Print-quality dots, on any photo.
Eight color presets — comic classic, riso red, moss, sky, darkroom, paper, kraft, punk — plus three sliders to tune spacing, dot size, and contrast. Photo becomes pattern, pattern becomes print. Nothing uploads. For full posters, grab a proper app.
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Six places dots beat pixels
- 01 for zines
A risograph-feel cover image without a riso
Real risograph machines are gorgeous and cost $4000. The aesthetic — chunky red or moss dots on cream paper — is actually a pattern, not a printer. Run any photo through this tool with the Riso Red preset, print on cream cardstock, fold and staple. Done.
- 02 for comics
Lichtenstein-style portrait, two clicks
Pop-art portraits live on big black dots over flat color. Pick the Classic preset, crank dot size to 140%, lower contrast to 80% so the highlights stay clean. Print, frame, hang next to the door. People think you commissioned it.
- 03 for posters
A high-contrast band poster
Punk and indie show flyers are halftone-or-bust. Punk Zine preset (red on near-black), small spacing, max contrast — the photo turns into a graphic. Drop type on top in another tool, photocopy, staple to telephone poles.
- 04 for scrapbooks
A halftone backdrop for a journal page
Halftone photos read as 'newspaper clipping' even when they're not. Drop a portrait into Paper preset (ink on cream), crank spacing to 14px so the dots are visible. Glue it onto a kraft journal page; everything around it suddenly reads as documentary.
- 05 for editorial
A magazine-style stock photo treatment
Editorial design uses halftone to add texture and reduce visual weight. Tune the spacing fine (5-7px) and contrast moderate, and a phone photo becomes a usable editorial illustration. Pair with a serif headline; you've got a magazine spread, not a snapshot.
- 06 for prints
A texture overlay for screen-print transfers
Screen-printing onto fabric needs a tonal source converted to dots before the screen can be made. The classic black-on-white preset at small spacing produces a usable separation. Tune the contrast so highlights drop out cleanly.
Frequently asked
Does the photo upload anywhere? +
No. The dot pattern is rendered to a canvas in your browser. Your photo never touches our servers — we don't run an image pipeline at all.
How does halftone actually work? +
Real halftone printing breaks an image into a grid of dots whose size encodes brightness — bigger dots in dark areas, smaller dots in light areas. We do exactly that: sample the photo on a grid, compute average brightness per cell, draw a dot whose radius is proportional to darkness.
What's the difference between Classic, Paper, and Riso presets? +
All three use the same dot algorithm — they just change the foreground (dot color) and background (paper color). Classic is pure black on white. Paper is ink on cream — softer, scrapbook-friendly. Riso variants use the saturated single-channel inks of risograph printing.
How do I get a Lichtenstein/comic feel? +
Bigger spacing (15-25px), bigger dot size (130-160%), and moderate contrast (90-100%). Pick Classic for true comic, Paper for muted comic, Riso Red for pop-art warmth.
Why is my photo so dark/light? +
Drag the contrast slider. Lower contrast (60-80%) brings out shadow detail and softens the look. Higher contrast (140%+) crushes mid-tones and gives a hard, posterized feel. The invert toggle flips dark and light areas — useful for white-on-black darkroom feels.
Will this work on a giant photo? +
Yes — we resample the source down to grid resolution before drawing dots, so the cost scales with grid size, not photo size. A 6000×4000 photo with 10px spacing is 600×400 = 240k dots, which renders in under a second.
now what?
A few moves after the dots land
next →
Add Text to Photo
Drop a zine-style caption over the dots.
Opennext →
Duotone Effect
Recolour first, then halftone, for full riso effect.
Opennext →
Drop Shadow
Float the halftone over paper for a print mockup.
Opennext →
Pinterest Pin Maker
Reframe as a vertical 1000×1500 Pinterest pin.
Opennext →
Polaroid Maker
Wrap the halftone in a paper Polaroid frame.
Opennext →
ASCII Art
Push the print feel further with ASCII characters.
OpenOther free tools nearby
Background Remover
Cut the background out of any photo in one click.
OpenBackground Replace
Drop your subject onto paper, gradient, or your own backdrop photo.
OpenText Behind Subject
Drop a word behind your subject, magazine-cover style.
OpenPhoto Filters
Nine presets, one photo — vintage to cinematic.
OpenFilm Grain
Tri-X, Kodak Gold, Lomo — pick a roll, see the grain.
OpenPencil Sketch
Photo to graphite drawing in two clicks.
OpenDuotone Effect
Map photo to two colors — Spotify, sunset, riso.
OpenTilt-Shift Effect
Make real cities look like tabletop dioramas.
OpenLight Leak
Sunset, lomo red, golden hour — bleed light into corners.
OpenRGB Glitch
VHS bands, anaglyph 3D, CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration.
OpenASCII Art
Convert any photo to typed characters.
OpenPhoto Negative
Pure invert, cyanotype, blueprint, X-ray, darkroom, sepia negative.
OpenPhoto Mosaic
Photo as tiles with grout-color gaps.
OpenAdjust
Brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, blur — seven sliders.
OpenPolaroid Maker
Any photo, wrapped in paper with a handwritten caption.
OpenPhoto Strip Maker
Four photos, B&W mode, handwritten caption.
OpenDiptych Maker
Two photos, side-by-side or stacked.
OpenPhoto Mat & Border
Paper mat for prints, journals, framed walls.
OpenShape Crop
Circle, heart, star, arch — pick a cookie cutter.
OpenVintage Postcard
Greetings caption, faux stamp, postmark, paper texture.
OpenDrop Shadow
Float a photo over paper for portfolios and mockups.
OpenPinterest Pin Maker
Drop a photo, type a title, pick a layout. 1000×1500 native.
OpenSocial Banner
X, LinkedIn, or YouTube cover with title overlay.
OpenAdd Text to Photo
Handwritten captions, magazine headers, or a quick scribble.
OpenWashi Tape Overlay
Stick paper-mood tape onto any photo.
OpenVintage Date Stamp
LED red, Kodak yellow, camcorder amber.
OpenPhoto Watermark
Corner sign-off or full diagonal tile.
OpenSticker Overlay
Hearts, stars, flowers, smileys, paper tags, HELLO labels.
OpenCrop & Resize
Square for IG, 9:16 for stories, 2:3 for Pinterest.
OpenFlip & Rotate
Mirror a selfie, un-tilt a scan, turn a sideways shot upright.
OpenHEIC to JPG / PNG
iPhone photos that open on everything.
OpenBlur & Pixelate
Hide faces, plates, addresses — drag a patch over the spot.
OpenEXIF Stripper
Remove GPS, camera info, timestamps before posting.
OpenImage Compressor
Smaller JPG, WebP, or PNG — same look, less file.
OpenColor Palette
Pull 5 hex codes out of any photo.
OpenQR Code Generator
Print-ready QR for menus, invites, journals, vCards.
OpenColor Replace
Eyedropper a color in your photo, swap it for another.
Open Make proper layouts
in a proper app.
One halftone photo is a piece. When you want a layered poster — type at scale, gradients, spot-color separations for actual riso printing — a real design app handles it cleanly.