Quick start
Make your first piece in each of Bitgrain's three workspaces in a few minutes: a treated photo in the editor (no account needed), a poster in the studio, and a short clip in the video editor.
Bitgrain runs in your browser. There is nothing to install, and the effects render on your own device, so a photo you drop in is not sent anywhere to be processed. If you want the bigger picture first, read the three workspaces. If you would rather just make something, start here.
Before you begin
- Use a current desktop browser for the full experience. Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers support every export path, including frame-accurate MP4 video. The image editor and the studio also work on a phone.
- The image editor at
/editor works without an account. - The studio at
/studio and the video editor at /video ask you to sign in first. A free account is enough. See accounts and saving.
1. Treat a photo in the editor
The editor is the fastest way to see what Bitgrain does. One image in, one look out.
- Open /editor.
- Drop a photo onto the box that says drop an image or click to browse, or click it to pick a file. JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC from an iPhone, TIFF and camera RAW files all work. See supported files for the full list.
- No photo handy? Click try a sample and Bitgrain loads one of its own sample images.
- In the toolbar along the bottom, click dither, halftone or artistic to pick a main look. The preview updates as you go.
- Open adjust to tune contrast, brightness and the working resolution, which changes how coarse or fine the texture is. Adjustments explains each slider.
- Try palette to snap the image to a limited color set, or grade for a film-style color grade.
- Stuck for ideas? Click random (the die) and Bitgrain builds a combination for you. Click it again for another.
- Click export, choose a format (PNG is the default), and click the download button.
That is a finished file. On the free plan it carries a small bitgrain.app watermark and is capped at 1500 pixels on the long edge. Plans and pricing explains what Pro changes.
Tip: Want to come back to the same look later? In the export menu, choose save as .BTG. The file keeps your image and every setting, and you can load it again from the upload button at the top left of the editor. Saving .btg files is free on every plan.
2. Make a poster in the studio
The studio is a layered design canvas for posters, covers, social posts and multi-page documents.
- Sign in, then open /studio. If you are not signed in, Bitgrain sends you to the sign-in page and brings you back afterwards.
- On the studio home, pick a starting point:
- Blank canvas opens an empty project so you can drop in an image and style it from scratch.
- From a template takes you to the template library, where you pick a ready-made design and open it as your own project.
- Or open a saved .btg project file loads a project you saved earlier.
- Click a text layer on the canvas and type to replace the words. Change the font, size and color in the properties panel on the right.
- Select an image layer to swap the picture or apply one of the Bitgrain effects to that layer only.
- When you like it, click Export in the top bar, pick PNG, JPG, WEBP or HDR, and download.
The studio saves your work automatically about a second after you stop editing, so there is no save button to remember. The studio overview walks through the whole layout, and templates covers the library in depth.
3. Cut a short clip in the video editor
The video editor is a multi-track timeline that applies the same effects to every frame and exports the result in your browser.
- Sign in and open /video on a laptop or desktop. The video editor does not open on phone-sized screens.
- Under New video, pick a format: 16:9 (1920 by 1080), 9:16 (1080 by 1920) or 1:1 (1080 by 1080).
- Click the upload tile in the media panel on the left, or drop video, audio or image files onto it.
- Click a media tile to place it on the timeline at the playhead, or drag it onto a specific track.
- Add an effect clip above your footage to run a Bitgrain effect over a stretch of time. See effects and overlays.
- Click Export in the top bar, check the resolution, frame rate and format, then click Start Export. When it finishes, click Download.
Free accounts export video at up to 720p with a watermark. Pro exports up to 4K without one. The full walkthrough is in the video editor overview, and every export setting is explained in exporting video.
Where your work lives
| Workspace | What is saved | Where |
|---|
| Editor | Your last image | This browser, on this device |
| Studio | Every project, autosaved | This browser on free, your account on Pro |
| Video | Every project, autosaved | This browser on free, your account on Pro (media files always stay on the device) |
Saving a .btg copy is the easiest way to back something up or move it to another computer. The details are in accounts and saving.
What to read next
More documentation