A halftone effect turns a continuous photo into a field of dots whose sizes follow the image's light and shadow — the look you know from classic print, pop art, and modern speaker grilles. This guide shows you how to build one as a true vector pattern in about five minutes, using a free photo to halftone converter that runs entirely in your browser. No Photoshop, no plugins, no sign-up — and the result exports as SVG, STEP, or DXF, so it is ready for print, laser cutting, CNC, or CAD.
The whole workflow in under a minute: upload a photo, enable “Image as Controller”, and the dot sizes follow the image automatically.
Open the SolidVents halftone pattern generator in any modern browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create. You start with a live dot grid on the canvas — a grid array is the classic halftone base, but hexagonal, concentric, or spiral arrays work too.
Open the Background Image panel and upload your photo (JPG or PNG). The image appears behind the pattern as a reference layer. Use the panel's opacity, scale, and position controls to place the subject exactly where you want the halftone to read — for a portrait, that usually means centering the face on the canvas.
In the gradient controller panel, switch on Image as Controller. This is the key move: instead of dragging gradient control points by hand, the image's luminance now drives the pattern parameters directly. By default, dark areas of the photo apply the target value — larger dots — while bright areas keep the base value. The moment you enable it, the dot field re-arranges itself into your image.
Two settings control how the photo maps to dots. Invert flips the mapping so bright areas get the large dots instead — useful when the pattern will be cut out of a dark material, or when the subject is lighter than the background. Contrast adjusts the mapping strength: raise it to make the image pop out of a flat photo, lower it for a subtler texture.
Now shape the look. Tighter spacing gives you more resolution (more, smaller dots); wider spacing gives a bolder, more graphic result. The size range sets how small the smallest dot and how large the largest dot can get. And the dot itself doesn't have to be a circle — switch to squares, stars, or your own custom SVG shape, or add slight random jitter for a hand-made feel. Everything updates live as you drag the sliders.
Export the finished pattern with one click. SVG drops straight into Illustrator, Figma, or a laser cutter. DXF feeds AutoCAD and CNC workflows. And STEP imports into SolidWorks, Fusion 360, or Rhino as real 3D geometry — which is how designers turn a photo into a manufacturable perforated panel. The free plan includes 3 exports per day.
Photoshop's Color Halftone filter outputs pixels: zoom in or scale up and the dots fall apart. It also bakes the result — changing dot size or spacing means re-running the filter from scratch. A parametric halftone generator keeps every dot as live geometry. You can change spacing, size range, shape, and mapping at any time, and the export is a genuine vector file whose dots stay perfectly crisp at any scale — on a business card or a two-meter perforated facade panel.
The other difference is where the file can go next. A raster halftone ends at print. A vector halftone exported as SVG, DXF, or STEP continues into physical fabrication: laser-cut steel, CNC-machined aluminum, 3D-printed lampshades, or a speaker grille modeled in SolidWorks.
Dot size is only the default mapping. The same Image as Controller mechanism can drive spacing (denser dots in dark areas), rotation angle (elements that turn to follow the image), and even shape morphing — dots that transform from circle to square to star across the image's tonal range. Combining two mappings, such as size plus angle, produces halftones that feel engineered rather than filtered. For a walkthrough of every gradient feature, see the video tutorial page.
Yes. The core tool is free — all array modes, gradients, the Image as Controller feature, and up to 3 exports per day. The Pro plan removes the export limit and adds features like shape morphing and split STEP export.
No. Everything runs in the browser. The exported SVG can then be opened in any vector editor — Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape — or sent straight to a laser cutter.
True vector. Every dot is a real path in the exported SVG, STEP, or DXF file, so the pattern scales to any size without pixelation and can be laser cut, CNC machined, or 3D printed.
No. It is parametric: the tool maps your image's brightness values to dot parameters deterministically. The same photo and settings always produce the same result, and every parameter stays adjustable.
High-contrast images with a clear subject: portraits, logos, product shots, or bold graphics. If your photo is flat, raise the Contrast setting in the tool instead of editing the photo.
Yes. Patterns you generate with SolidVents are yours to use in commercial products, client work, and personal projects.
Free to use, no sign-up, runs in your browser. Upload a photo and watch the dots follow it.
Open the Halftone Generator — Free