Everything you need to know about Stipple
Stipple converts your image into a pattern of black and white dots, simulating traditional stippling illustration technique. Darker areas receive more dots while lighter areas remain white, creating a pointillist or pen-and-ink drawing aesthetic.
Parameters
- Dot Scale
Controls the size of the grid cells that contain dots (1–80). Smaller values (1–10) create fine, detailed stippling with many small dots. Larger values (20–80) produce coarser patterns with fewer, larger dot areas. - Threshold
Sets the brightness cutoff for dot placement (0–1). Lower values place dots only in the darkest areas. Higher values extend dots into midtones and highlights. At 0.5, middle gray is the boundary between dotted and clear areas. - Smoothing
Controls the transition softness between dotted and clear areas (0–0.25). At 0, transitions are sharp and binary. Higher values create smoother gradients at the boundaries, producing a softer, more natural look. - Seed
Sets the random seed for dot placement (0–10000). Different seeds produce different random patterns while maintaining the same overall density. Change this to find a pattern you like. - Mix
Blends the stippled result with the original image. At 0, no effect is visible. At 1.0, the full black-and-white stipple pattern is shown.
How It Works
The filter divides the image into a grid of cells. Each cell is assigned a random value based on the seed. If the image luminance at that cell is dark enough (below threshold), a dot is placed. This probabilistic approach creates the characteristic stipple density variation that represents different tones.
Tips
- Use scale 3–8 for detailed illustrations, 15–40 for bold graphic effects
- Increase threshold to capture more detail in bright images
- Add slight smoothing (0.02–0.05) for more natural-looking results
- Works best on high-contrast images with clear subjects