Name: How to Pixel Sort an Image Without Photoshop | Artfkt
Uploaded: 2026-10-15T02:42:38-07:00
Duration: 121 s
Description: Pixel sort an image into color ribbons. Set brightness limits, direction, and streak length, then export a PNG from Artfkt or the browser demo.

Pixel sort an image into color ribbons. Set brightness limits, direction, and streak length, then export a PNG from Artfkt or the browser demo.

Video transcript

Pixel sorting turns the colors in a photograph into flowing ribbons. Here is the original jellyfish image beside the finished look.

Let’s make it in Artfkt.

Import a photograph with bright shapes against a darker background. That contrast gives the sorting something clear to work with.

Open Collections, search for Pixel Sort, and add it to the image. We are recording the Mac app; you can also try this effect in the free browser demo.

Lower Dark limit to zero point two five, and raise Light limit to one. Watch the bright jellyfish stretch into ribbons while the deeper blues hold together.

Switch Direction to Vertical. The same colors now flow down columns, giving the image a different rhythm. Choose the direction that suits your composition.

Reduce Max streak to twenty four. The ribbons break into shorter sections. Restore it to two thousand forty eight when you want those long bands of color.

Return to Horizontal, then use Preview without FX to check the original. Switch the effect back on and compare the shapes that stayed with the colors that moved.

Open Quick Export and choose PNG. This saves the artwork at the photograph’s dimensions. Your image is ready to use in a cover, poster, or another creative experiment.

One image, rearranged through brightness and direction. Try a second photograph and notice how its contrast changes the result.

Try Pixel Sort in the free browser demo. Add your own image, move the brightness limits, and make it your own.