Anyone can copy a logo.
Nobody redraws a guilloché by hand
Interlaced hairlines were the first anti-copy device print ever had, and they still work: photocopy one and the moiré gives it away. This draws them properly — whole numbers of periods so nothing drifts, real millimetres so the printer can hold the line, and a background that tiles exactly rather than nearly. Free, in full. No sign-up.
- Free, no account.
- Every pattern and every file is free from the first open — no sign-up, no licence, no watermark across the middle.
- Nothing is uploaded.
- The whole thing is drawn in your browser. No pattern of yours is sent anywhere, and none is stored.
- Hard to copy, by construction.
- Interlacing hairlines at whole-numbered frequencies: they photocopy into moiré and they cannot be traced back by eye.
- Millimetres, not pixels.
- The page, the spacing and the line weight are the figures your printer will ask for, and the page says when one is too fine to hold.
- In the ink it will print.
- RGB for the screen, CMYK for the press, or one ink only — which for hairline work is usually the right answer.
- SVG and PDF, both vector.
- Paths, not a picture of paths. Open either in Illustrator, Affinity or Inkscape and carry on.
What it draws
Five shapes, and everything a document needs is one of them
Same lathe, five ways of running the work past it.
The round figure in the middle
- Symmetry and frequency as whole numbers, so the figure closes
- A second family of curves laid over the first for depth
- The seal on a certificate, the medallion on a label
The cartouche a portrait sits in
- An ellipse to any proportion of page, walked by length not by angle
- The wave gives way at the ends, where the curve turns tightest
- Tilt it and it shrinks to stay on the page
A border that runs through its own corners
- The wave is carried round by length, not restarted at each side
- Rounded corners, and the pattern comes back to where it began
- Any proportion of page — it is measured, not stretched
Features
A generator that knows it is making print
The figure is the easy half. The half that matters is the file that comes out.
The figure
What is drawn.
- Rosette, oval, frame, ribbon and background field
- Lines, spacing, frequency, amplitude, twist and symmetry
- A second interlaced family — the moiré depth of a banknote
- The whole figure turned on the page by any angle
The line
What the press has to hold.
- Line weight in millimetres, stated and warned about
- A caution below 0.1 mm — offset's usual floor for a hairline
- A caution when lines sit closer than three of their own widths
- Strokes turned into filled shapes, for workflows that scale artwork
The colour
What it prints in.
- RGB for screen and for placing into your own document
- CMYK written as four figures into the PDF itself
- Black only — one ink, and no register to go wrong
- Two- and three-colour blends, straight across or out from the middle
- The screen preview follows whichever you choose
The file
What you take away.
- SVG in millimetres, at the size it will print
- PDF as vector paths, with bleed if you want it
- Curve accuracy you set, and the node count before you save
- Nothing uploaded, nothing stored, nothing watermarked
How it works
Four steps to a pattern
It is a lathe with the handles on screen. Turn one and watch.
Pick the shape
Rosette, oval, frame, ribbon or background, and the size of the page it sits on.
Turn the handles
Frequency, amplitude, symmetry and twist. The drawing follows every one of them at once.
Check the line
Set the weight in millimetres and read the warnings. This is where a pattern is saved or lost.
Take the file
SVG or PDF, in RGB, CMYK or one ink. Place it, or carry on with it in your editor.
Who it is for
Anyone printing something that should be hard to fake
Or anyone who just wants the look, which is a perfectly good reason too.
Certificates and diplomas
A frame round the page and a rosette behind the seal — the two marks that make a sheet of paper read as a document.
Vouchers and tickets
Gift cards, coupons and admission tickets, where a copy shop's photocopier is the whole threat model.
Packaging and seals
Tamper bands, closure seals and decorative panels for boxes, in the same file as the rest of the artwork.
Labels for wine and spirits
Engraved line work in the tradition the category is set in, at the size the label actually is.
Studios and prepress
A pattern to order, in the right colour space, with the line weight already checked against the process.
Backgrounds and stationery
A field that tiles for letterheads, endpapers, wrapping and anywhere a flat tint would be dull.
FAQ
Good to know
Is it really free?
Yes. Every pattern is free from the first open — no account, no licence, no watermark, and nothing to buy to get the file.
Can I use what I make commercially?
Yes. What comes out is your artwork: certificates, labels, packaging, anything. There is nothing to credit and nothing to license.
What is a guilloché, exactly?
A pattern of interlacing curves, originally turned on a rose engine — a lathe where the work rotates while a template pushes the cutter in and out. The ratio between the two motions is the figure. Banknotes, share certificates and watch dials are all engine-turned in this sense; here the two motions are arithmetic instead of gears.
Does this actually stop counterfeiting?
It raises the cost of a casual copy: fine interlacing lines break up in a photocopier and print as moiré, which is visible at a glance. It is not a security feature in the banknote sense — that needs intaglio, special substrates and inks. Treat it as the first layer, not the only one.
Is the background really seamless?
Yes, and by construction rather than by trimming. Every wave in it has a whole number of periods across the tile and the family closes on itself, so a line leaves the right edge at exactly the height it entered the left. The preview shows the tile repeated, so you can see it rather than take our word for it.
How fine can the lines be?
The page warns below 0.1 mm, which is about where sheetfed offset stops holding a hairline reliably; flexo wants 0.15 mm and screen printing more like 0.25 mm. It also warns when lines are packed closer than three of their own widths, because ink spread fills the gaps and the pattern reads as a solid.
Can I get it in CMYK, or as a spot colour?
The PDF is written in whichever you choose: RGB, four-figure CMYK, or black only. For a spot colour, export in black only and have your prepress map that one ink to the Pantone — that keeps hairlines on a single plate, where no register error can split them.
Can I do an iris (rainbow) blend?
You can put a two- or three-colour blend in the file — straight across at any angle, or out from the middle — and it is written as a real gradient: a shading in the PDF, in RGB or CMYK, not a picture. Worth knowing what it is not, though. A true iris run is made on the press: the ink fountain is divided and the colours mix on the rollers, so every hairline stays solid ink and the transition is impossible to copy exactly. A blend in a file is screened, and a screened hairline prints as dots. For decoration, digital printing and presentation it is exactly right; for a document that has to resist copying, export in one ink and let the printer set the iris up.
Can I edit the result?
Yes. Both files are ordinary vector paths — open them in Illustrator, Affinity Designer or Inkscape and edit, recolour or clip as you like. If your workflow scales artwork after the fact, switch on outlines and the strokes come out as filled shapes instead.
Why does it slow down with a lot of lines?
Because it is drawing all of them, curve by curve, in the page. The node count is shown as you work and there is a warning past sixty thousand — beyond that some editors start to labour. A looser curve accuracy brings it down quickly, and at print sizes nobody can see the difference.
Two handles and a page. That is the whole lathe.
Draw a rosette, an oval, a frame, a ribbon or a background, and take it away as vector in the ink it will print in.