Halftones the way a press makes them.
Vortex is a live halftone and stippling studio that runs entirely in your browser. Ten screening engines, real press angles, film-ready separations — and nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to share or sync it.
Open the studio — free, no signupBring a photo — it never leaves your device. Works offline · sharing is your choice
What it does
Ten engines
AM/FM screening, stipple, flow fields, single-line drawing, waves, rings, glyphs, reaction-diffusion, classic dither. Deterministic — same settings, same dots, every machine.
Press-true screening
Rational-tangent screen angles and exact spot functions, like a real RIP. Rosette-free stochastic FM when you want grain instead.
Film-ready separations
Per-ink plates in press order, mirrored film PDF, 1-bit TIFFs at 1200 dpi. Burn screens straight from the browser.
Riso & duotone inks
Translucent soy inks, tone bands, opaque white underbase, drifted registration. Up to eight plates.
Distress & finish
Paper stocks, misregistration, plate cracks, photocopier generations, wood grain. Age a print forty years in one slider.
Vector out
SVG in real millimeters for lasers and plotters; the TSP engine draws the whole image as one continuous line.
Private by design
Everything computes locally in WebAssembly. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose it — share links carry a finished render and its build animation, never your image or recipe. Only Studio editable links, which you create deliberately, include the full project.
Works offline
Installable as an app. Once loaded, Vortex runs with no connection at all.
Made for people who make things
Screen printers
Film separations with real angles and dot gain in mind; opaque underbase for dark garments.
Riso & zine makers
Ink-true two-color looks, chunky dots, cream stock, drifted registration that feels right.
Laser engravers & plotters
Hard 1-bit halftones, millimeter-accurate SVG, single-line paths a pen can follow.
Designers & poster artists
18 starting points, live preview, share any look with one link.
Start from a look, not a blank canvas
18 starting points. Everything stays editable.
Everything creative is free. Forever.
All ten engines, film and TIFF exports, share links, unlimited local projects — free, no account, no trial clock. Vortex Studio is the optional membership for people who want their projects to follow them around.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Every creative capability — all engines, all exports including film PDFs and 1200 dpi TIFFs, share links, build-animation videos, local projects — is free, forever. Studio (free to claim in early access) adds cloud conveniences on top; it removes nothing.
Do my images get uploaded?
Not unless you choose to. Rendering happens in your browser via WebAssembly; the status bar reads "all processing local" because it is. Share links carry a finished render and its build animation — never your source image or your settings recipe. Only Studio editable links, which you create deliberately, include the full project. Studio saves go to your cloud by default — every save dialog also offers “This browser only.”
Can I use the output commercially?
Yes — whatever you export is yours, for any use, no attribution required.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Install it as an app (or just revisit the tab) and it runs without a connection.
What do I need?
A modern browser. WebGPU makes the preview fastest, but WebGL2 and even plain canvas work.