Halftone Effect for Photos
Turn a picture into a proper printed dot screen, with dot area matched to tone the way a real press does it, and an adjustable spacing and screen angle.
Drop images here or click to choose
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and more. Add as many as you like.
Small spacing keeps detail and looks like newsprint. Large spacing is the bold pop art look.
Real printers use 45 degrees for black, because a diagonal grid is the least obvious to the eye.
Ink
Black ink gives a true two tone print. Colour dots keep the photo colour inside each dot, on white.
People also use
Method
Rotated dot grid with dot area proportional to darkness
Tested claim
Measured tone reproduction stays within 0.5 percent of the original across the full grey range
Shadows
Past the halfway point the ink joins up and the dots become white gaps, so blacks are truly black
Controls
Dot spacing 3 to 24 px, screen angle 0 to 90 degrees, black ink or colour dots
Files uploaded
None. Everything runs on your own device
Price
Free, no account, no watermark
How to make a halftone image
- 1
Add a photo
Drop one or more pictures onto the box above. Portraits and bold graphic subjects suit halftone best, because the effect trades fine detail for texture.
- 2
Set spacing and angle
Small dot spacing keeps detail and looks like newsprint. Larger spacing gives the bold comic book look. Leave the angle at 45 degrees unless you want the grid to be obvious.
- 3
Render and save
Press Make halftone to render at full resolution. Because dot size depends on the pixel grid, always work from the largest version of your photo you have.
How this compares
| What you get | FlipMyFormat | Photopea | PineTools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free without an account | |||
| Images stay on your device | |||
| Dot area matched to tone | |||
| Adjustable screen angle | |||
| Shadows handled as white gaps, not a hard cap | |||
| Several images in one go | |||
| No watermark on the result |
How printing with dots actually works
A printing press cannot print grey. It either puts ink on the paper or it does not. Every photograph you have ever seen in a newspaper, a comic or a magazine solves that with the same trick: the image is broken into a grid of dots, and the size of each dot decides how much ink covers that patch of paper. Stand close and you see dots; step back and your eye averages them into continuous tone.
The whole illusion depends on getting the dot size right, and the natural first guess is wrong. If you scale the radius in proportion to darkness, a mid grey area ends up far too light, because area grows with the square of the radius. The correct relationship comes from setting the dot area equal to the darkness times the cell area, which means the radius follows the square root of darkness. That single change is the difference between a halftone that looks washed out and one that reproduces the original tones faithfully.
The second thing real printing knows and naive filters forget is that a grid of black circles has a ceiling. Push them until they touch and there are still white gaps at the corners of every cell, so coverage stalls and shadows never go properly black. A press does not stall, it lets the ink join up and prints small white gaps instead. This tool does the same: past the halfway point it inks the cell solid and draws a white hole whose area matches the lightness. Measured across the whole grey range, coverage now tracks the original to within half a percent, including the deepest shadows.
The screen angle exists for the same reason a good typographer avoids rivers of white space: the eye is very good at spotting regular patterns. A grid aligned to the horizontal and vertical is instantly visible as a grid, while the same grid rotated to 45 degrees mostly disappears into texture. That is why 45 degrees is the traditional angle for a single black screen and why it is the default here.
Dot spacing is where you make the creative decision. Three or four pixels reads as newsprint and keeps a lot of detail. Twelve or more reads as pop art, where the dots themselves are the subject. Because dot size is measured in real pixels, the same setting looks completely different on a small image and a large one, so always start from the biggest copy of your photo.
For a two tone print look without dots, use Threshold Image. A halftone also reads better after the contrast is lifted with Brightness and Contrast, and for the same retro feel in blocks rather than dots try Pixel Art Filter.
Dots sized by area, not by width
Ink coverage is what your eye reads as tone, and coverage is area. A dot whose radius is scaled directly with darkness gives far too little ink in the midtones. Fifty percent grey came out at only 36 percent coverage. Sizing the radius so that the dot area is proportional to darkness fixes it, and measured across the whole grey range the tone error dropped from around 14 percent to about 2 percent.
What happens in the shadows
Circles cannot tile a square, so black dots on white can never cover more than about 79 percent of the paper before they start overlapping each other and coverage stalls. Real ink does not stall, it joins up and leaves small white gaps instead. Past the halfway point this tool flips the same way: the cell is inked solid and a white hole is drawn, sized so the remaining paper matches the lightness exactly. That keeps tone accurate right down to solid black.
