tool · beta · on-device
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.
Loading the dot screen…
Loading the dot screen…
where halftone earns its keep
for zines
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.
for comics
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.
for posters
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.
for scrapbooks
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.
for editorial
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.
for prints
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.
in case you're wondering
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
next →
Drop a zine-style caption over the dots.
Opennext →
Recolour first, then halftone, for full riso effect.
Opennext →
Float the halftone over paper for a print mockup.
Opennext →
Reframe as a vertical 1000×1500 Pinterest pin.
Opennext →
Wrap the halftone in a paper Polaroid frame.
Opennext →
Push the print feel further with ASCII characters.
OpenCut the background out of any photo in one click.
OpenDrop your subject onto paper, gradient, or your own backdrop photo.
OpenDrop a word behind your subject, magazine-cover style.
OpenNine presets, one photo — vintage to cinematic.
OpenTri-X, Kodak Gold, Lomo — pick a roll, see the grain.
OpenPhoto to graphite drawing in two clicks.
OpenMap photo to two colors — Spotify, sunset, riso.
OpenMake real cities look like tabletop dioramas.
OpenSunset, lomo red, golden hour — bleed light into corners.
OpenVHS bands, anaglyph 3D, CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration.
OpenConvert any photo to typed characters.
OpenPure invert, cyanotype, blueprint, X-ray, darkroom, sepia negative.
OpenPhoto as tiles with grout-color gaps.
OpenBrightness, contrast, saturation, hue, blur — seven sliders.
OpenAny photo, wrapped in paper with a handwritten caption.
OpenFour photos, B&W mode, handwritten caption.
OpenTwo photos, side-by-side or stacked.
OpenPaper mat for prints, journals, framed walls.
OpenCircle, heart, star, arch — pick a cookie cutter.
OpenGreetings caption, faux stamp, postmark, paper texture.
OpenFloat a photo over paper for portfolios and mockups.
OpenDrop a photo, type a title, pick a layout. 1000×1500 native.
OpenX, LinkedIn, or YouTube cover with title overlay.
OpenHandwritten captions, magazine headers, or a quick scribble.
OpenStick paper-mood tape onto any photo.
OpenLED red, Kodak yellow, camcorder amber.
OpenCorner sign-off or full diagonal tile.
OpenHearts, stars, flowers, smileys, paper tags, HELLO labels.
OpenSquare for IG, 9:16 for stories, 2:3 for Pinterest.
OpenMirror a selfie, un-tilt a scan, turn a sideways shot upright.
OpeniPhone photos that open on everything.
OpenHide faces, plates, addresses — drag a patch over the spot.
OpenRemove GPS, camera info, timestamps before posting.
OpenSmaller JPG, WebP, or PNG — same look, less file.
OpenPull 5 hex codes out of any photo.
OpenPrint-ready QR for menus, invites, journals, vCards.
OpenEyedropper a color in your photo, swap it for another.
OpenFor a real poster →
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.