CRT
Turns any layer into a tube screen: curvature, RGB phosphors, scanlines and bloom.
Shape Grid for Affinity
Replaces every cell of an invisible grid with a dot, a cross, a ring or a square, picked by the tone of the cell. Each set is a ladder of shapes from an empty cell to the fullest one, the chevrons point to where the image gets lighter, and the colors come from a palette of three or from the image itself. The tone is measured relative to the image, so even a dark or flat photo uses the whole ladder.
Filter Gallery
Get this one and 29 more effects in Filter Gallery
Shape Grid is part of Filter Gallery, a plugin with 30 effects in one window inside Affinity. It’s a free download with CRT, ASCII, Dithering, Beads, Knit and Bricks, and a USD $12 license unlocks Shape Grid and the rest.
Also for Windows · 2.4 MBAlso for Mac · 2.6 MB
See all 30 effects
BeforeAfter
6 presets to start with
Pick one in the Filter Gallery window and adjust it from there. Every control can still be changed.
Default
Steel-blue dots and crosses in the shadows, amber chevrons in the midtones and cream rings and squares in the highlights, on night blue.
Mono
Black dots, rings, diamonds and squares on cream paper: the highlights stay empty and the shadows close into solid black.
Neon
A mix of crosses, stars, triangles and other shapes on violet black: blue in the shadows, pink in the midtones and yellow in the highlights.
Image
The image’s own colors on black: dots and rings in the shadows, up to squares and full cells in the highlights.
Blueprint
White and light-blue plus signs, crosses, stars and squares on blue, like a blueprint.
Engrave
Dark diagonal lines on cream paper that get thicker in the shadows, like an engraving.
What each control does
They have the same names as in the Filter Gallery window.
- Cell size
- The side of each cell of the grid, in thousandths of the longer side of the image. Smaller cells follow more detail.
- Shape set
- The ladder of shapes, from emptiest to fullest. Geometric: dot, ring, diamond, square and full cell. Glitch: dot, cross, chevron, ring and a square inside another. Crosses: dot, plus, cross, star and square. Lines: diagonals that get thicker. Mixed: in each cell, a random shape among several with a similar amount of ink.
- Shape size
- How much of the cell each shape fills. Lower it to leave more room between the shapes.
- Stroke weight
- The line weight of the rings, crosses, chevrons and frames. Dots, diamonds and squares are solid and don’t change.
- Contrast
- Separates light and dark before picking the shapes: more contrast, more empty and full cells and fewer in-between shapes.
- Brightness
- Makes the image lighter or darker before picking the shapes. With “Fullest shapes in the highlights” on, raising it fills the grid; with it off, it empties it.
- Blend
- Mixes neighboring shapes where the tone changes, so the steps don’t look like contour lines. At 0 each shape fills its own zone, with clean borders.
- Fullest shapes in the highlights
- On, the fullest shapes go in the highlights, for light shapes on a dark background. Off, they go in the shadows, like ink on paper.
- Shape color
- The three palette colors by tone, or each shape with the color of the image under it. With “From the image”, the shapes get lighter over a dark background and darker over a light one, so they don’t get lost.
- Shadows
- The color of the shapes in the shadows. Only with “Palette”.
- Midtones
- The color of the shapes in the midtones. Only with “Palette”.
- Highlights
- The color of the shapes in the highlights. Only with “Palette”.
- Background
- The color behind the shapes and in the empty cells. With “no color”, only the shapes remain over transparency.
Tips
- Read from afarRaise “Cell size” so every shape can be told apart from a distance, and lower “Shape size” to leave more room between them.
- Over the photoSet “Background” to “no color”: the result goes on a new layer above the original, so the photo shows between the shapes.
Filter Gallery
Take Shape Grid and 29 more effects to your Affinity
Filter Gallery is a plugin with the 30 Visual.af effects in a single window. You choose by looking at thumbnails of your layer, adjust with a live preview and compare before and after, then apply.
- 30 effects with their presets
- Zoomable preview and comparison slider
- 6 free effects to start with
- One payment of USD $12, up to 3 computers
Installation
It installs in a minute
The installer copies the plugin into the Affinity plugins folder and turns on the setting Affinity needs to load it.
Download the installer
Download FilterGallery-Setup.exe. It doesn’t need administrator permissions.
Open it
Click “OK”: it copies Filter Gallery into Affinity and turns on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used”, which Affinity needs. If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, click “More info” and then “Run anyway”.
Restart Affinity
Choose Filters › Plugins › Visual.af › Filter Gallery with a pixel layer selected. The effect is applied to that layer, so duplicate it first with Ctrl+J if you want to keep it.
Download the installer
Download FilterGallery-Setup.pkg. It doesn’t need administrator permissions.
Open it
Click “Continue” and then “Install”. It copies Filter Gallery into Affinity and turns on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used”, which Affinity on Mac needs.
Restart Affinity
Select a pixel layer and choose Pixel › Filters › Plugins › Visual.af › Filter Gallery. The effect is applied to that layer, so duplicate it first with ⌘J if you want to keep it.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on a Mac?
Yes. Download the Mac installer (FilterGallery-Setup.pkg): it works with Affinity 3 on Macs with Apple Silicon or Intel. The installer is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.
Does Windows warn that it isn’t safe?
It can happen. Because Filter Gallery is new, Windows SmartScreen doesn’t know the installer yet and may show “Windows protected your PC”. It is 100% safe: click “More info” and then “Run anyway”.
What if Filter Gallery doesn’t show up in Affinity?
Go to Settings › Photoshop Plugins, turn on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used” and restart Affinity. Also select a pixel layer before you open the Plugins menu: the filter only works on a selected pixel layer.
Which version of Affinity do I need?
Affinity 3, on Windows 10 or 11 or on a Mac.
Does it work with text, vectors or groups?
Like every filter in Affinity, it works on pixel layers. To apply an effect to text, vectors or a group, duplicate it and turn the copy into pixels first (rasterize it).
Does it create a new layer?
No. Like every filter in Affinity, the effect is applied to the selected layer. Duplicate it first with Ctrl+J (⌘J on a Mac) if you want to keep the original, or undo with Ctrl+Z (⌘Z).
On how many computers can I use the license?
On three. If you change computers, you can free one up from the window itself with your purchase email.
Does it need the internet?
Only to activate the license and check for updates. The effects are calculated on your computer and your images never leave it. Offline, the license keeps working for 14 days.
How do updates work?
When there’s a new version, the window shows a notice with an “Update” button. Affinity uses the new version the next time it starts.
More effects in Filter Gallery
ASCII
Turns your images into art made of characters, in their original colors or a single ink, with a transparent background.
Dithering
Dithers your images with Bayer matrices or random noise, in the original colors or your own palette.
Beads
Build hama bead designs from your images: beads with volume, an adjustable hole and a colored pegboard.
Knit
Turns your images into knitted fabric, with V-shaped stitches, relief and a palette of a few colors.
Bricks
Turns your images into a mosaic of building bricks, with flat or studded pieces.
Pixel Melt
The colors of your image run in streaks like melted paint.
Liquid Dots
Dots that grow in the tones you choose and merge like drops.
Overprint
Your image printed in up to three overprinted inks, with grain and misregistration, like a riso print.
Gold Foil
Your image embossed in gold, silver or copper, or stamped in foil on paper.
Sunprint
Your image as a cyanotype: Prussian blue on watercolor paper, with a brushed border.
Thermal
Your image as a thermal camera would see it, in six heat palettes.
Blob Tracking
Boxes, numbers, coordinates and lines over the spots in your image, like a tracking system.
Aberration
Your image stretched out from a sharp center, with rainbow fringes toward the edges.
Bloom
A deep glow around the highlights of your image, intense up close and soft in the distance.
Ink
Lines of ink that bleed into the paper, with 1 to 3 inks, overprint and misregistration.
Hologram
Turns your images into a hologram of lines that rise with brightness, with glow and interference.
Topographic
Contour lines over your image, like a topographic map of its brightness.
Flare
Glow, a streak that drags the lights and fine stars on the brightest parts of your image.
Digitalism
A phosphor screen of vertical lines that thicken with brightness, with glow.
Stipple
Your image drawn with loose ink dots, closer together in the shadows.
Woodcut
Your image carved in wood: solid ink, parallel strokes and cross-hatching.
Wireframe
A glowing wire mesh that bends with the brightness of your image.
Paper Texture
Fibers, crumples and folds of paper over your image.
Fluted Glass
Your image seen through ribbed glass.
Halftone Dots
A grid of dots that grow with the shadows, like a printed photo.
Halftone CMYK
Your image printed in four inks, with dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Lens Distortion
Your image through a lens that bends it, with the colors split at the edges.
Water
Your image under water, with waves and caustic light.