Dither an Image Online

How to dither an image

1. Drop a photo or video onto the editor, paste one from your clipboard, or click to choose a file.
2. Pick a dithering algorithm and a palette, then fine-tune pixel size, strength, brightness, contrast, gamma and saturation. The preview updates as you go.
3. For images, click Download to save a PNG. For videos, click Render video, watch the result, then download it as an MP4.

Dithering algorithms

Dithering fakes more colors than a palette really has by mixing the colors it does have into fine patterns. Each algorithm makes a different pattern:

Floyd–Steinberg

The classic error-diffusion dither. Each pixel's rounding error is spread to its neighbors, giving fine, organic grain.

Atkinson

The look of early Macintosh graphics. It deliberately drops some of the error, so highlights and shadows stay clean and contrast stays high.

Jarvis, Judice & Ninke, Stucki, Burkes, Sierra

Error diffusion over a wider area than Floyd–Steinberg, for smoother gradients and less visible "worm" patterns.

Bayer (ordered)

A fixed crosshatch pattern from 2×2 up to 16×16. Retro and very stable from frame to frame, which suits video.

Halftone dots

Round dots that grow as the image darkens, like newspaper and comic printing.

Random noise

A grainy, film-like dither; reroll it for a different pattern.

Palettes

• Black & white for 1-bit art, or duotone with any two colors you pick.
• Grayscale and RGB levels, from 2 to 16 steps per channel.
• Adaptive: up to 64 colors picked from your image (median cut).
• Retro hardware palettes: Game Boy, CGA, PICO-8 and Commodore 64.

Dithering video

Load an MP4, MOV or WebM video (up to 250 MB and 2 minutes) and you can scrub to any frame to see the effect as you change settings. Lighter settings play back live; heavier ones are previewed one frame at a time. When it looks right, render the whole video. The audio is kept, and the result exports as an H.264 MP4 at 480p, 720p or 1080p.

Vintage screen frames

Turn on Vintage screen frame to show your dithered image or video on an old CRT monitor, the way this kind of graphics was first seen. The picture gets a curved glass screen, scanlines that follow the dither's rows, phosphor glow and a darkened edge, all set in a moulded plastic case with a nameplate, knobs and a glowing power light. Pick a beige, platinum or charcoal case and set the curvature, scanlines and glow to taste. Scanlines show best with a pixel size of 2 or more. The screen matches your picture's shape, or set Screen shape to Square for a 1:1 screen showing the middle of the picture, ready for a square post.

Or pick a handheld console case for a late-'80s pocket game system: a flat, unlit LCD behind a dark screen plate, with a D-pad, buttons and a speaker grille. Each dithered pixel becomes an LCD cell with a thin grid between cells, and dark pixels cast a faint shadow onto the screen behind them, the way those reflective screens looked. It pairs well with the Game Boy palette and a pixel size of 3 or more. Framed images download as a PNG of the whole monitor or console, and framed videos render with it around every frame.

Bitcrushing the audio

Dithering has an audio twin: cutting a sound's sample rate and bit depth, the way samplers and game consoles stored it when memory was expensive. Turn on Bitcrush audio to give a video's soundtrack that sound, and hear it change as the video plays. Pick a machine to emulate, or set it up yourself:

• E-mu SP-1200: 12-bit at 26.04 kHz, with no anti-aliasing filter. The gritty, metallic crunch of golden-age hip-hop drums.
• E-mu SP-12, Akai MPC60 and Akai S950: other classic 12-bit samplers, from crunchy to clean.
• E-mu Emulator II: 8-bit samples, companded (μ-law) so quiet sounds keep their detail.
• Sega Genesis: 8-bit PCM at a low rate with no filtering, through the console's muffled output filter.
• Super Nintendo: 32 kHz with the soft, rounded top end of its sample interpolation.
• Amiga 500: 8-bit samples at ProTracker's C-3 rate, through the A500's fixed low-pass filter.
• NES: the 1-bit delta (DPCM) channel, where every sample can only nudge the level up or down a notch.
• Game Boy: 4-bit wave samples at 8 kHz.
• Telephone: 8 kHz μ-law, band-limited to 300–3400 Hz.

The presets are approximations built from published specs, not measurements of the original hardware.

Frequently asked questions

What is dithering?

Dithering arranges a limited set of colors into patterns so that, from a normal viewing distance, the eye blends them into shades the palette doesn't contain. It's how old computers, game consoles and printers showed photos, and it's now a popular look for art, album covers and posters.

Are my images and videos uploaded?

No. Everything happens in your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device.

Is the dithering tool free?

Yes. It's free to use with no sign-up and no watermark on what you download.

Which file types can I use?

Any image your browser can open (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, and HEIC in Safari) and videos in MP4, MOV or WebM. Images download as PNG and videos as MP4.

Why does my dithered video come out large?

Fine dither patterns look like noise to a video codec, which makes them hard to compress. A bigger pixel size, an ordered (Bayer) dither or a lower resolution all make the file much smaller.