Decal Maker

Full-colour TF2 decals
As seen in the Steam guide Made by^w^
Gallery How it works

TF2 runs on a PC, so the file has to end up there. Make it here, or send yourself the link.

1Item

2Picture

Drag to move · scroll to zoom · arrows to nudgeDrag to move · Zoom below
Drop a picture here or paste one · it stays in your browser or try one · browse the gallery →
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They turn black in game anyway.
off
In-game preview · drag to turn
Add a picture to get your decal 128 × 128 · one folder with two PNGs and a README · no programs

Photo Badge and Clan Pride need a patcher

These two items have no blend layer in the game, so the folder trick this site uses can't reach them. Applied the normal way, the Decal Tool reduces any picture to a few colours, and no website can change that.

Full colour takes a client patcher. The only one with a build for today's 64-bit TF2 is tf2patcher:

Open tf2patcher on GitHub ↗

Its page says: run tf2patcher.exe, start TF2, apply the decal with your picture, then close TF2.

3Install about a minute, with TF2 closed

How this works and why the game shows full colour

The Decal Tool crushes your picture to a handful of colours, but before uploading it blends the result with a few "blend layer" PNGs it reads from scripts/items/custom_texture_blend_layers/ — a paper texture for the Objector, a guide for Flair!. Anything in tf/custom/<folder>/ overrides game files, so if your full-colour picture sits there under the layer's name, the tool blends your picture into the decal and uploads that. Everyone sees it.

That is why the picture must be exactly 128 × 128, why it must carry the exact file name, and why the game must be started after the file is in place. Transparent pixels come out black. The Objector also gets its small blood stains and wood grain drawn on top, as with any decal.

Clan Pride and the Photo Badge have no blend layer in the game's item definitions, so there is no file trick for them. Full colour on those needs a client patcher such as tf2patcher (third-party, Windows, use at your own risk). Method documented by the community over the years — see the Colored Decals guide, the 2026 updated guide and the TF2 wiki. Template masks from the TF2 wiki (CC BY 3.0). Sample pictures: Wikimedia Commons (public domain) and Twemoji (CC BY 4.0).

Share to the gallery

Never share anything sexual involving minors, drawn characters who look underage included. It is illegal and gets rejected.