# Silkscreen poster generator

Your photo cut into a few flat, opaque colours, one stencil per screen, with clean knife-cut edges. The photo stays on your device; the SVG has one shape per colour.

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

## Design choices

- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. Measured on the opening picture, from 2 to 5: colours besides the ground (each on 1% of the picture or more) 2 → 5. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Angular & zigzag** (`form.angular`): Chevrons, zigzags, sunbursts and faceted shards. “Cut”: Straight knife cuts. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/
- **Biomorphic curves** (`form.organic`): Soft, cell-like, plant-like forms. “Cut”: Smooth curves. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/
- **Isolated object** (`layout.isolated-object`): A single object or figure isolated on a plain ground. “Backdrop”: Dropped to the paper. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/
- **Flat fields** (`color.flat-fields`): Unmodulated areas of colour. “Backdrop”: One flat colour. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/
- **Misregistration & overprint** (`surface.misregistration`): Inks slightly out of register; transparent overprints. Set by “Misregistration & overprint”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/
- **Treated photography** (`image.treated-photo`): Duotone, high-contrast or posterised photographs. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/
- **Screen printing** (`medium.screenprint`): Flat stencil-printed inks, often opaque or fluorescent. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/
- **Stylised figuration** (`form.stylised-figure`): Simplified, flattened people and objects. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/

## How it works

- The photo is cut into two to five flat, opaque screens by tone, each a few bold masses with clean, mostly straight edges; neighbouring screens share every cut exactly.
- Screens print light to dark, each lying under the darker ones, so a screen off register shows the colour beneath, never a gap.

It never does:

- No halftone, grain, gradient or outline: every tone is one flat shape, and pieces smaller than the shape size merge into their neighbours.
- No transparent overprints, no four-tone campaign portrait as a default, and no copy of any known poster.

## Controls

- `screens` Limited spot colours (2–5, default 3): How many screens print on the paper, one colour each. Measured on the opening picture, from 2 to 5: colours besides the ground (each on 1% of the picture or more) 2 → 5.
- `cut` Cut (knife | curve; default knife): How the stencils’ edges run: straight cuts meeting at corners, or curves.
- `size` Shape size (1–5, default 3): How far the photo is simplified: bigger shapes, fewer details.
- `balance` Light and dark (-1–1, default 0): Shifts the cuts between tones: lower gives more paper, higher more of the deep colours.
- `backdrop` Backdrop (photo | paper | flat; default photo): Behind the subject: the photo’s own backdrop, bare paper, or one screen printed flat. Busy photos keep their backdrop.
- `offset` Misregistration & overprint (0–1, default 0): How far each screen lands off register.

## About WPA Silkscreen Posters

Screen printing pushes ink through a fine mesh, blocked wherever a stencil covers it. In the 1930s, poster studios cut those stencils by hand, one for each colour, and printed public notices, theatre bills and travel posters in a few opaque layers: bold, simplified shapes in earthy colours, each colour a flat field with crisp edges.

This generator does the cutting for you. It flattens your photo into calm masses, splits its tones between the paper and two to five colours, and drops every piece too small or too thin to cut. The borders are then cut once, as straight knife strokes or smooth curves, and shared by the colours on either side, so they meet exactly. Choose the shape size, the backdrop and how far the screens land off register.

WPA Silkscreen Posters in Stylogeny (1935–1943): https://stylogeny.com/styles/wpa-poster/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "silkscreen",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 1,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "screens": 3,
    "cut": "knife",
    "size": 3,
    "balance": 0,
    "backdrop": "photo",
    "offset": 0
  },
  "palette": "wpa-poster"
}
```