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Pixel sorting is a glitch-art technique that reorders the pixels of an image along straight lines to create smooth, melting streaks of colour. Instead of changing any pixel's colour, it simply rearranges the pixels you already have: the tool scans each row (or column), gathers contiguous runs of pixels whose brightness falls within a threshold band, and sorts each run from dark to light (or light to dark). Pixels that are too dark or too bright to qualify stay exactly where they are, so they break the image into segments and anchor the sorted streaks — which is what gives pixel sorting its distinctive dripping, databent appearance. You control the Direction (horizontal streaks sort within rows, vertical streaks within columns), the brightness band that gets sorted (Threshold low and Threshold high), and the Sort order. Because the effect is a pure rearrangement, the image's overall palette and histogram are completely unchanged — every colour that comes out was already there. It is also fully deterministic: the same image and settings always produce the identical result. Everything runs locally on the HTML canvas — your image is never uploaded, transparency is preserved, and there's no sign-up and no watermark.
How It Works
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is pixel sorting?
Pixel sorting is a glitch-art / databending effect that reorders the pixels along each row or column of an image by their brightness. Within a chosen brightness range, runs of pixels are sorted into smooth gradients, producing the characteristic melting, streaking look popularised by artists like Kim Asendorf. It's a rearrangement, not a filter — no pixel's colour is altered, they're just moved.
What do the Threshold low and Threshold high controls do?
They define the band of brightness that is allowed to be sorted. Only pixels whose brightness lies between Threshold low and Threshold high are reordered; pixels darker than the low value or brighter than the high value stay exactly where they are and act as boundaries that break the streaks. A narrow band sorts only a slice of mid-tones, giving short, scattered streaks; widening the band to the full 0–255 range sorts entire rows or columns end to end. Setting the low threshold above the high one leaves the image completely unchanged.
Does pixel sorting change my image's colours?
No. Pixel sorting only moves pixels around — it never creates a new colour or alters an existing one. Because the output is a pure permutation of the input, the image's colour palette and brightness histogram are exactly the same before and after; only the positions change. Each sorted pixel keeps its full colour and transparency, so the alpha channel is preserved too.
Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No. The entire effect runs in your browser on the HTML canvas — your photo never leaves your device, nothing is sent to a server, and there's no sign-up and no watermark. The sort is fully deterministic, so the same image and settings always produce an identical result, and the output can be downloaded as a PNG with its transparency intact.