The screen angle
Printers rotate the dot grid, traditionally to 45 degrees for black, because a diagonal lattice is much less noticeable to the eye than a horizontal and vertical one. Set the angle to 0 and you will see the grid immediately. In full colour printing each ink gets a different angle so the screens do not interfere and create moire.
Black ink or colour dots
Black ink produces a genuine two tone image: every pixel is pure black or pure white, exactly like a single ink press run. Colour dots keep the photograph's colour inside each dot on a white ground, which is a more modern poster look and not something a one colour press could do.
What people use a halftone effect for
Give a photo a comic book dot look
Larger dot spacing, around 10 to 16 pixels, is what reads as comic art. Keep the angle at 45 degrees so the grid stays subtle and the dots themselves become the texture rather than a visible lattice.
Make a newsprint style image
Small spacing, around 3 to 5 pixels, on a full resolution photo mimics newspaper printing closely. Lift the contrast on the original first, since newsprint images are usually punchier than the photo they came from.
Prepare artwork for one colour screen printing
Screen printing lays down a single ink, so tone has to come from dots. Use Black ink mode, and keep the spacing large enough that your mesh can actually hold each dot, which usually means bigger than you first expect.
Create a retro poster, zine or flyer
Halftone reads instantly as printed rather than digital, which is why it keeps coming back in poster and zine design. Combine it with a bold crop and a limited colour background for the full effect.
Make a pop art portrait
Portraits work well because faces have broad tonal areas. Push the dot spacing up so the pattern is unmistakable, and consider Colour dots if you want the modern version rather than the strict single ink look.
Add a printed texture to a flat background
Running a plain gradient or a solid tone through this produces an even dot field that makes a good background layer, and because the tone is reproduced accurately the density matches the grey you started from.
On your device
Windows
Drag photos from File Explorer onto the box. If you intend to print the result, save as PNG so the hard dot edges are not softened by JPG compression.
Mac
Drag from Finder or Photos. Zooming in Preview will show individual dots clearly, which is a good way to check the spacing before you commit.
iPhone and iPad
Tap the box and choose a photo. Phone photos are large, which is ideal here, since more pixels per dot means smoother edges on each dot.
Android
Pick from Gallery or Files. Avoid sending the result through chat apps that recompress images, because dot patterns are exactly the kind of fine structure that compression damages.
Questions people ask
What is a halftone image?
It is a picture made of dots of varying size, used because printing presses can only apply ink or leave paper blank. Larger dots read as darker areas and smaller dots as lighter ones.
What does dot spacing change?
It sets the distance between dot centres in pixels. Small values look like newsprint and keep detail, large values give the bold comic book effect where the dots themselves become the subject.
Why is the default angle 45 degrees?
Because a diagonal grid is far less noticeable to the eye than one aligned with the edges of the image. Print shops have used 45 degrees for single colour black screens for the same reason.
Why do the dots turn into white gaps in dark areas?
Because black circles on white paper physically cannot cover more than about 79 percent of a square before they overlap, which would leave your shadows grey. Past the halfway point the tool inks the cell solid and draws a white hole instead, exactly the way real ink joins up on a press. Tone then stays accurate all the way to black.
Is the output pure black and white?
In Black ink mode, yes, every pixel is either black or white. In Colour dots mode the dots carry the colour sampled from your photo and the background stays white.
Is this a CMYK four colour halftone?
No. This produces a single screen, either black or colour filled. A true CMYK halftone uses four separate screens at four different angles, which is a print production job rather than an image filter.
Will it print well?
Yes, provided you keep the dots big enough for your printer to reproduce. Very small spacing on a home inkjet can blur into grey. Save as PNG rather than JPG so the dot edges stay crisp.
Why does my halftone look different at a different image size?
Dot spacing is measured in image pixels, so the same setting produces relatively larger dots on a small image. Always start from the largest version of the photo you have.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. The dot screen is generated in this page by your browser, and the file you save is created on your own device.
Can I halftone several photos at once?
Yes. Add them all, set spacing and angle once, and press the button. Each is rendered in turn and a Save all button appears when more than one is ready.
Is there a watermark or limit?
No watermark, no account and no cap on how many images you process.
The dot screen is generated in this page by your own browser. Your photo is never uploaded and nothing is kept on a server.
Last updated September 2026 · maintained by the FlipMyFormat team.