IMG · Images tools

Thermal Camera Effect

Simulate thermal and infrared sensors

Drop in a JPEG, PNG, or WebP to apply a realistic thermal camera effect. The tool estimates “heat” by mapping image brightness through false-color gradients. Lighter areas read as hot, and darker areas read as cold. This works best on high-contrast photos, portraits, and scenes with distinct subjects. Everything renders locally in the browser.

Heat mapping and contrast

The Thermal Palette dictates the style, from the classic FLIR look of Ironbow to the scientific full-spectrum Rainbow or the tactical grayscale of White Hot. Sensitivity controls the contrast between hot and cold zones. Lower sensitivity maps the colors gently across the image, while higher sensitivity creates stark, dramatic separation like a high-gain crt camera effect.

Structure and sensor noise

Because false color can destroy the shapes in a photo, Detail blends the original image outlines back in to keep the subject readable. Sensor noise adds the authentic, slightly gritty texture of an infrared sensor. Lower the detail and increase the noise to recreate the look of a low-cost or long-range scanner.

Tactical HUD overlay

Toggle the HUD overlay to add a decorative targeting interface over the thermal image. This renders a center reticle, corner brackets, a hottest-spot tracking marker, simulated temperature readouts, and a palette scale. For a clean heat map without the interface, turn the overlay off.

Frequently Asked Questions

JPEG, PNG, and WebP. The downloaded image keeps the same format as your original file.

No.

No. This is an artistic effect. It maps image brightness to thermal colors and shows decorative temperature numbers in the HUD. It does not measure actual heat and should not be used for any real thermal or safety purpose.

It chooses the color map used to represent heat, such as Ironbow, White Hot, Black Hot, Rainbow, Arctic, or Lava. Cold areas map to one end of the palette and hot areas to the other.

Sensitivity controls how strongly hot and cold areas are separated. Higher values exaggerate the contrast between temperatures and spread the colors more dramatically across the image.

Detail keeps edges and structure readable in the thermal image. Lower values look softer and more blobby, like a low-resolution thermal sensor; higher values keep more outline definition.

The HUD adds a thermal-camera interface on top of the image: a center reticle, corner brackets, a hottest-spot marker, decorative spot and MAX temperature readouts, and a palette scale bar. It can be turned off.

Yes. Once the page has loaded, the effect can run offline because the image processing happens fully in your browser.

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