Bitmap Shading/Bitmap Gradients(2)

One of the coolest method that got a lot of steam in the last year is the use of the Bitmap color mode in Photoshop. There are many different possibilities you can play it with, enough to warrant a tutorial on it’s own. For the sake of simplicity I will focus on one of the simpler ones. This style is commonly used by Graphic Designers and Artists around the world.

1. Duplicate your layer into another image

For this step, you can either just use the individual gradient layer or the whole image with the “Apply Image” (image>apply image) function

2. Convert it to greyscale (image>mode>grayscale)

Photoshop will ask if you really want to do it if you have more than one layer because to convert it it will merge all layers together on one background layer.

Bitmap Convert with diffusion dither on 60% of original PPI

3. Convert it into bitmap with Diffusion Dither (image>mode>bitmap)

There are a a lot of awesome options but for this tutorial we will use Diffusion Dither. Don’t be afraid to try out the other methods, there are a lot of cool options. You can even create your own texture to use! Now here is the tricky part: You will need to play around with the DPI of the image to get the desired effect. I usually just use a value around 60–75% of the original PPI of the image as it works best for the style I want to achieve. But as always experiment with it and see what works best for you!.

4. Resize the Bitmap image (image>image size)

This step is really simple. Just go to image size and resize it back to it’s original PPI (in this case I used 300). If you do this while still in bitmap mode Photoshop will keep the pixels with sharp edges, if you convert the image back before resizing it the pixels will blur a bit, giving a round effect if you play around with contrast after.

Resizing with Bitmap Color Mode (Left) compared to Resizing with Greyscale Color Mode (right)

5. Take the layer back into the original file

There you can play with contrast, different colors, blending modes and generally fit the gradient to your individual design.