Mac Paint-style dithering: 1-bit Atkinson in black on off-white
This is the tool's default look and a nod to early desktop paint programs: Atkinson dithering reduces your image to near-black ink on warm off-white paper at a Pixel size of 2. Atkinson passes on only part of each pixel's error, so highlights blow out to clean paper and shadows close up, giving the airy, high-contrast bitmap of 1980s black-and-white screens. The name describes a style only, with no affiliation to the original software.
Make it yours
Go chunkier for small sizes
At a Pixel size of 2 the dither is fine enough to keep faces readable. Raise it to 4 or 5 when the image will be shown as a thumbnail or an avatar, so the texture stays visible and does not collapse into grey mush.
Recover washed-out highlights
Atkinson drops detail in bright areas by design. If skies and skin disappear, lower Contrast from 15 to around 0 and pull Gamma below 100, to about 80, which darkens the midtones before they are dithered.
FAQ
What is Atkinson dithering?
Atkinson is an error-diffusion algorithm from the early days of black-and-white desktop computers. Each pixel is snapped to black or white, and only three quarters of the rounding error is shared with six neighbours, where Floyd-Steinberg shares all of it. The missing quarter is why Atkinson images look brighter and more graphic, with open highlights and solid blacks.
How it works
Upload an image
Add a PNG, JPG or WebP up to 20 MB and keep the original ratio or crop to 1:1, 4:5, 3:2, 16:9 or 9:16.
Choose a mode
ASCII with 8 character sets including Braille, Blocks, Binary, Matrix and your own characters; Dither with 14 algorithms; or Shapes with pixels, dots, lines and diamonds.
Style and use it
Set a palette such as 1-bit, Game Boy, Terminal or CGA, add scanlines, bloom or grain, then sign in with a free UX Pilot account to use it on the canvas or export it.