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Dot Matrix
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Star LC-10 Draft · NLQ · Photo Colour & B&W Bayer 4×4 Floyd-Steinberg Atkinson

Simulate the Star LC-10 colour dot matrix printer on any photo. Three print quality modes, adjustable ribbon wear, contrast and colour. No upload — runs entirely in your browser.

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How to print your photo through a dot matrix printer

The Star LC-10 built up an image from four ink-soaked pins on a moving head, one pass at a time. These steps walk through the controls that recreate that process.

Upload a photo

Drop it onto the paper or click to select. Photos with clear highlights and shadows read best once they're reduced to printer dots.

Pick a print mode and density

Draft (9-pin) is fast and coarse with visible horizontal banding, NLQ makes a sharper two-pass print, and Photo (Fine) overlaps dots for a near-continuous tone. Density (60/120/240 DPI) sets how tightly packed those dots are — higher density keeps more detail from the original photo.

Choose Colour or Mono ribbon

Colour runs a four-pass cyan/magenta/yellow/black ribbon like the real LC-10, visible as the pass indicator lights up each colour in turn. Mono prints with the black ribbon only, in a single pass.

Fine-tune contrast, threshold and ribbon wear

Contrast and Lightness shape the tonal range before dithering. Threshold shifts which mid-tones tip black vs. white. Ribbon wear simulates a fading, unevenly inked ribbon — low values print crisp and dark, high values print patchy and light, the way a real cartridge degrades with use. Colour pop boosts saturation on top of that for a punchier (less period-accurate) look.

Pick a dithering algorithm and save

Bayer 4×4 is closest to what the real LC-10 used; Floyd-Steinberg and Atkinson give smoother, less patterned gradients; None is a stark black-and-white threshold. Once it looks right, hit Save Output to download the printed page as a PNG.

Everything above runs locally in your browser. There's no upload, no server processing and no account, your photo never leaves your device.

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Three print modes

Draft (9-pin) — Fast, low-density pin output. Wide horizontal gaps between dots, heavy horizontal banding visible at close range. The raw workhorse look of 1980s office printing.
NLQ — Near Letter Quality — Two-pass printing at higher density. Sharper, smoother edges. The best general-purpose mode for that authentic dot matrix aesthetic.
Photo (Fine) — Full-density pass. Dots overlap slightly, producing near-continuous tone output at 240 DPI. Closest to photographic quality the LC-10 could achieve.

Four dithering algorithms

Bayer 4×4 — Ordered dithering. Most similar to what the Star LC-10 actually used — produces a crisp, geometric crosshatch pattern.
Floyd-Steinberg — Classic error diffusion. Smooth tonal gradients, minimal repetitive patterning.
Atkinson — Softer Apple Mac-era diffusion. Slightly less contrast, more painterly result.
None — Raw threshold. Stark black and white, no gradients — most aggressive print look.

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Dot MatrixPrinter Converter

How to print your photo through a dot matrix printer

Three print modes

Four dithering algorithms

Conversion examples

Dot Matrix
Printer Converter