As a teacher using Minecraft Education at the middle school level for the last 8 years, being able to convert an image to an object for a Minecraft lesson can have some very useful applications. My first use has been to convert a geopolitical map to land mass for students to build on.
While some Minecraft projects have ambitiously created the entire world as a physical map, I needed a map that was less complex, a political map. I set out and found two programs that completed the job very well.
Both require the use of a world editor, such as Amulet, to place in a world. One of the quirks that I cannot work out is that once imported into an MC world, any water I placed with a world builder to represent oceans can only be one layer deep. Any deeper, and glitches are encountered when building in creative mode.
Sprite Craft
The first is an older program, but works incredibly well. You will need Java. Download the old Java Spritecraft at https://autosaved.org/spritecraft.
Pros:
- Simple block selection process
- A simple overall process makes a schematic nothing else
Cons:
- No editing tools
- You have to experiment with the output dimensions, though you can hover over the image to determine the schematic size.
Minecraft Image Converter
This editor is slightly more complex, with more options and abilities.https://minecraftart.netlify.app/Pros
Pros
- Web-based
- Preview window
- Robust editing tools
Cons
- May need to be familiar with editing icons
- If you have any experience with Photoshop or Paint then you already know what these mean and what they do if not, you will need to learn.
- With extra editing tools, users will need to take a few extra minutes to learn the process.
- Max width of 1,024 blocks