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Phosphor Press

Print: Photocopying, Screentone shading, Overprinting

Phosphor Press example 1
Phosphor Press model comparison 2
Phosphor Press model comparison 3
Phosphor Press model comparison 4

The prompt

{subject}, a high-contrast photocopied underground-zine plate, bone-white paper and dense sumi-black ink with manga halftone screentone dot-shading for the midtones and shadows, {palette}, overprinted with a fixed fine horizontal CRT scanline veil and re-lit by a single luminous green phosphor terminal beam (#00ff66) tracing the contours and glowing in the deep blacks, thin green reticle corner-brackets and tiny green coordinate annotation labels crosshairing the subject as if machine-scanned, xerox grain and photocopy registration noise, monochrome plus one green accent only, subject fills the frame edge to edge

Materials
Paper, Black ink
Techniques
Photocopying, Screentone shading, Overprinting

photocopied zine, halftone screentone, crt scanline, green phosphor beam, reticle annotation

Slot recipes

How the prompt changes for each kind of picture.

  • Hero: {subject} as a full-bleed photocopied phosphor plate, dominant sumi-black ground, the green phosphor beam raking across the main contour, scanline veil edge to edge, reticle brackets pulled to the frame corners with coordinate labels: composed dark and cinematic to sit behind an overlay
  • Feature: {subject} centered and cropped tight as a manga diagnostic panel, balanced bone-white and sumi-black with screentone midtones, a single green crosshair and small coordinate tag pinned on the focal point
  • Avatar: head-and-shoulders of {subject} as a scanned zine portrait plate, heavy halftone screentone on the face, green reticle corner-ticks framing the head, one green coordinate label, tight square crop filling the frame
  • Empty state: a lone {subject} small in a sparse sumi-black field with faint scanlines and one drifting green reticle searching for it, restrained green coordinate readout, quiet and diagnostic rather than busy
  • Illustration: {subject} as a detailed photocopied specimen plate, intricate halftone screentone rendering, green phosphor beam tracing the linework and veins, multiple small reticle brackets and coordinate labels annotating parts as if catalogued

Guidance

Do

  • Hold to two value families — bone-white paper and dense sumi-black — bridged only by halftone screentone dots.
  • Use exactly one chromatic accent, the green phosphor beam #00ff66, to relight contours and glow in the blacks.
  • Keep the CRT scanline veil and reticle/coordinate annotations thin and crisp so they read as machine overlays.
  • Let xerox grain and photocopy registration noise carry the underground-zine texture.
  • Fill the frame with the subject, edge to edge, cropped like a zine plate.

Don’t

  • Do not add a second accent color, rainbow gradients, or purple/cyan cyberpunk neon.
  • Do not render in smooth full color, airbrushed shading, or glossy 3d.
  • Do not let scanlines or screentone wash over the focal subject until it loses contrast.
  • Do not leave white margins, borders, poster mockups, or empty whitespace.
  • Do not stamp HUD reticles without coordinate labels or a clear scanning focus.

In the lineage of

  • Photocopied zine culture, movement. high-contrast xerox plates

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 Phosphor Press to any UI language and swap the palette: the preview takes this style's hero image.