---
title: Stencil Bench. A free tattoo stencil maker that runs on your device.
description: "Turn a photo or sketch into a tattoo stencil: pure black for thermal printers, exact size, big pieces tiled across sheets. Free, and images stay on your device."
image: https://asurekha.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/asurekha/assets/img/stencil-og.jpg
---

![](https://asurekha.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/asurekha/assets/img/designed-schematic.jpg)

[Skip to content](https://asurekha.com/stencil#maincontent)

[Ameera Surekha\_](https://asurekha.com/?hsLang=en) ☰

- [About](https://asurekha.com/#builder)
- [CV](https://asurekha.com/cv?hsLang=en)
- [Portfolio](https://asurekha.com/#work)
- [Writing](https://asurekha.com/field-notes?hsLang=en)
- [Tools](https://asurekha.com/tools?hsLang=en)
- [Work with me](https://asurekha.com/work-with-me?hsLang=en)
- [Contact](https://asurekha.com/#contact)

● FREE● RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE● NO ACCOUNT

# Photo in, *stencil out*: Sized in centimetres. Black where your printer needs black.

Stencil Bench turns a photo or a sketch into a tattoo stencil. It runs in your browser, on your own device. Your client's photo never leaves it.

[Open the tool](https://asurekha.com/stencil#tool) [Why I built it](https://asurekha.com/stencil#why)

Scroll, or go straight to the tool ↓

Most stencil trouble starts *before the needle.*

I read what artists and printer makers say goes wrong. Three things kept coming up, so the tool is built around them.

The printer

### Grey and heavy black wreck a thermal print

One printer maker's own FAQ says artwork that is too dark causes jams, streaks and gaps. So the thermal setting here prints pure black and nothing else, and turns shading into dots.

Source: [S8 stencil printer FAQ](https://s8tattoo.com/blogs/s8-stencil-printer/faq)

The size

### Print dialogs rescale, and paper sizes differ

A printer guide warns that an A4 and Letter mix-up prints the wrong size. The PDF here carries its real size in centimetres, and every sheet has a 50 mm line you can check with a ruler.

Source: [Phomemo stencil printer guide](https://phomemo.com/blogs/guides/tattoo-stencil-printer-beginners-guide)

The big piece

### A back piece does not fit on one sheet

Artists on the Tattooing 101 forum describe printing sections, then trimming and taping them together. Here a large stencil spreads across sheets with marks along every join, and you can move a join off a face.

Source: [Tattooing 101 forum thread](https://tattooing101.com/forums/threads/applying-larger-stencils.15707/)

Four steps. *One page.*

01 Image

### Drop it in

A photo, a sketch or a scan. Crop it, fix the light, flip it.

02 Lines

### Find the lines

One Detail slider. Thicken, thin, clear the specks. Lasso a busy background away.

03 Shading

### Map the shading

Dotted tone boundaries, the way realism artists mark them. Or dots, halftone or hatching.

04 Print

### Print it right

Pick your printer. Set the width in cm. Check the lines in mm. Save the PDF.

● The tool

## Drop an image in. Nothing leaves your device.

Best on a laptop or a tablet. On a phone it works, but the canvas is small.

## Stencil Bench\_

Turn a photo or sketch into a tattoo stencil. Everything runs on this device, nothing is uploaded.

Open image

Sample

Open job

Save job

Undo

Redo

Reset

Drop an image here

Photo, sketch, scan or screenshot. You can also paste from the clipboard.

Choose a file

Try the sample

Reopen the last job

Stencil

On the body

Original

−

100%

\+

Fit

1:1

1 Image

2 Lines

3 Shading

Touch up

On the body

4 Print

Show every control Presets

Save

A preset is a starting point. Saved presets stay in this browser.

Image

Brightness

Contrast

Midtones

Local contrast

Invert (for white-on-dark sketches)

Flip

Rotate 90°

Crop

Apply crop

Local contrast evens out flat or badly lit photos before the lines are found.

Linework

Show lines

Find lines by Edges (photos, paintings) Ink (scanned sketches, line art) Both

Detail

Smoothing

Line scale

Sensitivity

Weight

Crispness

Remove specks

Fill darks

Line colour

Detail moves smoothing, line scale and sensitivity together. "Show every control" splits them.

Shading

Show shading

Style Zone map (tone boundaries) Dotwork Halftone Hatching Solid tones (inkjet or screen)

Boundary line Dotted Dashed Solid

Tones

Softness

Reach

Density

Angle

Cross-hatch the darkest tones

Strength

Shade colour

A colour per tone

Untick a tone to leave it off the stencil.

