All effects and presets

Effect

Pixel Sort

Sort pixels along thresholds for glitchy streaks and bands.

Pixel sorting rearranges pixels along a threshold so ordered streaks replace natural detail. Kim Asendorf developed the technique in 2010 and released open-source Processing code a couple of years later; it spread quickly through glitch communities, Tumblr aesthetics and later advertising.

Asendorf has noted that the process is controlled rather than a true malfunction: fake glitch with a dial. Threshold and direction set how much of the original photograph survives.

Pixel Sort example
Example

Properties

  • Sort by

    metric used to order pixels in each run

    Range
    Luma, Hue, Saturation
    Default
    Luma

  • Threshold

    pixels below this stay unsorted (run breaks); lower = longer streaks

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    0.2

  • Direction

    Range
    Horizontal, Vertical
    Default
    Vertical

  • Pixel size

    step coarseness along the sort axis

    Range
    1 to 24
    Default
    1

  • Strength

    0 = off

    Range
    0 to 10
    Default
    2.5

Command line

Requires Rethings Pro. Install the tool from Rethings → Install Command Line Tool… 

rethings apply --effect pixel-sort --set sortMode=0 --set threshold=0.2 -i input.jpg -o output.png

Gallery

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