Posterize Video

Often followed by + Sharpen + Film Grain

Drag & Drop or Click to Select a Video

MP4, MOV, WebM, or MKV

Tip: paste a video file from clipboard (Ctrl/⌘+V).

Shareable link

Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Flatten a video into a handful of color bands by snapping every channel of every pixel to the nearest of a few evenly spaced values.

Levels per channel

Each of red, green, and blue is rounded to one of 2 to 32 evenly spaced steps between 0 and 255. The steps include both ends, so black and full-intensity colors survive at any setting. Low settings give flat, screen-print color. From about 12 levels up, the effect shows mainly as visible bands in smooth gradients such as skies and walls.

Band edges in motion

A still image posterizes cleanly, but video carries noise from the camera sensor and from the compression of the source file. Pixels whose values sit near a boundary between two levels flip back and forth from frame to frame, and the edges of the bands crawl.

Fewer levels mean fewer boundaries, and footage shot in good light with little grain crawls least. Screen recordings and animation, which have no sensor noise, give the steadiest result.

Output size

Posterize costs almost nothing per frame, so 1080p and source-size exports add much less time here than they do for heavier effects. The encoder targets a bitrate set by the frame size, so the exported file is about the same size as an unprocessed export at the same resolution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Color Levels mean?

The number of values each of the red, green, and blue channels may take. At 4 levels a frame can use at most 64 colors (4 × 4 × 4); at 2 levels it has 8, the primaries and their mixes plus black and white.

Why do the edges of the color bands shimmer?

Camera noise and compression noise move a pixel's value slightly from frame to frame. Wherever a value sits near a level boundary, it jumps between two bands, so the edges of flat areas crawl. Cleaner, less grainy source footage shimmers less.

How long does the export take?

Posterize is a table lookup per channel, the lightest effect in the video tools, so the export runs close to the speed of decoding and encoding the clip.

What happens to the audio?

It is copied into the export unchanged when the container can hold its codec, and re-encoded when it cannot. A note under the export button says which happened.

Explore Our Tools

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Posterize Effect

Posterize images by reducing RGB channels into flat, stepped color bands. Control the number of color levels from 2 to 32, then download.

Gradient Map Video Editor

Recolor a video by mapping its brightness onto a five-stop color gradient. Pick one of 12 palettes or set each stop yourself, then export MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Duotone Video Effect

Map every frame of a video onto a two-color gradient from a shadow color to a highlight color, and shift the balance between them. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Kaleidoscope Video Effect

Mirror every frame of a video into 2 to 24 symmetric segments around the center for a moving kaleidoscope. Set segment count, rotation, and zoom. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Pop Art Video Effect

Reduce every frame of a video to four flat pop art colors with halftone dots and bold outlines. Set exposure, contrast, halftone dot size, and outline strength; the dots scale with the output. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Anaglyph 3D Video Effect

Split every frame of a video into offset color channels for the red and cyan look of anaglyph 3D glasses. Set the separation distance and angle, color pair, and ghosting. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Chromatic Aberration Video Effect

Split the red and blue channels of every video frame outward from the center or along one axis for lens color fringing. Set strength, fringe colors, and a protected center. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Comic Book Video Effect

Turn a video into a moving comic panel: black ink outlines and flat cel-shaded color on every frame. Set ink amount, poster levels, edge sensitivity, and color punch. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Film Stock Video Emulator

Grade a video to one of seventeen named film stocks, including Portra 400, Kodachrome 64, Velvia 50, CineStill 800T, and Tri-X 400, with grain that moves on every frame and trims for exposure, contrast, grain, and halation. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Glitch Video Effect

Add a digital glitch to every frame of a video: RGB channel shift, horizontal tearing, static noise, and scanlines, with the tearing redrawn on every frame. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Holographic Video Effect

Lay an iridescent, angle-driven spectrum over every frame of a video for a holographic foil look, with a foil texture that stays fixed like a real sheet. Set iridescence, foil angle, spectral bands, and foil texture. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Video Levels

Set the black point, white point, and midtone gamma of a video, the levels adjustment of photo editors applied to every frame. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.