF format and by Jasc Software for early versions of Paint Shop Pro, these files contain lists of exact RGB color values. Graphic designers, pixel artists, and retro gaming enthusiasts (such as NES emulator developers) rely on .PAL files to maintain consistent color schemes across environments. You can read more about Indexed Color on Wikipedia. Despite their historical usefulness, .PAL files are notoriously fragmented and outdated. A .PAL file generated by Paint.NET often uses a binary RIFF structure, while one exported from an older Paint Shop Pro version uses a plain-text format. This extreme lack of standardization means modern design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Figma will frequently reject them. Furthermore, .PAL files are practically useless to web developers who need CSS or HEX codes, and they generally lack support for modern CMYK color spaces required for commercial print. To solve these workflow bottlenecks, you need to convert your .PAL files based on your goal. For web development, convert to TXT, CSS, or JSON to instantly extract usable HEX codes. For modern Adobe workflows, convert to ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) or ACO (Adobe Color). If you just need to view and share the colors with a client, convert to a visual PNG or PDF swatch sheet.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PAL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert PAL file to MP4, GAL, JPG, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, TIF, WEBP, ICO or CUR, you can use Paint.NET or similar software from the "Color Palette Definition" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert RAW, PNG, AI, NEF, PSB, DNG, SVG, GIF, EPS, JPG, ARW or PDF files to PAL, try Paint.NET or another comparable tool in the "Color Palette Definition" category.
The PAL Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PAL converter.