Free tool

Etching Effect

Fine crosshatched lines, the way an engraver builds tone out of nothing but marks.

Looked after by Sponge, a sponge.

An engraving has no greys. Tone is made by lines — closer together and thicker where it is dark, further apart and finer where it is light — which is why old banknotes, stock certificates and Wall Street Journal portraits all look the way they do.

Crosshatching at a fine spacing over a photograph borrows that logic. The lines multiply into the image so they darken without flattening it, and the angle decides whether it reads as an engraving or as a technical drawing.

What this look is made of: Crosshatch at 6px spacing with a 0.8px line, at 45 degrees, in near-black, multiplied at 50%. Every one of those is a control below, so this is a starting point rather than a filter.

Choose an image

Drop an image or click to upload

JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG, BMP

or try one of ours:

Looks

Base Color
#0a0a0a

Add Layer

How it works

  1. 1Add an imageJPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG or BMP.
  2. 2Press a lookNine of them. Each sets the pattern, the colour, the blend and the opacity at once.
  3. 3Layer a backgroundStack patterns with their own colour and opacity.
  4. 4ExportPNG or JPEG, at 1x, 2x or 3x.

Questions

How do I make it look engraved rather than scratched?
Keep the lines fine and the spacing tight. Thick lines at wide spacing read as damage; thin lines close together read as an engraver's tool. The line weight slider goes down to 0.3px for exactly this.
What angle works best?
Forty-five degrees is the classic, because it sits furthest from both the horizontal and the vertical edges in most photographs and so competes with them least. Anything within ten degrees of horizontal will fight a horizon line.
Can I use this for a portrait?
Yes, and it is where it works best — the face keeps its shape because the lines darken rather than replace. Keep the opacity under about 60 per cent so the eyes do not disappear into the hatching.

Other looks in this tool

Newsprint EffectRisograph FilterFilm Grain OverlayLaid Paper TextureCRT ScanlinesScreen Print EffectBlueprint EffectPhotocopy EffectAll nine, one editor →
Add texture and depth to any image

Nine named looks — newsprint, risograph, etching, film grain, CRT — each one press. Underneath them are thirteen hand-made patterns, five blend modes, and every parameter the look set, still yours to move. Everything runs in your browser, so your images never leave your device.

13 texture presets

Crosshatch, Woven, Linen, Halftone, Diagonal, Dot Grid, Scanlines, Noise, Fabric, Herringbone, Checker and Grid.

Background layers

Stack pattern layers with their own colour, opacity and visibility.

High-quality export

2x resolution as PNG or JPEG, for social, print and client work.

This tool is looked after by Sponge.Soaks up every texture it meets. Squishy, and delighted about it.

More Free Tools

YouTube Thumbnail PreviewPodcast Guest Release FormCrop Video to VerticalImage ConverterReels Cover CreatorProject Folder Generator
View All Free Tools

Shorts by Slice

From the team behind these free tools

One video. A week of posts.

Upload an episode and get back the moments worth posting, cut and captioned.

  • Reads the whole episode, then picks the excerpts worth posting
  • Captions burned in and framed vertical, ready to post
  • Seven days free, no card
Try Shorts by Slice