What is a halftone?

A halftone shows shades with dots of one ink: big dots where the image is dark, small dots where it's light. Newspapers and magazines have printed photos this way for over a century, and pop artists turned the dots into a style. Up close you see a grid of circles, from a distance they blend back into a smooth picture.

Tool description

Open an image and the tool redraws it as round dots on white. Set the dot size, which is the distance between dot centers, and the angle of the dot grid. Turn on "Color" to paint each dot in the image's own color instead of black. Zoom into the preview to see the dots up close, and download the result as PNG, JPG, or WebP at the original size.

Features

  • Round dots with smooth edges, sized by how dark each spot is
  • Adjustable dot size and grid angle
  • Black dots or dots in the image's colors
  • Keeps the outline of transparent images

How it works

The tool lays a square grid over the image, turned by the angle you pick. For every grid cell it averages the colors around the cell's center and works out how dark that spot is. The dot then covers the same share of its cell as the spot's darkness: a 30% gray gets dots that cover 30% of the paper. In the darkest areas the dots grow until they touch and merge, leaving only small white gaps, just like printed halftones.

Tips

  • 45 degrees is the classic angle for black ink: the eye notices the grid least when it runs diagonally.
  • Big dots suit posters and pop art. Small dots look like newspaper print.
  • The zoomed out preview can show wavy moiré patterns that aren't in the file. Zoom in to check the real dots.
  • For print, choose a dot size large enough that your printer can draw each dot cleanly.