Cathode
Photography: CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration
The prompt
{subject}, rendered as if captured off a glowing cathode-ray-tube screen. The image carries the full CRT treatment baked into the picture itself: dense horizontal RGB scanlines across the whole frame, soft phosphor bloom haloing every bright edge, subtle chromatic-aberration red/blue fringing at high-contrast borders, a gentle barrel curvature, and a faint dark vignette only at the extreme corners. {palette} — luminous phosphor highlights reading as neon-green key light with cyan and warm amber accents over deep near-black shadows. The {subject} fills the entire frame edge to edge and overflows the edges. Cinematic, technical, instrument-display mood.
- Materials
- phosphor glow
- Techniques
- CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration
phosphor glow, scanlines, chromatic aberration, screen curvature, crt vignette
Slot recipes
How the prompt changes for each kind of picture.
- Hero: A single bold subject rendered full-bleed in the Cathode style: heavy phosphor bloom, dense RGB scanlines, chromatic-aberration fringing and gentle barrel curvature baked into the image, luminous neon-green key with cyan and amber accents on near-black. The subject overflows every edge; no bezel, no margins.
- Feature: A mid-complexity object or scene captured off a CRT in the Cathode style, three-quarter framing, scanlines and soft bloom across the whole picture, restrained amber accent on the warm side, edge to edge with no surrounding housing.
- Avatar: A head-and-shoulders subject as a Cathode CRT capture, tightly framed and square, phosphor-green glow with cyan rim and subtle chromatic-aberration on the silhouette, scanlines throughout, face overflowing the crop, no bezel or background scene.
- Empty state: A calm single subject in the Cathode style with gentler bloom and lower contrast, scanlines still present and a faint corner vignette, the subject quietly filling the frame without large blank areas.
- Illustration: A detailed subject as a rich Cathode CRT capture, layered phosphor glow, pronounced scanlines and chromatic-aberration, cyan and amber accents picking out detail against deep near-black, reading like footage off a mission-console display, full-frame.
Guidance
Do
- Bake the CRT treatment into the picture itself — scanlines, phosphor bloom, chromatic aberration and a gentle barrel curve live on the image, not on a separate screen prop.
- Let luminous phosphor read as the light source: neon-green as the dominant glow with cyan and warm amber as the two supporting accents over deep near-black.
- Keep horizontal RGB scanlines visible across the whole frame so every subject reads as live phosphor output.
- Push the subject large so it overflows all four edges, full-bleed, with at most a faint vignette in the extreme corners.
- Use chromatic-aberration red/blue fringing only on high-contrast borders to sell the analog-display feel.
Don’t
- Do not render a physical monitor, bezel, TV set, or any screen housing around the picture.
- Do not leave empty margins, whitespace, or a small centered subject floating in blank space.
- Do not deliver a clean, crisp, sterile modern photo or render with none of the CRT artifacts.
- Do not wash the image into flat pastel or muddy desaturated tones — keep it luminous on near-black.
- Do not add text, captions, UI chrome, or watermark over the image.
In the lineage of
- Analog CRT broadcast imagery, tradition. phosphor screen capture
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 to any UI language and swap the palette: the preview takes this style's hero image.