Toner Press
Print: photocopy, halftone screentone
The prompt
{subject}, a photocopied annotated ink-and-screentone drawing — crisp confident black brush-and-pen linework with hatching, dot-halftone screentone for midtones and shadow, printed on warm cream paper with a faint blue-gray notebook grid showing through, {palette}, blue-ballpoint margin annotations (a small circled index number, a short dashed arrow pointing into the subject, a few handwritten correction ticks), a gray taped label with clipped corners and a hole-punch dot adhered at one edge, light photocopier toner speckle and a slightly off-register black plate; the subject fills the frame edge to edge, calm and studied, never glossy, never neon
- Materials
- ink, paper, ballpoint, toner
- Techniques
- photocopy, halftone screentone
photocopied, ink linework, halftone screentone, cream paper, blue ballpoint
Slot recipes
How the prompt changes for each kind of picture.
- Hero: A single dominant subject rendered as one large manga-style panel crop, photocopied ink-and-screentone on cream paper, one blue-ballpoint dashed arrow and circled number annotating it, a taped gray label at a lower corner; composition fills the full bleed with quiet cream margin only where a real notebook page would breathe.
- Feature: A medium subject vignette with halftone-shaded volume, a circled index number and one short handwritten correction tick in blue ballpoint pointing at the key detail; restrained manga speed-lines on one edge for emphasis.
- Avatar: A tight three-quarter portrait crop, black ink contour with halftone cheek shading on cream paper, a tiny circled number and one taped label fragment; centered, fills the frame.
- Empty state: A sparse single small object on broad cream paper with faint notebook ruling, one blue dashed arrow pointing at the empty space and a short handwritten note tick; calm, mostly paper, gentle and low-stakes.
- Illustration: A richer annotated scene or still life as a photocopied diagram page: confident inked subject, two or three halftone tones, several blue-ballpoint margin marks (circled numbers, dashed arrows, ticks) and a taped label, slight off-register; the subject fills the frame.
Guidance
Do
- Keep linework confident and crisp — clean black brush-and-pen contours with intentional hatching for form.
- Use a single dot-halftone screentone as the workhorse for midtones, shadow, and volume.
- Print on warm cream paper with faint blue-gray notebook ruling visible through the drawing.
- Restrict the only saturated color to one blue-ballpoint annotation channel: a circled index number, a dashed arrow into the subject, and a few correction ticks.
- Add a gray taped label with clipped corners and a hole-punch dot at one edge.
- Let the subject fill the frame and adopt a manga panel crop; keep speckle and slight misregister subtle.
- Make the technique read the same whether the subject is a face, a building, or an object.
Don’t
- Don't add color beyond the cream paper, black ink, halftone gray, and one blue annotation channel.
- Don't use neon glow, green matrix rain, cyberpunk purple, vaporwave gradients, or a black hacker background.
- Don't draw anime mascots, chibi characters, or fan-art faces — the manga reference is page structure and crop, not character illustration.
- Don't let handwritten notes become illegible decorative scribble or fill the frame with paragraphs of text.
- Don't render glossy 3D, chrome, glassmorphism, or smooth airbrushed digital surfaces.
- Don't leave large empty whitespace borders — the subject fills the frame.
In the lineage of
- Photocopied zine culture, movement. annotated toner 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 Toner Press to any UI language and swap the palette: the preview takes this style's hero image.