A real phosphor mask, not a stripe overlay. Trinitron or shadow-mask patterns, RGB fringing, and vignette, generated live on your media.
How to use it
- Open the editor from this page — it loads demo media with the effect already set up — then drop in your own video or image.
- Pick the mask (Trinitron stripes or shadow-mask dots), then dial in pixel size, intensity, RGB shift, and vignette.
- Press play to preview it in motion, then export an MP4 or PNG.
What the CRT effect actually simulates
A tube screen builds its picture from glowing red, green, and blue phosphor elements arranged by a mask, and that construction is the look: fine vertical stripes on an aperture-grille tube like a Sony Trinitron, triads of round dots on a shadow-mask TV. This tool generates that pattern per frame at whatever scale you choose, instead of tiling a stripe texture over your footage.
On top of the mask sit the tube flaws that sell it: RGB fringing where the three beams misconverge, and the darkened corners of a curved glass face. The same effect ships in the Modulate editor as CRT Monitor, where it stacks with the VHS and NTSC effects for a complete period setup and every parameter can be keyframed.
Common questions
Is this CRT filter free?
Yes. This page opens the full Modulate editor, free with no signup, with the effect already set up. Anonymous exports run up to 5 seconds at 1080px with a small watermark; a free account removes the watermark and raises exports to 1920px and 30 seconds, and Pro raises the caps to 4K and 5 minutes.
Does it work on video or just images?
Both. Drop in an MP4, WebM, or MOV and the phosphor pattern holds steady while your footage plays through it; drop in a photo and you get a still that reads as a photographed screen.
Should I pick Trinitron or Shadow Mask?
Trinitron gives unbroken vertical stripes, the crisp look of 1990s monitors and studio displays. Shadow Mask gives triads of round dots, the softer texture of consumer TVs. Stripes read computer, dots read television.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The effect runs entirely in your browser on your GPU. Your media never leaves your computer unless you save it to a Modulate project yourself.
Can I combine the CRT effect with VHS?
Yes. The editor this page opens stacks effects freely: an NTSC or VHS pass for the signal and tape, then CRT for the screen it was watched on. That order matches how the artifacts occurred in reality.
Go deeper
CRT effect
The CRT effect makes an image look like it is being displayed on a cathode-ray tube: the glowing phosphor stripes or dot triads of the mask, slight color fringing where the beams misconverge, and the darkened corners of a curved glass face. It is the look of every screen made before the 2000s, and it reads instantly as arcade cabinets, control rooms, and late-night TV.
VHS effect
The VHS effect makes digital video look like it was recorded and played back on tape: soft resolution, a wobbling image, tracking bands that tear across the frame, color that lags and bleeds behind the brightness, dropouts, and noise. Every one of those artifacts has a physical cause in the tape or the player, which is why a convincing VHS effect is a simulation of the machine, not a scanline overlay.
NTSC effect
The NTSC effect makes video look like an analog television broadcast: edges that ring and smear, color that bleeds past its outlines, the beady shimmer of dot crawl along sharp boundaries, and, on a weak signal, snow and a hum bar drifting through the picture. Where a VHS effect simulates a worn tape, an NTSC effect simulates the signal itself.
There's more where this came from
The full editor lets you use every effect together, over video, text, 3D, and shapes. Free, no signup, nothing to install — it opens with this effect already set up.
Open the editor