The short answer
Why use Halftone?
Halftone dots are the classic texture for comics, zines, posters and screen prints. Building them by hand means sizing a separate dot for every cell; here each cell is measured and drawn for you.
Grid fineness is set by Amount, 0 to 100, which starts at 50. Cell size is 18 minus Amount divided by 8 at a 1400 pixel long side, so about 12 pixels at the default. Each cell reads the brightness at its center and draws a round dot whose radius grows as that spot gets darker, reaching a little past the cell edge in pure black.
The grid is square and not rotated, unlike a printing press, which sets each screen at an angle. Fine detail smaller than a cell is lost, so faces need a fine grid with a high Amount. Transparent areas stay transparent and partly transparent ones get faded dots, which suits stickers.
Mosaic and Pixelate use flat colored squares instead of dots. Dithering scatters pixels from a small palette. Threshold gives solid black and white with no dot pattern. Halftone is the choice for a printed, comic-book texture. Keep the PNG at full size, because scaling it down blurs the dots into gray.
Where Halftone fits
Zine layouts
Prepare photos for a photocopied zine where black dots reproduce better than gray tones.
Screen printing
Turn a photo into a one-color dot pattern that can be burned onto a single screen.
Pop art portraits
Make a large-dot portrait in the style of comic-inspired pop art paintings.
Start to finish
How to use Halftone
- 01Tap Choose image and pick the photo to turn into dots.
- 02Set Amount; 50 gives cells of about 12 pixels, and raising it makes smaller, finer dots.
- 03Tap Apply changes, check that faces still read, then tap Download result.
What to expect from Halftone
| Check | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Supported input | JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, SVG and browser-supported AVIF images |
| Main controls | Amount slider, plus a color picker for effects that need one |
| Output | A PNG image with the effect applied |
| Working limit | 50 MB and 50 megapixels per image |
Halftone tips
- Use Amount 80 or more for portraits; coarse dots erase eyes and mouths.
- Boost Contrast first so the dots range from tiny to large.
- Do not shrink the result; scaled dots blur into gray.
- Transparent PNG cutouts keep their shape, which suits sticker sheets.
Halftone FAQ
Something missing? Ask us.
Does a higher Amount make bigger dots?
Can I get a colored CMYK halftone?
Does Halftone upload my file?
Is Halftone free to use?
Why did Halftone fail or look wrong?
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