Ordered dithering with Bayer, line, mesh, and noise patterns, palette control, and animation modes that move the pattern over video.
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 image or video.
- Choose a pattern and pixel size, then set the color mode: full RGB levels, black and white, or a palette.
- Optionally animate the pattern (drift, scroll, or jitter), then export a PNG, JPG, or MP4.
What dithering does
Dithering trades color depth for pattern: instead of banding when colors run out, it distributes the error as a texture the eye averages back into smooth tone. Ordered dithering, the kind this tool uses, thresholds each pixel against a repeating matrix, which is what gives Bayer patterns their crosshatch signature.
The tool quantizes your media live: choose the level count, force black and white, or map everything onto a palette. The animation modes move the threshold matrix between frames, a look you cannot get from a static filter. The same effect ships in the Modulate editor and stacks with pixelate, grain, and the rest of the library.
Common questions
Is the dither tool 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 exports watermark-free at higher caps, and Pro raises them further.
Can I dither a video?
Yes. The pattern is applied per frame, and the animation modes (drift, scroll, jitter) move it over time.
Which dithering algorithm is this?
Ordered dithering with selectable matrices: checkerboard, Bayer 2x2 and 4x4, line, mesh, white noise, and gradient noise. Ordered dithering is stable frame to frame, which is why it reads cleanly on video.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The effect runs in your browser on your GPU. Your media never leaves your computer.
Go deeper
Dither effect
Dithering renders an image with fewer colors than it really has by arranging the available ones in fine patterns the eye averages back into smooth tone. Where a limited palette would otherwise collapse gradients into ugly bands, dithering trades them for texture: the speckled, crosshatched grain of early computer graphics, GIFs, and one-bit displays. As an effect, it puts that machine-made texture on anything.
Halftone effect
The halftone effect reproduces an image as a grid of dots whose size follows the brightness underneath: large dots where the image is dark, small dots where it is light. It comes from print, where a press can only put down solid ink, and it is why newspaper photos and comic panels dissolve into dots up close. Applied digitally, it turns any image or video into something bold, graphic, and unmistakably print-like.
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.
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