Halftone dot art vs Genie Crystals
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Halftone dot art
Transform your photos into striking black and white dot art with over fifty unique dot formats. Customize your creations by setting gradient backgrounds or coloring the dots with gradient hues for an artistic touch, perfect for laser engraving.
- Black and white dot art processing
- Over 50 dot formats
- Gradient background options
- Color dot fill with gradients
- Suitable for laser engraving
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Process photos into black and white dots. There are more than fifty different dot formats, which can be used in laser engraving. You can set the background color of the gradient or paint the black and white dots with the gradient color, which is a pretty artistic picture.
Genie Crystals
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Genie Crystals turns your favorite photos into stunning crystal and half-pearl portrait templates — the kind you see in luxury mosaic artwork, framed portraits, and handcrafted gifts. Simply pick a photo, let the built-in AI analyse it, and watch your image transform into a precise dot-placement template ready to print and bring to life with real crystals. How it works Upload any photo from your gallery. The image editor lets you fine-tune brightness, contrast, sharpness, and saturation before generation. Remove the background with a single tap and set a custom background colour using the built-in colour wheel — great for isolating a face against a clean black backdrop for maximum crystal impact. Once your image is ready, Genie Crystals' AI engine analyses the tonal distribution across every pixel and suggests three key settings automatically: Crystal Density — how many crystals fill the frame overall Contour Separation — how dramatically the crystal density shifts between tonal zones, creating visible depth Contrast Layers — how many distinct brightness bands the AI detected in your photo Tap Apply and generate. The AI suggestions are calibrated to your specific image, not a generic preset — bright portraits get different treatment from dark ones, faces are handled differently from flat graphics. Zoom, pan, and crop Pinch to zoom and drag to reposition your photo inside the canvas before generating. Only the visible portion is used — so you can frame exactly the crop you want without editing the original. Your PDF template After generating, purchase the Unlock Export to download a four-page PDF: Page 1 — your original source image for reference Page 2 — the monochrome working template: black background, white dots at exact physical size Page 3 — a colour-coded version with each crystal size shown in a different colour Page 4 — crystal counts per size, so you know exactly how many to order Print at Actual Size (100%) — not Fit to Page — and the template matches your frame dimensions to the millimetre. Default frame size is A3 (29.7 × 42 cm), the ideal starting size for a crystal portrait. Multiple crystal sizes Choose from ten standard crystal and half-pearl sizes (1.4mm to 5.0mm). The AI-powered placement engine prevents overlap between crystals of different sizes by checking actual physical radii — so a 3.0mm crystal next to a 1.4mm crystal will never touch. Saved templates Every purchased template is saved to iCloud and accessible from My Templates at any time. Genie Crystals is made by the same team behind Genie Strings — the string art portrait generator trusted by crafters around the world.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Halftone dot art at none against Genie Crystals's 1. Halftone dot art also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.4). Genie Crystals's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (monthly vs every 22 months). On price and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Genie Crystals sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Halftone dot art asks for nothing beyond the download.
Halftone dot art ships an update every 22 months, Genie Crystals monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Halftone dot art | Genie Crystals |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 22 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 18.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yihang Huang | Arunesh Dwivedi |
In-app purchases
Halftone dot art
No in-app purchases
Genie Crystals
- Genie Crystals$5.99
Questions
Is Halftone dot art free?
Is Genie Crystals free?
Do Halftone dot art or Genie Crystals have ads?
Which is updated more often, Halftone dot art or Genie Crystals?
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