Turn photos into glitch pixel-sorting art by sorting pixels by brightness, free.
What is pixel sorting?
Pixel sorting is a glitch-art technique that takes the pixels of a photo and sorts them, usually by brightness, into streaks. Smooth areas stretch into flowing bands of colour, while sharp edges act as walls that stop the sort. The result looks like the photo is melting sideways or dripping downwards, and it has become a signature look of digital glitch art.
This tool performs real pixel sorting in your browser. It reads your photo’s pixels, splits each row or column into segments at sharp brightness jumps, sorts each segment from dark to bright, and draws the result. Your photo never leaves your device, and the art downloads as a PNG.
How to use it
Choose a photo, pick a direction, rows for horizontal streaks, columns for vertical drips, or both for a woven effect, and set a threshold. The threshold decides how big a brightness jump must be to break a segment: a low threshold makes many short segments, a high threshold makes long, dramatic streaks. Press sort and download the art.
Direction changes the mood completely. Horizontal sorting feels like wind or motion blur. Vertical sorting feels like rain or melting. Both together can look chaotic, which suits abstract pieces but can overwhelm a portrait. Try one direction first, then experiment.
Choosing the right photo
Photos with strong light and dark areas sort best: sunsets, city lights, high-contrast portraits, and landscapes with a bright sky over dark ground. Flat, evenly lit photos produce gentle streaks that may disappoint. If your first result looks weak, try a bolder photo or raise the threshold to lengthen the streaks.
Colour survives sorting in an interesting way. Because sorting is by brightness, not by hue, colours stay attached to their pixels and rearrange into gradients you did not plan. A sunset’s oranges and purples flow into each other; a neon sign’s colours smear into light trails. That unpredictability is part of the appeal.
Understanding the threshold
Think of the threshold as the height of the walls between segments. A brightness jump bigger than the threshold builds a wall, and sorting stops there. Small jumps inside a segment get sorted away. With a threshold of zero, almost every jump is a wall and almost nothing sorts. With a threshold of 200, almost nothing is a wall and whole rows sort end to end.
Practical values sit in between. A threshold around 30 to 60 gives a balanced glitch: recognisable image, clear streaks. Push it to 100 or more for extreme, near-abstract results. There is no correct value, only the look you like, so try several on the same photo.
From experiment to artwork
Pixel sorting rewards iteration. Sort the same photo at three thresholds, keep the best, and use it as a poster background, an album cover, or a social post. Combine it with a crop afterwards: the most interesting streaks often sit in one corner, and cropping to them makes a stronger image than the full sort.
Because the tool runs locally, you can experiment freely with private photos. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and every attempt is free. Pick a high-contrast photo and sort it now: the moment the streaks appear is genuinely satisfying.
As a final experiment, try sorting the same photo twice: once by rows at a low threshold, then take that result and sort it by columns. Layered sorts create textures that a single pass cannot reach, with streaks crossing streaks like woven fabric. Save each stage as you go, because the most interesting version is often an intermediate one you did not expect, and local processing means re-running costs nothing.
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- Versión en español