Mark highlights (skin breaks, white ink)

Brighter than

Highlight colour

Touch up

Draw

Erase

Lasso: erase inside

Lasso: keep inside

Clear touch-ups

Brush size

Draw with Line colour Shade colour Highlight colour

A pen or Apple Pencil draws thicker the harder you press. Draw a loop with a lasso to clear a busy background in one go: "keep inside" wipes everything outside the loop. Hold space to pan while a tool is on. Two fingers pan and zoom on a tablet.

On the body

Placement Forearm Upper arm and shoulder Calf Back Chest A photo of the client

Skin Light Medium Deep

Choose the photo

Set the real scale

That distance (cm)

Apply

Show the stencil at its real size

To show the true size, measure something on the client (wrist crease to elbow crease works), press "Set the real scale", click both ends on the photo and type the distance. The photo stays on this device and is not saved with the job.

Look Fresh stencil Inked, black

Size

Rotate

Wrap

Opacity

Show on the body

Centre

Download mockup

Drag the stencil to place it. Drag anywhere else to pan. Wrap bends the stencil around the limb. The stock photos are AI-generated and say so on the image.

Print and export

Output for Thermal stencil printer Inkjet with stencil ink Screen or Procreate (colour)

Width (cm)

Thinnest line (mm)

Tightest gap (mm)

Thicken lines under the thinnest line

Check the print

Clear marks

The check measures the stencil at its real print size: ink coverage, lines too thin to transfer (red) and gaps tight enough to merge (orange).

Paper A4 US Letter

Layers Everything Lines only Shading and highlights only

Sheet overlap (mm)

Move joins right (mm)

Move joins down (mm)

Guides None Centre balance lines 1 cm grid (real size) 

Include guides in the export White background (PNG) Mirror the export

Download PDF, exact size

Test sheet: 90, 100, 110%

Reference sheet

Download PNG

Download SVG (vector)

Print from here

The PDF is the safest route: it carries the real size at 300 DPI however large the piece, so print it at 100% or "actual size". Every sheet has a 50 mm line to measure. Large pieces spread across several sheets, with corner crosses and tick marks along each join; the joins show as orange lines on the stencil so you can move them off a face or a focal point. The SVG is the same stencil as outlines, one colour, exact to the pixel, at its real size: it scales without redrawing and opens in Illustrator, Affinity or a cutter. The reference sheet is for your station: the stencil, the tone map and a darkened reference, side by side in size.

What it does *not do.*

**0** uploads**50 mm** check line on every sheet**90 / 100 / 110%** test sheet**A4 + Letter** tiled with join marks

Printers

### It has not met your printer yet

The print check uses starting values for line width and gaps. Every printer and paper behaves a little differently. Print the test sheet first, and tell me where it is wrong.

Drawing

### It does not draw for you

There is no AI in the stencil. It finds the lines that are already in your image, so it cannot invent one. The stock body photos are AI-generated, and they say so on the image.

Storage

### It keeps nothing of yours

Your last job is saved in your own browser so you can reopen it. Nothing is sent anywhere. A photo of a client is never saved with the job.

Used it? *Tell me what broke.*

I am a marketer who builds. This is one of the things I built, and working artists make it better. The code is open source, under the MIT licence.

### [Tell me what broke Which printer, which paper, what went wrong. A photo of the print helps. I read every one. Email me →](mailto:ameera@asurekha.com?subject=Stencil%20Bench%3A%20what%20broke)

### [Read the code One HTML file, no dependencies. Read it, run it offline, change it, send a fix. On GitHub →](https://github.com/asurekha-atlas/stencil-bench)

Ameera Surekha\_

I lead marketing and I build the systems underneath: the strategy, the team, and the code.

A.S. / EST. 2014 · Built by hand. Still no CMS, no page builder.

Explore

- [About](https://asurekha.com/#builder)
- [CV](https://asurekha.com/cv?hsLang=en)
- [Portfolio](https://asurekha.com/#work)
- [Writing](https://asurekha.com/field-notes?hsLang=en)
- [Tools](https://asurekha.com/tools?hsLang=en)
- [Privacy](https://asurekha.com/privacy?hsLang=en)

Practical

- Netherlands · works across Europe
- English · Dutch · Malay
- Punjabi & Hindi (conversational)
- Indonesian (spoken)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameerasug) · [Email](mailto:ameera@asurekha.com)

Backdrop: abstract study, AI-generated · 2026AI-generated backdrop · 2026

Motion: on

 Photo in  ·  stencil out  ·  pure black for thermal  ·  exact size in cm  ·  tiled sheets with join marks  ·  nothing uploaded  ·  free  ·  Photo in  ·  stencil out  ·  pure black for thermal  ·  exact size in cm  ·  tiled sheets with join marks  ·  nothing uploaded  ·  free  · 

Pause

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