Halftone Review

Developer: Juicy Bits

Price: $0.99
Version: 1.02

iPhone Integration Rating:
User Interface Rating:
Re-use / Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

I have used a lot of photography editing apps on the iPhone in the last few years. I'm kind of addicted to retro-style photos, and the ease with which they are duplicated with iPhone Apps. Nothing makes me more upset than when I hear about a really awesome or unique feature from an app, only to download and be horribly disappointed when the app doesn't manage to quite pull off the effect it's going for.

With that said, I am delighted to say that Halftone manages to create old newspaper/comic print effects from photos beautifully and with ease. There are a few photo editing apps out there that claim they offer this effect, but really end up giving you sort of polka-dot mess that usually entirely devoid of features from your original picture. Halftone uses your original pic, processes it with filters to offer a retro look and then blends it with digital pointillation to make a really, really great vintage style photo. Comparable to what you might remember from the Sunday Morning Comics, or 50's era postcards.

I'll show you an example of before and after (full size images can be seen at the bottom of this post):

As you can see, the results are pretty great. Plus, there's so many customization options it's delightful. Each variation I tried turned out splendidly. You can adjust the size of the dots, the inclusion of the original (with effects or not), then there's the paper/background options, the caption options, and the text options. All rolled together it makes for a fun app that does exactly what's on the tin.

The layout and user interface is easy and simple, and in case you forget, the instructions pop up every time you open the app. There's only one tiny quibble I have with this app, and this could be selfish, but I know from experience that this is something that most photo editing apps should always include: Twitterablity. Sure, it's great that I can save, email and Facebook from within Halftone. Just be aware that you'll have to save, then use your Twitter client of choice if you want to tweet your creations.

However, that being said, I cannot overstate how much I enjoy well-developed 99 cent apps - it's developers like these that constantly keep the bar high enough in this price category that make me really pleased as an app consumer and reviewer.