Posterize an Image Online
Collapse smooth gradients into a few flat bands of colour for a screen-print or pop-art look. Drag one slider to choose how many levels survive.
Free preview · No signup · ~10 seconds
Drop your images here
PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG — up to 20 MB
Drop several at once — you can edit them all together in the app.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your image is never uploaded.
What posterising does to an image
Levels, not colours
The slider sets how many values each channel is allowed to take. At 2 levels every channel snaps to 0 or 255, giving eight possible colours. At 8 levels you get 512. That is why the count climbs so fast: the number you pick is cubed.
Built for print, not screens
Screen printing needs one physical screen per colour, so a design has to be described in a countable number of flat inks. Posterising is the digital rehearsal of that constraint, which is why the look reads as poster or T-shirt rather than photograph.
Where the bands land
Posterising quantises each channel independently and evenly. It does not pick the most common colours in your image, so a photo with a narrow tonal range can band in places you did not expect. If you want the palette chosen from the image itself, reduce the colour count instead.
Transparency is untouched
Only the colour channels are quantised. The alpha channel passes through unchanged, so a transparent logo stays transparent and keeps its exact silhouette.
Choosing a level count
Two to three levels give a stark, graphic result that suits bold subjects with clear shapes. Five to eight keep enough modelling that faces and objects still read as themselves. Above ten the effect becomes hard to see at normal viewing size.
How to posterize an image online
Upload your image
Drop in a PNG, JPG, WebP, or SVG, or click to browse. The original stays on the left for comparison.
Choose how many bands
Drag the Colour bands slider. The result redraws as you move it, so you can find the point where the image still reads clearly but the gradients have gone.
Download
Take a free preview to check the banding, or download the full-resolution file with one credit.
Where flat colour bands work best
Screen-print artwork
Work out how few inks a design can survive on before sending it to a printer.
Poster and gig art
Get the high-contrast, limited-palette look that defines poster design without redrawing anything.
Merchandise
Simplify a photo or logo into flat areas that transfer cleanly onto fabric.
Stylised backgrounds
Turn a busy photo into calm bands of colour that text can sit on top of.
Or just ask
Describe the edit in your own words
Type what you want changed and the assistant does it on the canvas — each step lands as a layer you can reopen, so nothing it does is baked in.
No edits yet.
Frequently Asked Questions
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How to Replace a Color in Canva (What's Possible on Elements, and What Isn't on Uploads)
Canva can swap colors on vector elements one swatch at a time. On an uploaded photo or PNG there is no per-color control at all — here is the full picture, including the Duotone approximation and its limits.
How to Remove a Background in Figma (There Is No Built-In Way — Here Is What Works)
Figma has no background removal feature. The honest options are a third-party plugin that uploads your image to its vendor, or a hand-drawn vector mask — plus when each is actually the right call.
How to Make a Duotone in Photoshop (Gradient Map vs Duotone Mode)
Photoshop has two duotone features and the one named Duotone is usually the wrong one. Why Image > Mode > Duotone demands a Grayscale conversion, why Gradient Map is what you actually want, and how to keep it editable.
Posterize your image
Upload, pick a band count, and download the flat-colour result.