Emboss effect

Reads tone as height and lights it from one side, then screens it and leaves it to collect dirt.

Made with the Emboss filterWorks in

Emboss effect on a portrait of a man with spiky red hair on a blue background, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Clean Relief preset)

BeforeAfter

Emboss turns your photo into a surface. Dark and light become low and high, a lamp rakes across it from one side, and the result is screened and dirtied so it looks like a rubbing, a plaster cast or a blind foil stamp rather than a sharpening filter.

6presets
26settings
3apps

Same effect, different presets.

8 photos, each with its own preset. Try it on yours

Emboss effect on a portrait of a woman in headphones holding a CD, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Rubbing preset) — Rubbing

Emboss effect on a portrait of a person with goggles looking up, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Plaster preset) — Plaster

Emboss effect on a portrait of a woman with red hair in a studded beanie, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Gravestone preset) — Gravestone

Emboss effect on a wide-angle portrait of a woman looking up at the camera, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Newsprint preset) — Newsprint

Emboss effect on a portrait of a woman in sunglasses against a blue sky, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Plaster preset) — Plaster

Emboss effect on a portrait of a man in black sunglasses, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Rubbing preset) — Rubbing

Emboss effect on a portrait of a man in sunglasses on a red background, made with the Emboss filter in Filter Archive (Clean Relief preset) — Clean Relief

Use the emboss effect in Photoshop, Affinity or Figma.

One licence covers all three: $9.99 a month or $59.99 once. See pricing

Photoshop

Open Filter Archive from the Plugins menu, pick Emboss and press Apply. The result lands on a new layer above your original.

Mac & Windows · Photoshop 2024+

Affinity

Choose Filters, Plugins, Filter Archive on a pixel layer, pick Emboss and apply it to that layer.

Mac & Windows · Affinity 3

Figma

Select an image, frame or shape, run Filter Archive and apply Emboss as a new layer or in place.

Figma Community

Settings worth touching.

DepthRelief: How steep the relief is for each step in tone. Steeper relief, not just a brighter one.
ElevationLight: How high the lamp sits. Low light rakes across and finds every ripple; high light flattens the relief out.
SmoothRelief: Blurs the surface before it is lit, so the relief follows the picture's forms instead of its noise.

Plus 23 more in the panel, all editable after you pick a preset.

Emboss Effect questions.

What is an emboss effect?

An emboss effect makes an image look pressed into or raised out of a surface, by treating brightness as height and lighting it from an angle. Done well it reads as a physical relief, like a coin, a rubbing or a stamped sheet.

How do I make an emboss effect in Photoshop?

Open Filter Archive from the Plugins menu and choose Emboss. Start from a preset such as Rubbing or Plaster, adjust the settings while the preview updates, then press Apply. The result goes on a new layer and your original stays untouched.

Can I use it in Affinity or Figma?

Yes. The same Emboss filter runs in Affinity 3 on Mac and Windows, from Filters, then Plugins, then Filter Archive on a pixel layer, and in Figma on an image, frame or shape. One licence covers Photoshop, Affinity and Figma.

Which presets come with Emboss?

6 presets: Rubbing, Plaster, Blind Foil, Gravestone, Newsprint and Clean Relief. Every setting stays editable after you pick one, and you can save a stack of filters to use again.