Halftone generator
Printed from a thousand dots
Drop a photo or clip and a shader rebuilds it from a grid of shapes sized by brightness. Newsprint, Ben-Day, screentone and pop-art in one click.
What is a halftone?
Halftone is how print reproduces a photo with a single ink: shades become a grid of dots that grow in the shadows and shrink in the highlights. Step back and your eye blends them into a continuous image. It is the look of old newspapers, comic books, Roy Lichtenstein and Warhol prints.
zlabz runs the whole screen as a GPU shader in your browser. Twelve cell shapes, tone-color gradients, threshold mode and per-cell backgrounds all repaint the preview live. Feed it a photo for a poster, or a video and every frame is screened the same way, then exported clean.
How it works
Four steps to the printed look
Drop in a photo or clip
JPG, PNG, MP4, MOV or WebM up to 150MB. A demo image is already screened when you arrive, so you can explore before you upload.
Pick a preset
Newsprint, Ben-Day, Thermal, Terminal, Blueprint or Pop Art. Each is a full look you can then pull apart dial by dial.
Shape the dots
12 cell shapes, density, angle, threshold mode, tone gradients and brightness. Every change repaints the preview live.
Export PNG or MP4
Photos export as a crisp PNG at any size. Videos render every frame offline and keep their original audio.
Why zlabz
Built to beat the other halftone tools
Many tools screen a photo. The difference shows up on video and at export.
How the alternatives stack up
Artkit ToneKit
The original browser tool this mode is measured against. Great shape range on images, but video export captures the live preview and HD export sits behind a paywall.
Magic Pattern
Clean, fast newsprint and pop-art screening for photos with ink and paper colors. Image only, with fewer shapes and no video.
ASCII Magic
Fun browser toy with Ben-Day dots and up to 4x export for images and short clips. Lighter on tone-gradient and per-cell control.
Photoshop Color Halftone
Full manual control through the Color Halftone filter, if you own the license. Static per frame and heavy for a quick social post.
Feature notes reflect the public versions of these tools as of July 2026. All names belong to their owners. Try them and compare the exports yourself.
Made for every surface
The printed-dot look reads on posters, feeds and merch alike.
Posters and prints
Screen a portrait into a gallery-ready newsprint or Ben-Day poster at full resolution.
Album and cover art
Give single art and playlist covers the risograph, pop-art dot treatment.
Music video B-roll
Screen footage frame by frame for retro-print motion in your edits.
Merch and stickers
High-contrast dot art prints clean on tees, totes and vinyl.
Comic and zine panels
Turn photos into screentone panels for comics, zines and manga edits.
Social posts
A one-click halftone makes any photo or reel stop the scroll.
Questions, answered
Is the halftone generator free?
Yes. Every shape, preset and dial is free. Generating uses free daily credits, and free exports carry a small watermark you can remove with Pro.
Can I halftone a video, not just a photo?
Yes. Drop an MP4, MOV or WebM and every frame is screened the same way, then exported as an MP4 that keeps its original audio.
Do I need to install anything?
No. The shader, preview and export all run in your browser. Your file never uploads to a server, it stays on your device.
What export formats are there?
Photos export as a crisp PNG at your chosen size. Videos export as an MP4. Both run entirely on your device.
Which photos work best?
Images with a clear subject and strong light-to-dark range: portraits, bold objects, high-contrast scenes. Use brightness and contrast to tune the range before screening.
How long can a video be?
Up to 30 seconds per export at up to 150MB. Longer uploads are trimmed to the first 30 seconds automatically.
Ready to print in dots?
Open the editor and the demo is already screened. Drop your photo or clip and export in minutes.
Try Halftone free