What is Glitch Art Maker?

Add glitch effects to any image at the pixel level. Six tunable effects (channel shift, scan lines, pixel sort, corruption, JPEG corruption, wave distortion), one-click presets, a reproducible seed, and PNG, JPG, WebP, or animated GIF export.

Six independent effects stack however you want them. Channel shift offsets the red, green and blue channels separately for that VHS chromatic-aberration look. Scan lines drop horizontal or vertical streaks across the image. Pixel sort scans rows and reorders bright pixels — the glitch staple. Corruption injects noise into the byte stream. JPEG corruption tears 8×8 macroblocks and crushes colour depth for an authentic broken-file feel. Wave distortion ripples pixels in a sinusoidal pattern. Five named presets (Vaporwave, CRT, Datamosh, VHS, Cyberpunk) give you a tuned starting point, the seed input makes any look reproducible, and the result exports as PNG, JPG, WebP, or a short looping GIF.

How to use

1. Step 1 — Upload an image to use as your base. Photos with strong subjects and contrast work best.
2. Step 2 — Pick a preset for an instant look, or dial in each slider (channel shift, scan lines, pixel sort, corruption, JPEG corruption, wave distortion) and lock the seed if you want to reproduce or share the exact recipe.
3. Step 3 — The preview updates as you tweak. When you have the look you want, export as PNG, JPG, WebP, or as a short looping GIF for social.

When to use

• Cover art for a synthwave, vaporwave or hyperpop track.
• A profile picture with a deliberately broken-CRT aesthetic.
• Posters or merch art when you want that early-90s data-error look.

Result

Pick the Vaporwave preset, lock seed 4242 to keep the result reproducible, then export the looping GIF for a music post.

FAQ

What's the difference between channel shift and corruption?

Channel shift moves the red, green and blue layers apart — you see clean coloured fringes around edges. Corruption tampers with raw pixel data, producing block-like discontinuities and broken stripes. Together they read as proper digital decay.

Does pixel sort work better on some images than others?

Yes. High-contrast subjects (a face against a dark background, neon signs at night) sort dramatically. Flat photos with little luminance variation barely react. If the result looks subtle, increase contrast on the source first.

Can I reproduce the same look later or share it with a friend?

Yes. Every randomised pass is driven by the Seed input, so the same seed plus the same slider values will always give you an identical result. Note the seed (or use New Seed for a fresh one), and you can recreate or share the exact recipe.

What file formats can I upload?

JPG, PNG and WebP work directly. The image gets decoded, manipulated as raw pixels on the canvas, then re-encoded in your chosen format on download — PNG, JPG, WebP, or a short looping GIF. Animated source GIFs are processed as a single frame only.

Will the output quality suffer for large images?

The canvas keeps your source resolution, so a 4K photo gives you a 4K glitched result. Very large images (over ~16 MP) may run slow because pixel sort iterates over every row — resize first if performance matters.

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