Chromatic Aberration Effect

Add or fix chromatic aberration with per-channel RGB offset controls for creative glitch art.

Tested tool guide Tested browser tools Checked August 16, 2026

What Chromatic Aberration Effect does and how it behaves

Chromatic Aberration Effect separates an image's red, green, and blue contributions, lets you offset each channel independently, and recombines them into one image. Small relative shifts produce colored outlines around high-contrast edges; offsets chosen against an existing fringe can reduce simple channel misalignment. The common surprise is that this is a whole-image RGB translation, not a lens profile. It can imitate a glitch or compensate for fairly uniform lateral fringing, but it cannot model optical errors that change with distance from the image center.

How the result is produced

Relative channel offsets

Each red, green, and blue component is assigned its own horizontal and vertical position. Color fringing depends on the difference between those positions, not on their absolute values. If all three receive the same displacement, they remain registered and no RGB split is created, although the picture itself has moved within its frame. Larger relative displacements make wider fringes.

Correcting existing fringes

To reduce an existing fringe, inspect a sharp, high-contrast boundary and move the displaced channel back toward the others. Recheck several locations and both edge orientations before accepting the result. A single set of offsets can correct only a substantially uniform registration error. Fringing that changes direction or strength across the frame needs location-dependent optical correction, which these controls do not express.

Good uses

Create intentional red/cyan or multicolor outlines around hard-edged typography, portraits, or product silhouettes for a digital glitch treatment.
Test several RGB separation directions on a game still or album-cover draft before committing to a stylized color fringe.
Reduce a consistent one-direction color double edge in a scan or image whose channels are slightly misregistered.

Limits and checks

Do not read a cleaner preview as complete lens correction. Real lateral chromatic aberration often varies across the frame, while longitudinal chromatic aberration is a focus and wavelength problem rather than a constant channel translation.
Inspect neutral edges at 100 percent. A setting that cancels a red fringe on one boundary can create cyan, magenta, or yellow separation on another boundary that was already aligned.
Check the outermost rows and columns after shifting. Any channel moved toward an edge lacks source pixels on the newly exposed opposite side, so the perimeter cannot be inferred from the original image alone.

Common questions

Can this completely fix chromatic aberration from a camera lens?

Sometimes it can reduce a simple, consistent lateral color displacement, especially when one or two channels are uniformly offset. No, it cannot completely correct every lens aberration. