Cathode Ray
Photography: scanlines, RGB misregistration, halation
The prompt
{subject}, in the style of a vintage cathode-ray-tube broadcast image, {palette}, fine horizontal scanlines across the whole frame, glowing phosphor light, subtle RGB misregistration, soft bloom and halation, deep near-black background, faint screen curvature and vignette, cinematic full-frame photographic composition
- Materials
- phosphor glow
- Techniques
- scanlines, RGB misregistration, halation
crt, phosphor, scanline, neon, cyan magenta
Slot recipes
How the prompt changes for each kind of picture.
- Hero: wide establishing scene with generous near-black negative space on one side
- Feature: a single bold subject, centered, glowing against black
- Avatar: a portrait bust lit in phosphor
- Empty state: a small lonely object on an open black field
- Illustration: one spare motif rendered in phosphor light
Guidance
Do
- Apply the cathode-ray look AS a treatment to a real subject — a face, an object, a scene
- Cover the whole frame with fine scanlines, phosphor glow and RGB misregistration
- Keep the field near-black and leave negative space for overlay type
Don’t
- Never render the screen, monitor or TV itself — the style is the treatment, not the object
- No daylight, rainbow gradients, or cyberpunk clichés
- No text, letters or UI in the image
In the lineage of
- Analog CRT broadcast imagery, tradition. scanline and phosphor artifacts
A generated style is an aggregate of many influences. Credit goes to the artists and traditions it draws on; it is not a claim of authorship.
Produced by unrecorded, sourced by unrecorded, images by unrecorded
Remix with this style
Apply Cathode Ray to any UI language and swap the palette: the preview takes this style's hero image.