What is this style, a grid of varying dots, called?

Question

What is this style called? I want to recreate this effect on a photo myself. Also, does anyone have tips on how to accomplish this?

Answer 1

That’s a halftone.

Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing, thus generating a gradient like effect.

It can be achieved in Photoshop by choosing Filter → Pixelate → Color Halftone.

The example you posted looks like the halftone version of the image has been blended with the original.

Answer 2

In GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), you can halftone a photo with Filters > Distorts > Newsprint. On deviantART, istarlome provided a tutorial for halftoning in GIMP. Here's the gist:

1. Create an image. Either open an existing photo or create a new canvas and apply a gradient.
2. If the image has fine detail, use Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur to hide details smaller than the desired dot grid.
3. In Filters > Distorts > Newsprint, change the "cell size" to control how big the dot grid is.
4. Change the "angle" of each channel. Traditionally, black is set at 45 degrees, and CMY are 15, 75, and 0 respectively. (I might have cyan and magenta backward, but it shouldn't matter.)
5. Oversampling allows dots to have gray on the edges. This allows use of a finer dot grid without quite as much of a banding effect.

Answer 3

This is known as a halftone effect. Googling that term will yield lots of tutorials on how to achieve it.