Bitgrain is a photo lab, print shop, design studio and video editor that runs in your browser. Every effect is a classical image-processing algorithm, not a model. One person builds it: Diptanshu Mahish, an independent developer in India.
Around 2024 most design tools added the same feature: a text box that makes the work for you. Describing an outcome is faster than making it. It also skips the part most people got into design to do.
Bitgrain starts from the other side. You get levers, not prompts. You pick a dither algorithm, set a screen frequency, choose an ink and decide how hard to crush the midtones. The software does the arithmetic. Every result traces back to a decision you made.
It is also practical. The same image with the same settings gives the same pixels today and in five years. Nothing changes because a model was updated. If you make a series of covers that have to match, that matters.
Photo: RAW files from almost every camera, plus HEIC and HEIF from iPhone, TIFF and DNG. Film and cinematic LUTs, HDR still export in BT.2020 and PQ, and batch processing that runs a whole shoot through one effect chain.
Print: risograph separations exported as per-ink layers, CMYK four-channel halftone separations, newsprint and zine finishes, screen-print flats and pen-plotter SVG with real vector paths.
Studio: multi-page layered documents with custom type, a vector pen, design tokens and templates. Export to PNG, WebP, SVG and PDF. Video: trim, split, speed, beat detection, transitions and per-clip audio EQ, rendered to MP4 up to 4K.
Effects across all of it: the classic dither algorithms, halftone in mono, colour and CMYK, ASCII and Braille, Sobel edges, crosshatch, ink wash, manga screentone, glitch, duotone, grain and a shelf of hardware and print palettes.
Everything runs in your browser with WebAssembly and Canvas. Your photos are developed, screened and exported on your own machine. The processing pipeline has no server step.
Projects save as a portable .btg file with layers, effect settings, type and palette inside. Hand it to someone or reopen it years later and it renders the same.
The effects engine is written by hand. No models, no training data, no prompts, and no plan to add any.
Diptanshu Mahish, an independent developer and designer in India. No investors, no team. Support replies come from the person who wrote the code.
Free to explore. The free tier exports at web resolution with a watermark, with no cap on exports. Pro removes the watermark and adds full resolution, SVG, 4K video, batch export and cloud sync. Pay monthly and cancel any time, or pay once for a ten year license.
To reach him, write to hello@bitgrain.app.
No. Every effect is a deterministic image-processing algorithm written by hand. No neural networks, no generative models, no prompts, and none planned.
No. Processing runs in your browser with WebAssembly and Canvas, so your photos stay on your machine.
Diptanshu Mahish, working independently from India. No investors and no wider team.
Free to explore. The free tier exports at web resolution with a watermark and no export limit. Pro is monthly and cancellable any time, or one payment for ten years.