Print-style halftone dots on any image or video: CMYK separations, real screen angles, eleven dot shapes, ink and paper control.
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.
- Pick a style (mono, duotone, or CMYK), a dot shape, and dial in dot size, angle, and contrast.
- Set ink and paper colors, then export a PNG, JPG, or MP4.
What a halftone is
Halftone is how print reproduces continuous tone with a single ink: a grid of dots whose size tracks the brightness underneath. CMYK printing rotates four of those grids against each other at distinct screen angles, which is where the rosette pattern in magazine close-ups comes from.
This tool runs the same separation live on your media: per-channel screen angles, dot shapes from round to cross-hatch, paper grain, and ink bleed. On video, the dots re-sample every frame, so motion reads through the pattern. The same effect lives in the Modulate editor, where it stacks with grain, blur, and color tools.
Common questions
Is the halftone generator 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 make a halftone from a video?
Yes. The dots re-sample the footage every frame, so the pattern tracks motion. Most halftone tools online are image-only.
Can I change the dot color and background?
Yes. Mono and duotone styles expose ink and paper colors, and the paper can be made transparent for a PNG with alpha.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything renders in your browser on your GPU. Your media stays on your computer.
Go deeper
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.
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.
Risograph effect
The risograph effect recreates riso printing: an image rebuilt from a small set of bold spot inks, each printed as its own layer on paper and each slightly out of register with the others. The signature is flat, saturated fills with soft mottled coverage, stippled edges where tones fade out, and color fringes where the layers miss. It is the look of art-school posters and zines, and it is nothing like a photo filter.
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