Comparison

Halftone dot art vs StencilStack

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Black and white dot art processing
  • Over 50 dot formats
  • Gradient background options
  • Color dot fill with gradients
  • Suitable for laser engraving
Features
Read full description

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.

About

StencilStack

Transform photos into multi-layer stencil artwork for printing, cutting, and spray painting. Generate scalable designs for murals, posters, and large creative projects, with options for combined or separate layer exports and tiling for large-scale production.

Highlights
  • Generate scalable layered stencil artwork from photos
  • Create organised stencil layers for multi-colour projects
  • Separate or combined stencil exports
  • Hatch Mode for planning and cutting guides
  • Automatic tiled PDF export for large-scale printing
  • Registration targets for accurate alignment
Read full description

Turn any photo into a stencil built to make an impact. StencilStack is made for graffiti writers, street artists, mural makers and anyone who wants to move from phone to paint without spending hours in design software. Take a photo or choose one from your library. For the strongest results, use a clear, well-lit image with one distinct subject, strong contrast and good separation from the background. Choose Standard for more detail or Bold for a harder graphic hit. Cut a quick one-layer stencil or build a full three-layer piece with separate light, shadow and black plates. Preview the finished artwork and inspect every layer before exporting. StencilStack keeps printing practical. Cut areas use thin diagonal hatch lines instead of ink-heavy blocks of solid black, so you can see exactly what needs cutting without draining your printer cartridge. Choose a finished width from 10 to 100 cm in precise 5 cm steps, select A4 or Letter paper and let StencilStack build the print-ready PDF. Make something small on one sheet or scale it across multiple pages for a larger wall piece. Larger stencils come ready to assemble: • 10 mm overlap for a strong join • Clear CUT and GLUE guides • Matching alignment marks on every seam • Page names showing where each sheet belongs • Registration marks that keep all three layers locked together • A clear border that keeps registration marks away from the artwork Print at 100% or Actual Size - never Fit to Page or Scale to Fit. Automatic scaling changes the finished dimensions and can throw out page and layer alignment. Trim the sheets, match the marks, tape everything down and get the cans out. Want the artwork without the cutting? Save the combined image or black Layer 1 directly to Photos. No subscription. No account. No ads or tracking. From a fast single-layer hit to a full multi-page stencil, StencilStack handles the fiddly setup so you can spend more time designing, cutting and spraying.

Screenshots

Halftone dot art2 screens
StencilStack4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Halftone dot art at Free against StencilStack's $3.99. Halftone dot art also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.6). StencilStack's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 22 months). On in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Halftone dot art is free to download; StencilStack costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Halftone dot art ships an update every 22 months, StencilStack every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Halftone dot art versus StencilStack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHalftone dot artStencilStack
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 22 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYihang HuangSteve Mitchell

In-app purchases

None

Halftone dot art

No in-app purchases

None

StencilStack

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Halftone dot art free?
Halftone dot art is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is StencilStack free?
StencilStack costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Halftone dot art or StencilStack have ads?
Halftone dot art shows ads; StencilStack does not.
Which is updated more often, Halftone dot art or StencilStack?
Halftone dot art ships an update every 22 months, and StencilStack every 4 days. Most recently, Halftone dot art was updated on October 21, 2026 and StencilStack on October 17, 2026.

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