Raster effects reference

Last updated on Oct 25, 2026

Learn how to find specifications and parameters for all raster-based effects in Adobe Illustrator's Effect menu.

Consult this reference when selecting raster effects for your artwork or when troubleshooting unexpected results from effect parameters. All raster effects use the document's raster effects settings and generate pixels rather than vector data.

Artistic effects

Artistic effects simulate traditional art media and painterly techniques on vector and bitmap objects.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Colored Pencil	Draws using colored pencils on a solid background with rough crosshatch edges	Background color, pencil width, and pressure
Cutout	Creates a roughly cutout colored paper appearance	Number of levels, edge simplicity, edge fidelity
Dry Brush	Paints edges using the dry-brush technique, blending oil and watercolor.	Brush size, brush detail, texture
Film Grain	Applies an even grain pattern to shadows and midtones, a smoother pattern to highlights	Grain, highlight area, intensity
Fresco	Paints in coarse style with short, rounded strokes	Brush size, brush detail, texture
Neon Glow	Adds glows to objects with a colorization effect	Glow size, glow brightness, glow color
Paint Daubs	Creates painterly effect with brush sizes from 1 to 50	Brush size, sharpness, brush type (simple, light rough, dark rough, wide sharp, wide blurry, sparkle)
Palette Knife	Reduces detail to simulate a thinly painted canvas, revealing texture	Stroke size, stroke detail, softness
Plastic Wrap	Coats in shiny plastic to accentuate surface detail	Highlight strength, detail, smoothness
Poster Edges	Reduces colors based on posterization value and draws black lines along edges.	Edge thickness, edge intensity, posterization
Rough Pastels	Simulates colored pastel chalk stroked on a textured background	Stroke length, stroke detail, texture, scaling, relief, light direction
Smudge Stick	Softens using short diagonal smudging strokes	Stroke length, highlight area, intensity
Sponge	Creates highly textured, contrasting color areas	Brush size, definition, smoothness
Underpainting	Paints on a textured background, then overlays the final image	Brush size, texture coverage, texture, scaling, relief, light direction
Watercolor	Paints in watercolor style with simplified details and a medium brush	Brush detail, shadow intensity, texture

Blur effects

Blur effects soften selections and smooth transitions between pixels.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Gaussian Blur	Quickly blurs the selection with an adjustable amount, removing high-frequency detail.	Radius
Radial Blur	Simulates zooming or rotating camera blur	Amount (1–100), blur method (spin or zoom), quality (draft, good, best), blur center
Smart Blur	Blurs with precision control over similar pixels	Radius, threshold, quality, mode (normal, edge only, overlay edge)

Brush Strokes effects

Brush Strokes effects add painterly strokes and artistic texture to the artwork.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Accented Edges	Accentuates edges; high values create a white chalk effect; low values create a black ink effect.	Edge width, edge brightness, smoothness
Angled Strokes	Repaints using diagonal strokes in opposite directions for light and dark areas	Direction balance, stroke length, sharpness
Crosshatch	Adds texture with simulated pencil hatching while preserving details	Stroke length, sharpness, strength (1–3 passes)
Dark Strokes	Paints dark areas with short strokes, light areas with long white strokes	Balance, black intensity, white intensity
Ink Outlines	Redraws with fine, narrow pen-and-ink style lines	Stroke length, dark intensity, light intensity
Spatter	Replicates the spatter airbrush effect	Spray radius, smoothness
Sprayed Strokes	Repaints using dominant colors with angled sprayed strokes	Stroke length, spray radius, stroke direction
Sumi-e	Paints Japanese style with a wet brush and black ink on rice paper, soft, blurry edges	Stroke width, stroke pressure, contrast

Distort effects

Geometric distortions can distort artwork and can be memory intensive.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Diffuse Glow	Renders as if viewed through a soft diffusion filter with see-through white noise	Graininess, glow amount, and clear amount
Glass	Makes artwork appear viewed through different glass types	Distortion, smoothness, texture, scaling, invert
Ocean Ripple	Adds randomly spaced ripples to simulate an underwater appearance	Ripple size, ripple magnitude

