# Stencil effect generator

Your photo cut into one to three flat stencil layers, tied together by bridges, with overspray and drips from its own edges. The photo stays on your device.

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

## Design choices

- **Flat fields** (`color.flat-fields`): Unmodulated areas of colour. Set by “Flat fields”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/
- **Stencil** (`type.stencil`): Bridged letterforms evoking crates, military or industrial marking. Set by “Stencil”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stencil/
- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Grain & noise** (`surface.grain`): Film grain, riso speckle, dithering noise. Set by “Grain & noise”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/
- **Photocopy & distress** (`surface.photocopy`): Xerox degradation, toner, torn and pasted edges. Set by “Photocopy & distress”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/photocopy-and-distress/
- **Repetition & rhythm** (`space.repetition`): Repeated units create a visual cadence. Set by “Repetition & rhythm”. Measured on the opening picture, from 1 to 3: pixels on an edge 12% → 20%. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/
- **All caps** (`type.all-caps`): Capitals for monumentality, order or shouting. Set by “All caps”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/
- **Treated photography** (`image.treated-photo`): Duotone, high-contrast or posterised photographs. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/
- **Isolated object** (`layout.isolated-object`): A single object or figure isolated on a plain ground. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/
- **Single focal point** (`space.single-focal`): One unmistakable point of entry. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/
- **Monochrome** (`color.monochrome`): A single hue, or black and white. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/

## How it works

- The photo is cut as a card that would hold together: every island of bare wall is tied to the rest by a bridge, a clean gap through the paint.
- One to three flat layers from nested tones, sprayed light to dark, with a clear subject standing alone on the wall and no frame.
- Overspray and drips come from the cut’s own edges, so they follow the figure rather than lying over it as a texture.

It never does:

- No stock figures of the genre: no balloons, rats or campaign portraits in posterised tones, and no slogan unless you type one. It is a treatment for your own photo, not a pastiche of any street artist.
- No gradients: every layer is one flat paint.

## Controls

- `layers` Flat fields (1–3, default 2): How many stencils are cut and sprayed: black alone, or lighter tones under it.
- `level` Paint coverage (0.1–0.7, default 0.32): How much of the figure gets the darkest paint: the rest is lighter layers and bare wall.
- `detail` Detail (0–1, default 0.55): How small a piece may be cut: bold shapes, or finer ones.
- `bridges` Stencil (0–1, default 0.45): The width of the bridges that hold the card together. At 0 the islands float, as no real stencil can.
- `accent` Limited spot colours (default false): Spray the layer under the dark in the palette’s accent colour instead of a mid tone.
- `overspray` Grain & noise (0–1, default 0.45): Fine dots of paint drifting off the cut’s edges.
- `drips` Photocopy & distress (0–1, default 0.35): Runs of paint from the lower edges of the cut.
- `repeat` Repetition & rhythm (1–3, default 1): Cut once and repeat: how many pulls of the stencil across the wall. Measured on the opening picture, from 1 to 3: pixels on an edge 12% → 20%.
- `wall` Wall (light | dark; default light): Dark paint on a light wall, or light paint on a dark one, where the photo’s light parts are sprayed.
- `words` All caps (default ""): A short slogan in stencil capitals, if you want one.

## About Stencil Street Art

Stencil art is a picture cut rather than drawn. A photograph is reduced to two or three flat tones, each tone is cut into card, and the paint goes on through the holes, so a figure keeps a photograph’s proportions and loses every gradation. It took shape in the late 1970s in the punk scenes of Amsterdam and São Paulo, spread through Paris in the early 1980s, and went worldwide after 2000, on walls and then on screenprints and posters.

This generator cuts your photo the way a card has to be cut. Nested tones become flat layers, sprayed light to dark, and a clear subject stands alone on the wall. A patch of wall surrounded by paint would drop out of a real stencil, so a bridge ties each one to the rest and leaves the clean gaps the style is known for. Overspray and drips start from the cut’s own edges. Cut once and repeat it across the wall, or add a short slogan in stencil capitals.

If you take the picture onto a real wall, ask the owner first, and start from a photograph you took or may use: most stencils begin as someone else’s picture, and that has ended in court. Your photo is read only in your browser and is never uploaded.

Stencil Street Art in Stylogeny (1978–today): https://stylogeny.com/styles/stencil-street-art/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "stencil",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 4,
  "format": "portrait",
  "params": {
    "layers": 2,
    "level": 0.32,
    "detail": 0.55,
    "bridges": 0.45,
    "accent": false,
    "overspray": 0.45,
    "drips": 0.35,
    "repeat": 1,
    "wall": "light",
    "words": ""
  },
  "palette": "stencil-street-art"
}
```