Every way to reuse a look in the image editor: the built-in and goal presets, saving your own presets and syncing them, the random button, sharing a look as a recipe link, and publishing to or loading from community recipes.
A look in Bitgrain is just a set of numbers: which effect, which dither method, the slider values, the palette and so on. Because every effect is deterministic, the same numbers always give the same result on the same photo. That makes looks easy to save, share and reuse.
Click presets in the bottom toolbar (a layout icon, also a tab on mobile). The gallery shows each preset as a live thumbnail rendered on a sample photo, with its name and a small glyph tag.
Applying presets doesn't need an account. Signing in only matters for syncing the presets you save yourself, covered below.
Applying a preset sets the effect, dither method and factor, palette, resolution, contrast, brightness, saturation, noise, hue and colorize. It also removes any active color grade. Presets built on halftone, ASCII or contour also set those effects' own settings.
The first eight cards are goal presets, tuned for a specific kind of output. All eight are dither looks.
| Preset | Built for | Recipe in brief |
|---|---|---|
| Album Cover | Square artwork with punch | Atkinson dither, 200% resolution, strong contrast, rich color |
| Risograph | A riso printed feel | Bayer 8x8 dither, very saturated, slight hue shift |
| Zine Print | Photocopied zine pages | Floyd-Steinberg dither, black and white, high contrast |
| Streetwear | Bold graphic prints | Bayer 4x4 dither, black and white, very high contrast, slightly dark |
| Retro Game | Chunky pixel art | Bayer 2x2 dither at 55% resolution, saturated color |
| Vaporwave | Dreamy purple and pink | Blue noise dither, very saturated, hue rotated 280° |
| Darkroom | Moody black and white prints | Atkinson dither, dark, mostly desaturated, grainy |
| Golden Hour | Warm, sunny color | Atkinson dither, warm hue shift, gentle contrast |
After the goal presets come the rest of the built-in looks.
| Preset | Effect | Recipe in brief |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal | ASCII | Detailed character set in color, dark tone |
| Edge Trace | ASCII | Detailed character set in black and white with edge detection on |
| Code Rain | ASCII | Code character set, dense, hue shifted toward green |
| Ink Type | ASCII | Detailed character set in black and white, light tone |
| Blocks | ASCII | Block characters in color |
| Fine Print | ASCII | Standard character set at high density, black and white |
| Wireframe | ASCII | Standard characters with edge detection, in color |
| Braille | Braille | Braille dots in color |
| Braille Ink | Braille | Denser braille in black and white |
| Braille Fine | Braille | The densest braille, in color |
| Topographic | Contour | Eleven line levels, black and white, like a survey map |
| Relief Map | Contour | Eight filled levels in color |
| Newsprint | Halftone | Mono dots at 45°, black and white |
| CMYK Pop | Halftone | CMYK dots at 15° in color |
| Cyanotype | Dither | Blue noise dither with hue rotated to blue |
| Noir | Dither | Floyd-Steinberg, black and white, dark and grainy |
| Etching | Dither | Jarvis, Judice and Ninke dither at 200% resolution, black and white, high contrast |
| Bleach Bypass | Dither | Atkinson, nearly desaturated, harsh contrast |
| Synthwave | Dither | Blue noise, very saturated, hue rotated toward cyan |
| Blueprint | Dither | Bayer 4x4, blue hue, high contrast |
| Posterize Max | Dither | Threshold dither with extreme contrast for flat poster shapes |
For what each dither method and effect does, see Dithering, Halftone and print, and ASCII and text textures.
Under the built-in grid is My presets.
Enter or click the check button. Press Escape or click the cross to cancel.Your preset appears in My presets with a thumbnail and a star tag. Saving with a name you have already used replaces the older preset.
A custom preset stores the effect, dither method and factor, palette (including a generated Aura Gen palette), resolution, contrast, brightness, saturation, noise, hue and colorize. Effect-specific settings such as halftone cell size or ASCII character set aren't stored, so applying the preset leaves those as they currently are.
Hover a card in My presets and click the small bin icon in its top right corner.
Tip: Sign in before building up a preset collection. Presets saved while signed out aren't uploaded when you later sign in.
The random button (a dice icon, called randomize on mobile) picks one of 27 hand-tuned starting looks at random and applies it with a little variation:
The pool covers dither (11 looks), ASCII (5), braille (3), halftone (4), pop grunge (2) and contour (2). Random also clears any palette and color grade. Each click is one step in the undo history, so you can press Ctrl / Cmd + Z to go back to a look you liked.
Tip: Random is a great way to discover settings. When something catches your eye, open adjust and the effect popover to see what it chose, then save it as a preset.
In the export panel, copy recipe link copies a web address to your clipboard. The button reads "link copied" for a couple of seconds to confirm.
The link carries your entire look: the effect and every one of its settings, dither, adjustments, palette, color grade, haze and print finish. It does not include your photo. When someone opens the link, the editor loads their own photo (or waits for them to add one) and applies your look to it exactly. The recipe part is then removed from the address bar.
Recipe links are the most complete way to save a look, and they need no account on either side.
To keep a photo and its look together in one file, use save as .BTG in the export panel. Open it later with Load .BTG project in the canvas tools. .btg is free on every plan. It stores the photo, the effect, dither, adjustments, a built-in palette, the grade and haze settings.
Community recipes is a public gallery of looks made by Bitgrain users. There is also a Community recipes link at the bottom right of the editor.
Each card shows the recipe name, the author (if they were signed in when publishing) and how many times it has been used. The gallery loads 48 recipes at a time. Click load more at the bottom for the next batch.
A community recipe sets the effect, dither method and factor, resolution, contrast, brightness, saturation, noise, hue, colorize and built-in palette. Effect-specific settings (such as halftone cells or ASCII characters) keep their current values.
You'll see "your look is live in community recipes." when it works. If you are signed in, your account name is shown as the author.
Note: Publishing includes a small thumbnail of your current preview (up to 480 pixels on its long side) so others can see the look. Only publish when you are happy for that picture of your edited photo to be public. Moderators can remove recipes from the gallery.