Pixelate effects

Pixelate effects clump pixels into shapes or patterns.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Color Halftone	Simulates an enlarged halftone screen with circular dots proportional to brightness	Max radius (4–127 pixels), screen angles for channels 1–4
Crystallize	Clumps colors into polygon shapes	Cell size
Mezzotint	Converts to a random black-and-white or fully saturated color pattern	Type (dots, lines, stroke patterns)
Pointillize	Breaks colors into randomly placed dots with background color between	Cell size

Sketch effects

Sketch effects use foreground and background colors to redraw artwork with drawing media textures.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Bas Relief	Transforms to appear carved in low relief and lit	Detail, smoothness, light direction
Chalk & Charcoal	Redraws highlights and midtones in chalk, shadows in charcoal	Charcoal area, chalk area, stroke pressure
Charcoal	Creates posterized smudged effect with bold edges and diagonal midtones	Charcoal thickness, detail, light/dark balance
Chrome	Treats as a polished chrome surface with highlights and shadows	Detail, smoothness
Conté Crayon	Replicates dense, dark, and pure white Conté crayon texture	Foreground level, background level, texture, scaling, relief, light direction
Graphic Pen	Captures details using fine linear ink strokes	Stroke length, light/dark balance, stroke direction
Halftone Pattern	Simulates halftone screen while maintaining continuous tones	Size, contrast, pattern type (circle, dot, line)
Note Paper	Creates a handmade paper appearance with simplified dark areas as holes	Image balance, graininess, relief
Photocopy	Simulates photocopying with edges around darkness, midtones as black or white	Detail, darkness
Plaster	Molds as if from plaster with raised dark areas and sunken light areas	Image balance, smoothness, light direction
Reticulation	Simulates controlled film emulsion shrinking with clumped shadows and grained highlights	Density, foreground level, background level
Stamp	Simplifies to appear stamped with a rubber or wood stamp, best with black-and-white images	Light/dark balance, smoothness
Torn Edges	Reconstructs as ragged, torn paper pieces, useful for text or high-contrast objects	Image balance, smoothness, contrast
Water Paper	Uses blotchy daubs on fibrous, damp paper with flowing, blending colors	Fiber length, brightness, contrast

Stylize effect

The Stylize category contains the Glowing Edges raster effect.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Glowing Edges	Identifies color edges and adds a neon-like glow	Edge width, edge brightness, smoothness

Texture effects

Texture effects add depth and substance by simulating the appearance of textured surfaces.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
Craquelure	Paints onto high-relief plaster, producing a fine crack network following contours	Crack spacing, crack depth, and crack brightness
Grain	Adds texture simulating grain types (regular, soft, sprinkles, clumped, contrasty, enlarged, stippled, horizontal, vertical, speckled)	Intensity, contrast, grain type
Mosaic Tiles	Draws as small chips or tiles with grout between	Tile size, grout width, and lighter grout
Patchwork	Breaks into squares filled with predominant area color, and randomly varies tile depth.	Square size, relief
Stained Glass	Repaints as single-colored cells outlined in foreground color	Cell size, border thickness, light intensity
Texturizer	Applies selected or custom texture	Scaling, relief, light direction, texture type, invert

Video effects

Video effects address issues specific to video capture and television reproduction.

Effect	Description	Key Parameters
De-Interlace	Smooths moving video images by removing odd or even interlaced lines	Eliminate (odd or even fields), create new fields by (duplication or interpolation)
NTSC Colors	Restricts colors to a television-acceptable gamut to prevent oversaturated bleeding	No parameters

Set texture and glass surface controls

Several raster effects—Glass, Rough Pastels, Grain, and Fresco—include texturizing options that control how artwork appears on surfaces such as canvas, brick, or glass blocks.

In the effect dialog box, select a texture from the Texture menu. For Rough Pastels or Glass effects, you can select Load Texture.

Set these options if available:

Scaling: Drag the Scaling slider to enlarge or reduce the texture effect on the surface.
Relief: Drag the Relief slider to adjust the depth of the texture surface.
Light Direction: Choose a direction from the Light Direction menu to set where light appears on the texture.
Invert: Select Invert to reverse the surface's light and dark colors.

Note

Try different Relief and Light Direction values to see how they change your texture's depth and lighting.

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