Dark scanlines, a little colour fringing and darker corners, like a picture on a tube television or an arcade monitor.
Open the editor with this effect
Before flat panels, every screen was a glass tube. The picture was drawn line by line by an electron beam, which left thin dark gaps between rows, soft colour fringes where the red, green and blue did not quite line up, and corners that fell off into shadow. That texture is now shorthand for arcades, late night TV, old computers and anything that wants to feel like a memory.
Scanlines are the dark horizontal stripes between the rows the beam drew. They are the single most recognisable part of the look.
Colour shift comes from the three colour channels landing slightly apart, so edges pick up a thin red fringe on one side and blue on the other.
Vignette and curvature come from the shape of the glass. The middle of the screen is brightest, and the picture bows outward toward the edges.
The effect on this page combines scanlines, a small colour shift and a vignette. In the editor's effects list you can add a curved screen and extra glow on top.
Match the line spacing to the size the image will be seen at. Lines that are too fine disappear on a phone, lines that are too thick look like blinds.
Keep the colour shift small. A pixel or two reads as a real screen, more than that starts to look like a glitch.
Night scenes, neon and faces lit by a screen suit the look best, because a CRT glows in the dark.
For a retro computer feel, stack a palette dither like Amber CRT or Green CRT under the scanlines.
Open the editor from this page. Scanlines and a vignette are already applied to the sample. Drop in your own image.
Lower the resolution for thicker, more visible lines, or raise it for a fine broadcast look.
Export PNG for posts, thumbnails and covers. The video editor can put the same look on moving footage.
They often travel together, but they are different things. CRT is the screen: scanlines, glow and curved glass. VHS is the tape: smeared colour, wobble and tracking noise. Bitgrain covers the screen side well and has glitch and RGB split effects for some of the tape side.
Yes. The video editor applies effects to clips on a timeline, including scanlines, and exports MP4.
Yes. Everything is processed in your browser, and your image is not uploaded.