Print-style grain to take the flatness off
Flat digital work can feel sterile. A whisper of grain — the kind you get from risograph, newsprint or a photocopier — adds tactility and warmth without changing the design underneath. This tool generates that grain as a resolution-independent SVG you drop on top as an overlay.
It's built on a real fractal-noise filter, so Density and Scale change the actual grain structure rather than fading a canned texture. Presets jump you to riso, newsprint, photocopy and letterpress starting points.
Getting a good result
- Start from a preset (riso, newsprint, photocopy, letterpress) that matches the feel you want.
- Tune Density for how fine the grain is and Opacity for how loud it sits.
- Nudge Contrast to bias the noise toward speckle or even tooth.
- Set it over your artwork as a multiply/overlay layer, or export a transparent PNG to drop straight in.
What it's good for
- poster and cover overlays
- risograph and zine looks
- adding tooth to flat UI mockups
- subtle texture on packaging renders
FAQ
How do I apply the grain over my own design?
Export it (transparent works best), place it as the top layer in Figma/Photoshop, and set the blend mode to multiply or overlay at low opacity. The grain rides on top of everything below.
Will it stay sharp when I scale it up?
Yes — it's vector noise generated by an SVG filter, so it re-renders crisply at any size instead of pixelating like a raster grain.
It looks too heavy. What do I drop first?
Pull opacity down before anything else; grain almost always reads better understated. Then lower density if it still feels busy.
Related tools
These tools work well alongside it.