Ink lines on the edges, flat dot screentone in the midtones and solid blacks in the shadows, the way a manga page is built.
Open the editor with this effect
A printed manga page is made of three things: ink lines, flat areas of dot screentone, and solid black. Artists used to cut screentone from adhesive sheets and lay it over the drawing by hand. The look is so specific that a generic sketch filter never quite gets there, because it skips the step where tone is flattened into a few deliberate levels.
Lines come first. The inker traces the edges that matter, the outline of a face, the fold of a sleeve, the edge of a building, and leaves out the soft detail a camera records.
Tone comes second, and it is flat. A real screentone sheet has one dot size, so a cheek gets one tone and a shadow gets another. There are no smooth gradients inside an area.
Black is placed last, in hair, deep shadows and night skies, to anchor the page and guide the eye.
Bitgrain follows the same order. It finds the important edges and draws them as ink, flattens the photo into a few tonal bands, fills the middle bands with dot screen and the darkest with solid black.
Dot size sets the screentone pitch. Small dots look like modern digital tone, larger dots look like older printed volumes and read better on small screens.
Angle rotates the screen. Forty five degrees is the classic choice. Moving it away from the default can help when the dots fight with strong vertical lines in the photo.
Line weight decides how much of the photo becomes ink. Low values keep only the strongest outlines, high values pick up textures like hair and fabric.
Contrast moves the boundaries between tone bands, so more of the image falls into white paper or into solid black.
Clear edges make clean lines. A portrait with hair against a plain background or a street with strong architecture turns into a convincing panel.
Busy photos produce busy panels. Foliage and crowds create lots of tiny lines, so lower the line weight or crop tighter.
Lighting matters more than resolution. Directional light gives you distinct tonal bands, while flat midday light gives you mostly one tone.
Open the editor from this page and the manga effect is already switched on. Drop in your photo.
Start with line weight until the outlines feel right, then set dot size for the screentone, then adjust contrast so the blacks land where you want them.
Add a touch of grain if you want it to look scanned from a printed volume.
Export as PNG for social posts and webtoons, or place the export in a studio page to add lettering and panel borders.
No. It is a deterministic algorithm that traces edges, flattens tone and lays down a dot screen. The same photo and settings always give the same panel, and nothing is uploaded.
Raise the dot size slider in the manga panel. Bigger dots read better on phones and give an older printed look.
Busy photos create lots of edges. Lower the line weight, crop to the subject, or pick a photo with a simpler background.
Yes. Because the effect is deterministic, using the same settings across every photo keeps the tone and line style consistent from page to page.