Dither Image

Dithering turns a greyscale image into pure black and white dots while preserving the impression of shades, the way old newspapers and 1-bit displays did. This tool uses Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion: for each pixel it picks black or white, then spreads the rounding error to neighbouring pixels, so a grey area becomes a fine pattern of dots that reads as that grey from a distance.

The result is a crisp, high-contrast, retro one-bit image - great for a vintage print look, e-ink style graphics, stylised avatars or stencils. The output keeps your original format and dimensions; for the crispest result use PNG, since saving the dotted pattern as JPEG can soften it slightly through compression.

Everything runs entirely locally in your browser on a canvas (no upload, even offline) - your image never leaves your device. Dithering first converts the image to greyscale, then diffuses the error, so colour is discarded by design. Animated images are flattened to a single frame.

Unlike a hard threshold, which simply cuts off midtones, dithering distributes each pixel's rounding error onto its neighbours (error diffusion). That way the eye mixes grey values back together from pure black-and-white dots at a distance - which is exactly why a dithered image looks softer and more detailed than a plain black-and-white threshold.

Specifications

In 3 steps

1. Drop or tap your image (PNG, JPEG or WebP).
2. It is converted to greyscale and Floyd-Steinberg dithered to black and white.
3. Download the dithered image (use PNG for the crispest result).

Limitations: Dithers an image to one-bit black and white with Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion (greyscale first, then error spread to neighbouring pixels). The original format and dimensions are preserved; PNG keeps the dotted pattern crisp, JPEG may soften it. Colour is discarded. Animated inputs are reduced to a single frame.

FAQ

Related tools

Image to ASCII Art · Grayscale Image · Pixelate Image · Posterize Image · Threshold Image