# Linocut effect generator

Your photo cut into a block: white strokes of the gouge, each pressed and lifted by hand, wider where the light falls. The photo stays on your device.

Open the generator: https://morph.ogeny.app/linocut/

## Design choices

- **Carved line** (`surface.woodcut`): Woodcut, linocut or engraving marks. Set by “Carved line”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/
- **Diagonal axis** (`layout.diagonal`): Composition driven by tilted axes and oblique movement. “Carved line”: Slanted. Measured on the opening picture: edges on the diagonal 88% with “Slanted”, and 7.5% to 45% with the other options. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/
- **Isolated object** (`layout.isolated-object`): A single object or figure isolated on a plain ground. “Backdrop”: Cleared to the paper. Measured on the opening picture: ground showing 80% with “Cleared to the paper”, 49% with “As photographed” and 76% with “Left solid”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/
- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Monochrome** (`color.monochrome`): A single hue, or black and white. “Limited spot colours”: One block. Measured on the opening picture with “One block”: hues besides black, white and grey 0. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/
- **Treated photography** (`image.treated-photo`): Duotone, high-contrast or posterised photographs. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/
- **Woodblock & linocut** (`medium.woodblock`): Carved relief printing. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/
- **Visual tension** (`space.tension`): Deliberate instability: crowded edges, clashes, near-collisions. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/

## How it works

- Subtractive: the block starts fully inked and every mark is a cut that takes ink away, a white gouge stroke as wide as the photo is light, all running in one family of lines.
- Each stroke is cut by hand: it swells as it is pressed in, some deeper than others, lifts out to a point or stops on a round nose, and strays a little; a ridge of ink stays between cuts until an area is cleared.

It never does:

- No grey, no gradient and no embedded photo: only ink and paper, and at most one colour block under the key.
- No even, machine-ruled lines and no square stroke ends; no famous print reproduced.

## Controls

- `cuts` Carved line (form | level | slanted | wavy | rings | spiral | crossed; default form): How the cuts run: lifted over the light of the form, in straight or wavy rows, in rings or one spiral from the middle, or crossing. Slanted: Measured on the opening picture: edges on the diagonal 88% with “Slanted”, and 7.5% to 45% with the other options.
- `spacing` Cut spacing (6–22, default 9): From one cut to the next: wider is bolder and coarser.
- `hand` Hand (0–1, default 0.25): How loose the cutter’s hand is: from steady, even strokes to short, uneven ones that stray and overrun.
- `light` Light (-0.3–0.3, default 0): Cut more away (lighter) or leave more ink (darker).
- `backdrop` Backdrop (photo | paper | solid; default photo): Behind the subject: cut as photographed, cleared away, or left as solid ink. Busy photos keep their backdrop. Cleared to the paper: Measured on the opening picture: ground showing 80% with “Cleared to the paper”, 49% with “As photographed” and 76% with “Left solid”.
- `blocks` Limited spot colours (one | two; default one): One ink on the paper, or a second block printed first in a colour, showing through the cuts. One block: Measured on the opening picture with “One block”: hues besides black, white and grey 0.

## About Expressionist Woodcut Graphics

A linocut is printed from a block of linoleum. The whole block takes ink, so the artist works backwards: every cut with the gouge removes darkness and leaves white paper. Expressionist printmakers in the early twentieth century made the woodcut and linocut a raw, direct medium, with heavy black masses, white gouge marks left plainly visible and a single ink on the paper.

This generator cuts your photo the same way. The cuts run in one family, bent over the form, in level or slanted rows, in rings or one spiral, and each is wider where the photo is lighter. Every stroke is cut by hand: it swells as the gouge is pressed in, some deeper than their neighbours, and lifts out to a point or stops on its round nose. The Hand control sets how steady the cutter is. A second block can print a colour under the key, showing through its cuts.

Expressionist Woodcut Graphics in Stylogeny (1905–1925): https://stylogeny.com/styles/expressionist-graphics/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "linocut",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 1,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "cuts": "form",
    "spacing": 9,
    "hand": 0.25,
    "light": 0,
    "backdrop": "photo",
    "blocks": "one"
  },
  "palette": "expressionist-graphics"
}
```