Add a vignette — darken or fade the edges of a photo

How to use Image Vignette

1. Choose one or more photos.
2. Set Strength (0–100%, starts at 55%).
3. Set Clear centre (0–90%, starts at 45%).
4. Pick a Colour; the default is black (#000000).
5. Choose Save as and Quality, press Apply, then download the files ending in -vignette.

What it does and when to use it

Old camera lenses let less light reach the edges of the film, which darkened the corners. Photographers now add that look on purpose because it guides the eye toward the subject in the middle. A vignette helps with portraits, food and product photos, moody landscapes, and old-style edits after Image Sepia or Image Grayscale.

Keep it subtle for everyday photos: Strength 25–40% is often enough. For a framed card or a social post with a strong edge, add a solid frame with Image Border instead.

How it works

For each pixel, the tool measures how far it is from the centre, scaled so the centre is 0 and the corners are 1. Then, on your device:

• t = (distance − Clear centre) ÷ (1 − Clear centre), kept between 0 and 1
• fade = Strength × t² × (3 − 2t)
• new colour = original × (1 − fade) + vignette colour × fade

The t² × (3 − 2t) curve starts and ends gently, so there is no visible ring where the effect begins.

Worked examples

We applied the default settings (55%, 45%, black) to a plain white 400 × 300 px image with the tool’s own function and read the result.

So the edges darken by about a quarter and the corners by just over half.

A strong frame. Strength 100% and Clear centre 0% makes the corners pure black, while the middle of the left edge falls to 53.

A white vignette on grey. On a mid-dark grey picture (100), white at default settings lifts the corners to 185.

Limits and tips

• Crop before adding a vignette; cropping afterwards cuts the fade off on one side. The Image Cropper helps here.
• Heavy vignettes on JPEG skies can show banding; PNG or a higher Quality reduces it.
• The new file does not include EXIF data from the original.