A real ink separation, not a pink filter: stock riso ink sets, subtractive overprint, stipple dither, and mottle, live on images and 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.
- Pick an ink set, from pink and teal to full CMYK, then dial in dither, mottling, grain, and paper color.
- Press play to preview the print in motion, then export a PNG, JPG, or MP4.
What the riso effect actually simulates
Most riso filters tint an image pink and sprinkle noise on it. This one runs a real separation: every ink in the set renders its own plate, computed as how much that ink would darken the paper to reproduce your image, and the plates print as flat fills that stack subtractively, the way wet ink overprints. Tones fall off through dither instead of smooth gradients, in your choice of three patterns: stochastic scatter, organized halftone dot rows, or engraving-style lines, each plate angled on its own so the inks never moiré. Mottling varies the density inside every fill, so nothing prints perfectly even, and each plate sits slightly out of register, like a sheet fed through the machine once per color.
The ink sets are stock riso colors, fluorescent pink, teal, federal blue, yellow and friends, in the two, three, and four ink combinations riso shops actually run, and every slot takes a custom color. The same Riso effect ships in the Modulate editor, which adds per-ink registration, threshold, and density controls, a synthesized paper mode with grain and fiber, and keyframes on every parameter, and it stacks with halftone, grain, and the rest of the library.
Common questions
Is the riso effect 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.
Does it work on video or just images?
Both. Drop in an MP4, WebM, or MOV and the separation re-renders every frame, so the plates, dither, and mottle track the motion; drop in a photo and you get a still that reads as a print. No actual risograph prints video, which is most of the fun.
Can I pick my own ink colors?
Yes. The presets are combinations of stock riso inks, but every ink slot exposes its color, so any two, three, or four color palette works. The paper color is yours too, or switch it transparent for a PNG with alpha.
What do the dither shapes do?
They decide how tones fade out. Stochastic scatters irregular dots with no visible grid, the classic riso stipple. Halftone organizes the dots into rows, closer to a screen-printed gradient. Line breaks tones into stripes for an engraved feel. Each ink patterns at its own angle, so the plates stay clean against each other.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The effect runs in your browser on your GPU. Your media never leaves your computer.
Go deeper
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.
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.
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