---
title: Prior art
description: What exists already, what Stipple learned from it and where it differs.
sidebar:
  order: 6
---

- **dithercn** is a set of dithered components for React and shadcn, with GLSL fields, MIT licensed. Its idea of one engine under many components, themed with an ink and a paper colour, and its agent skill for writing new dithers, were the inspiration for Stipple. Stipple shares no code with it.
- **Paper Shaders for Android** ports Paper Design's shaders, including dithering and halftone, to AGSL. It is Android only, needs API 33 and isn't on Maven.
- **dither-kit-compose** is a Compose library of dithered components. It uses a single Bayer 4x4 pattern, has no pattern or field abstraction and no modifiers, and has no web target.

What Stipple adds: a small engine (patterns, fields, themes) separate from the components, modifiers that dither any element, a cell renderer that works back to Android 6, an optional shader renderer, error diffusion for images, reduced motion on every platform, and a skill file for coding agents.

## Not covered yet

- Globes and maps from dithercn.
- Frame times on low-end Android devices and on a physical iPhone are not measured.