What a halftone is
A halftone fakes shades of grey with one ink. Where the image is dark the marks are large, where it is light they are small, and where it is white there are none. From a normal distance the eye averages the marks into tones. The marks sit on a regular grid, and the distance between neighbouring marks, the cell size, is what you see as coarse or fine.
This generator works in real units. Cell size is millimetres on the finished print, so the same settings give the same look in the preview, the PNG, the SVG and the printed PDF. For each cell it averages the grey of the image under it, applies your contrast and threshold, and draws a dot whose area is that share of the cell (up to a dot that closes the cell completely in the darkest tones).
Settings guide
| Setting | What it does | Try |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern | Dots (stipple), Lines (engraving) or Cross-hatch (up to four line directions, added as the tone gets darker). | Dots for skin and fur, lines for metal and text. |
| Cell size | Distance between dot centres or lines, in mm. | 1.5–2.5 mm on a 10 cm design; larger = bolder. |
| Angle | Rotates the grid or the first line direction. | 45° hides the grid best for dots; 0° or 90° looks deliberate for lines. |
| Contrast | Stretches or squeezes the tones around mid grey. | Raise it for flat photos, lower it for harsh ones. |
| Threshold | Drops the lightest tones, so no tiny dots are left in the highlights. | 5–15 for most photos. |
| Invert | Inks the light areas instead of the dark ones. | Light subject on a dark background. |
| Skip thin marks | Removes marks narrower than 0.3 mm, this site’s rule of thumb for what a stencil can transfer. | On for tattoo stencils, off for print work. |
Start from a picture with a clear subject and real shadows: crop tight, then adjust contrast until the preview shows the shapes you want. A larger cell size always reads as a bolder, simpler picture.
Halftone for tattoo stencils
A tattooer can use a halftone as a shading map: the stencil shows where the density should be, and the artist decides how to build it. Use as tattoo stencil sends the pattern, at print resolution, to the tattoo stencil maker on this page. There you can run the transfer check, which flags marks that are too thin or too close, set Mirror for thermal transfer paper and export the true-size print. How to print and transfer it is covered in how to print a tattoo stencil, and typical sizes in the size guide. For clean outlines instead of shading, use the fine line stencil maker.
Halftone for DTF, screen printing and vinyl
The SVG export is plain vector artwork: one compound path, size in millimetres, transparent background. That suits a screen-print positive, a DTF gang sheet or a vinyl cutter. Divide 25.4 by the cell size to get lines per inch (1.6 mm is about 16 LPI) and check the limits of your screen or printer before you pick the cell size, since fine dots can close up on a coarse screen. The PNG is saved at 300 DPI with its physical size embedded.
Privacy
The image is read on your device and turned into dots by code that runs in your browser. It is not uploaded, and a network check in this site’s own tests confirms that no image data is sent. The page sends a small usage event when you export (file type, pattern, cell size, sheet count); see the privacy page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a halftone?
A halftone draws the tones of an image with a single ink by changing the size of the marks instead of the colour: big dots or thick lines where the image is dark, small ones where it is light, nothing where it is white. Seen from a normal distance the eye blends them into greys. Newspapers, screen printing and comic books use it; in tattooing it resembles dotwork and hatch shading.
Is the halftone generator free, and is my image uploaded?
It is free, needs no account and nothing is uploaded: the image is read into a canvas on your device and the dots are calculated in your browser. The page sends only a small usage event when you export (the file type, the pattern, the cell size and, for a PDF, the sheet count), never the image or the pixels.
What cell size should I use for a tattoo?
The cell size is the distance between dot centres (or between lines) in millimetres at the printed size. There is no industry standard, so treat these as starting points to discuss with your artist: about 1.5 to 2.5 mm for a 10 cm design, a little more for a design that will be small on skin. Ink spreads slightly under the skin over the years, so marks that sit closer than a millimetre or so can blur together. The generator also warns when a mark is thinner than 0.3 mm, this site's own rule of thumb for what a stencil can transfer, and can skip those marks for you.
What is the difference between dots, lines and cross-hatch?
Dots keeps a grid of round dots whose area follows the tone; it reads as stipple or dotwork. Lines draws parallel lines whose thickness follows the tone, like an engraving. Cross-hatch adds a second, third and fourth set of lines at other angles as the tone gets darker, so shadows build up in layers like pen hatching.
How do I print the halftone at a true size?
Set the size on skin, pick A4 or US Letter and press Print PDF. The pattern is drawn as a 300 DPI one-bit image and placed at exactly that size, split across sheets when it is bigger than one page (a 30 cm wide design takes 2 A4 sheets, with crop marks and sheet labels). Print at 100% or Actual size with Fit to page switched off and check that the 5 cm bar on the sheet measures 5 cm.
Can I use the SVG for DTF, screen printing or vinyl?
Yes, as artwork. The SVG is vector (every dot is a circle path, every line a polygon), carries its size in millimetres and has a transparent background, so it opens in Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity, Procreate-compatible tools and cutters. For screen printing, divide 25.4 by the cell size to get lines per inch (a 1.6 mm cell is about 16 LPI, a 0.85 mm cell about 30 LPI) and ask your printer which screen and ink it can hold. Print-shop requirements vary, so check them before you commit to a run.
Why does my halftone look too light or too dark?
Use Contrast to stretch or squeeze the tones around mid grey, and Threshold to drop the lightest tones entirely, which removes tiny dots in the highlights. If the picture is light on a dark background, tick Invert. A photo with strong light and shadow works best; a flat, low-contrast photo gives an even grey of equal dots.
Can I turn the halftone into a tattoo stencil?
Yes. Use as tattoo stencil sends the pattern at print resolution to the stencil maker on the same page, where you can run the transfer check, set mirroring and ink, and export the stencil. A halftone is a placement guide: how the artist shades the tattoo is their decision.
Use the stencil tools on your phone: nothing to download.
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