Upload a picture. Break it across a grid.
Gridwork is a free distortion tool that warps any image through a grid. A picture is divided into a grid of cells, and each cell is then displaced, reordered, or recombined by one of four effects: weave interlocks the image with a second copy or picture in a checkerboard or basket pattern; shuffle scrambles the cells; displace pushes rows or columns along a wave; and slice offsets each row or column by a random amount. Where the other tools in this series build an image up from a craft material, Gridwork takes an existing image apart.
It is part of a series by Abby Merz exploring the grid as a shared structure across craft and digital design. Its sibling in the image tools is Rasterwork, which converts a photo into pixel art or a cross-stitch chart. On the text side, Meshwork, Dotwork, and Stitchwork set typed words in filet crochet, rhinestones, and floss. Its ancestor is Gridlace, a lace-inspired pixel serif font family.
Drop in an image, or start from the one loaded by default. Choose an effect, set the grid resolution, and adjust the controls that appear for that effect. In weave mode you can drop a second image to interlock the two, or fold the picture against itself by mirror, rotation, or offset. Transparent PNGs are respected. Export gives you a print-quality PNG.
Gridwork is free. Exports are yours for personal and creative projects — a credit or link back is always appreciated. Images you load stay on your device and are never uploaded anywhere.
Made by Abby Merz — portfolio · posters at MERZ Print Co · Rasterwork