Free online halftone generator

What does a halftone generator do?

A halftone generator converts the continuous tones of a photo into solid marks of a single ink — dots that are large in dark areas and small in light ones. From a normal viewing distance the eye blends them back into shades of grey or color. It is how newspapers, T-shirts and posters reproduce photos with only one ink per color, and it has a graphic look of its own.

DotScreen measures the true ink coverage of each shape on the repeating screen, including where neighbouring dots overlap in the shadows, so a 40% grey prints as exactly 40% ink whether you choose dots, lines or diamonds. In CMYK mode the image is separated into cyan, magenta, yellow and black with grey-component replacement, and each plate is screened at its own angle — 15°, 75°, 0° and 45° by default.

How to make a halftone

1. Add an image. Click Upload image, drag a file onto the preview or paste with Ctrl/⌘+V. Photos, logos and gradients all work; transparent PNGs keep their transparency.
2. Choose shape and size. Pick dot, line, square, diamond or cross, then set the cell size (dot spacing) and screen angle — or switch to CMYK for four color separations.
3. Tune the tones. Open Tone to adjust contrast, dot gain and the minimum and maximum printable dot for screen printing, DTF or engraving.
4. Download. Choose the output width and click Download PNG, or SVG for vector dots. Tick Transparent background to export only the ink.

Halftone presets for every job

• Screen printingUse 22.5° (or 67.5°) for single-color jobs on angled mesh
• DTF transfersTurn on Transparent background before exporting
• SVG halftoneCell 12–20 px for Cricut, vinyl and laser cutting
• CMYK halftoneKeep C, M and K 30° apart (15°, 75°, 45°)
• Comic & pop artLarge cells (16–28 px) read as pop art
• Laser engravingOutput width = engraving width × DPI
• Halftone PNG overlayUse a gradient image for a classic fade-out dot texture

Dot shapes

• Halftone dotsThe round dot is the classic halftone: dots grow from tiny specks in the highlights to touching circles around 78% and fill solid in the shadows.
• Line halftoneA line screen replaces dots with parallel lines whose thickness follows the image — thick in the shadows, hairline in the highlights.
• Square halftoneSquare dots give a crisp, digital, architectural look.
• Diamond halftoneDiamond dots are squares rotated against the screen.
• Cross halftoneCrosses make an unusual, graphic halftone: small plus signs in the highlights, longer arms in the midtones and a woven grid in the shadows.

Guides

• What is a halftone? How halftone dots workEvery printed photo you have ever seen in a newspaper, on a T-shirt or on a cereal box is made of dots. Here is how a single ink can show a hundred shades of grey — and the handful of settings that control the result.
• How to make halftones for screen printingScreen printing is where halftones are least forgiving: the mesh, emulsion and ink all limit how small a dot can be. Here are the numbers that work, and why.
• DTF halftones: printing gradients and shadows cleanlySemi-transparent pixels are the most common cause of ugly DTF transfers. Halftoning them is the fix — here is how and why it works.
• CMYK halftone angles and moiré explainedFour screens of dots on top of each other can either blend into smooth color or explode into ugly wavy patterns. The difference is a few degrees.
• How to make line halftone art (and export it as SVG)Line halftones turn a photo into parallel strokes that swell and thin with the image — the look of banknotes, old engravings and modern line-art posters.
• Dot gain, minimum dot and maximum dotYour halftone looks perfect on screen and muddy on the shirt. Three settings explain almost every difference between the file and the print.

Frequently asked questions