Halftone Poster Maker
Turn any photo into a giant wall poster made of dots, printed at home across as many Letter or A4 sheets as you like. Up close it looks like a pattern; from across the room the picture appears. Pick the dot spacing, shape and colour, set the final size, and download a PDF with labelled sheets, trim lines and an assembly guide. Your photo stays on your device. No sign-up, no watermark.
100% private — everything runs in your browser. Your photo is read and turned into dots on your device; nothing is uploaded.
Poster size
The top and bottom, or the sides, are cropped evenly so no sheet is left part empty.
Dots
Colour
Tone
Print marks
Your photo is read on this device and is not uploaded. Every dot is worked out for the whole poster, so dots in the overlap strips match from sheet to sheet. The dots in the PDF are vector shapes. Print at 100% or Actual size, with fit-to-page turned off.
How to make a giant dot poster
- Choose a photo, or drop one on the box. High-contrast pictures with a clear subject work best.
- Set the size: sheets across, or a final width or height. The tool shows how many sheets that takes.
- Pick a quick look, then adjust the dot spacing, shape and colour.
- Tick Preview from across the room to see how the picture reads from a distance.
- Download the PDF and print every page at 100% or Actual size.
- Follow the guide page: trim, line up the dots and tape the sheets from the back.
What you can use it for
- Statement wall art for a bedroom, dorm or studio
- Giant portraits for birthdays, retirements and weddings
- Backdrops for events, shop windows and school displays
- Stage sets and photo walls
- Art classes that explore how halftone printing works
- Low-cost mock-ups of a mural before painting it
What a halftone poster is
Halftone is the printing method that builds up a picture from dots, using size or spacing to suggest tone. Blow the dots up to a centimetre or more and you get a poster that reads as pattern up close and as a photo from far away. Wall posters of this kind are often linked with the Rasterbator site; Made Good Designs is not affiliated with it.
William Fox Talbot suggested “photographic screens or veils” in an 1852 patent. The first printed halftone photograph appeared in the Canadian Illustrated News in 1869, and the New York Daily Graphic printed a full-tonal-range photograph in 1880. Source: Wikipedia: Halftone, read 6 November 2026.
Poster size by sheets across
| Sheets across | Letter sheets (3:4 photo) | Final size, Letter | A4 sheets (3:4 photo) | Final size, A4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 6 | 15.8 × 21.0 in | 4 | 38.8 × 51.8 cm |
| 3 | 12 | 23.5 × 31.3 in | 9 | 57.9 × 77.2 cm |
| 4 | 20 | 31.2 × 41.7 in | 16 | 77.0 × 102.7 cm |
| 5 | 30 | 39.0 × 52.0 in | 25 | 96.1 × 128.1 cm |
| 6 | 42 | 46.8 × 62.3 in | 36 | 115.2 × 153.6 cm |
| 8 | 72 | 62.2 × 83.0 in | 64 | 153.4 × 204.5 cm |
| 10 | 110 | 77.8 × 103.7 in | 100 | 191.6 × 255.4 cm |
Worked out by the tool for portrait sheets with a 6.35 mm margin and a 6.35 mm overlap. A different photo shape changes the number of rows.
How many dots you get
| Dot spacing | 3 Letter sheets across | 6 Letter sheets across |
|---|---|---|
| 5 mm | 119 × 159 dots | 237 × 317 dots |
| 10 mm | 60 × 80 dots | 119 × 158 dots |
| 15 mm | 40 × 53 dots | 79 × 106 dots |
| 20 mm | 30 × 40 dots | 59 × 79 dots |
Straight rows on a 3:4 photo with the same margin and overlap. Fewer dots means a bolder picture with less detail.
Five things that make a better poster
- Crop close: one big subject beats a wide view.
- Raise the contrast if the face or subject looks flat.
- Try a diagonal grid. The rows are less obvious to the eye.
- Print one sheet first to check your margin and your colours.
- Trim all the sheets before you tape any, and work from the top left.
Colour modes
| Mode | Dots | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| One ink | Sized by darkness, one colour | Classic look; lowest ink use |
| Colours from the photo | Sized by darkness, coloured by the photo | Bright pictures and pop art |
| Even dots | All one size, coloured by the photo | A mosaic or confetti look |
| Reversed | Sized by lightness on a dark sheet | Night scenes and dramatic portraits |
Related tools
- Want the photo itself, split across sheets with no dots? Use the Poster Tiler.
- Need one halftone picture for the screen or a single print? Try the Halftone Image tool.
- Prefer flat colour bands? See Posterize Image.
- Choosing a size? Check the Poster Sizes chart, or plan the wall with the Gallery Wall Planner.
More free print tools
Printing something big?
Split images across sheets, check poster sizes and try other print looks: free tools that run privately in your browser, with no sign-up.
See all free tools →Frequently asked questions
How many sheets do I need?
It depends on the size you want. Three Letter sheets across and four down gives a poster about 23.5 × 31.3 in. The tool shows the sheet count and the final size as you type.
What dot spacing should I use?
Wider spacing gives a bolder, more abstract poster that needs more distance to read. Closer spacing shows more detail. Use the across-the-room preview to compare. Start near 12 mm for a poster a few sheets wide, and go smaller on large posters.
Will the dots line up across sheets?
Yes. Every dot is worked out once for the whole poster, so the dots in an overlap strip sit in exactly the same place on both sheets. We check this by reading the dots back out of the PDF.
Why does the poster come out smaller than the tool says?
Your printer settings are probably scaling each page. Print at 100% or Actual size with fit-to-page off, then measure the square on the guide page.
What are the overlap and margin for?
Most home printers leave a white edge, so the margin keeps the dots inside the area your printer can reach. The overlap repeats a strip of the picture on the next sheet, which gives you room to trim and glue without a gap.
Do I need a high-resolution photo?
No. Dots hide a lot of detail, so even a phone photo is usually plenty. The tool warns you if the picture has fewer pixels than the poster has dots.
Which photos work best?
Faces and simple subjects with strong light and dark areas read best. Busy scenes with lots of small detail tend to turn to noise. Crop in close before you start.
Does it use a lot of ink?
The page shows an ink cover figure as a share of the paper. White dots on a dark sheet cover much more of the paper than black dots on white.
Is the PDF vector?
Yes. The dots are vector shapes, so they print with sharp edges on any printer. The file holds only the dots, not your photo, apart from a small map on the guide page.
Can I print on a bigger paper size?
Yes. Choose Tabloid, A3 or Legal. Fewer sheets means fewer joins, and a print shop can run the same PDF if it can match the paper size.
How do I hang it?
Lay it out on the floor first and tape the joins from the back. Then use poster putty or removable tape suited to your wall.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. It is read and turned into dots in your browser, and it is not sent anywhere.