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SnapDot Turns Any Photo Into Stipple Style Illustration

Gregory Han
Gregory Han
A Los Angeles native, Gregory’s interests fall upon the relationship between design, nature, and technology. His resume includes art director, toy designer, and design writer. Co-author of Poketo's "Creative Spaces: People, Homes, and Studios to Inspire", you can find him regularly at Design Milk and the New York Times Wirecutter. Gregory lives with his wife Emily and their two cats—Eames and Eero—in Mt. Washington, California, curiously investigating the entomological and mycological.
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published Jul 16, 2012
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Love that Wall Street Journal stipple-style illustration? The results are not exactly as beautiful as Kevin Sprouls fine illustrations, but the SnapDot app does a decent facsimile using stippling algorithm to convert any photo into a stipple drawing, even color!

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
SnapDot gives your iPhone the ability to draw professionally with the ideal fine art format: dots! Otherwise known as “pointillism” or “stippling,” SnapDot applies your creativity to your favorite photos with intuitive controls and the powerful “smart masking” enhancement mode. Each setting turns your photo into a unique work of art to share with friends or to frame and hang on your wall.

The results can be hit and miss…sometimes it looks like a decent quasi-Seurat, other times the results are the obvious product of an algorithm. Users have the ability to control the number of fits and the contrast to fine tune the stipple effect, with Facebook and Twitter integration listed as “coming soon” (alongside supposed Android support). Could be a fun way to refresh your Facebook or Twitter profile photo, right?

Available for iOS 4.2 or later device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad): SnapDot