What CRT Does

CRT simulates a cathode ray tube display. Three things happen at once:

Scanlines — horizontal dark stripes between every row of pixels

Phosphor bloom — bright pixels glow into their neighbors

RGB sub-pixel shift — red, green, blue phosphors lit slightly apart

The combined effect is the unmistakable look of analog video, before everything was 4K and surgically sharp.

CRT Algorithm Diagram

Why It Works on Photos

Modern photos are too clean. Every pixel is exactly where it should be. CRT adds the imperfection your eye associates with "video" — the artifact set that says this was on a screen, not paper.

Suddenly that bright window becomes a glowing rectangle. Skin tones get a slight color separation. Dark areas pick up a glow. It reads as 1987 instead of 2026, and your brain fills in the rest.

Parameters

Intensity (0–100%)
Master dial. Everything else scales with this.

Scanline (0–100%)

0–20%: faint, almost subliminal

20–60%: clearly visible, classic look

60–100%: aggressive, almost interfering

Bloom (0–100%)
How far bright pixels leak.

Low: clean retro

High: dreamy haze, late-night TV signal

Good Subjects

Street photos: instant Liquid Sky / cyberpunk vibe

Night scenes: bloom does heavy lifting on neon and streetlights

Portraits: phosphor shift on skin = unsettling but stylish

Still life with screens: looks like the photo was also shot on a CRT

What to Avoid

Detailed text: scanlines fight legibility

Already-soft images: bloom on top of bokeh just becomes mush

Pure black backgrounds: nothing to glow, you get scanlines on void

Combinations

CRT + RGB Shift: amplifies the analog feel. Use RGB shift at low intensity, CRT will do most of the work.

CRT + Pixel Sort: melting CRT broadcast. Like a corrupted VHS rip.

CRT + ASCII Art: terminal in a terminal. Cursed and beautiful.

The Idea

CRT isn't nostalgia. It's a different optical contract. Pixels become objects instead of math. That's the whole appeal.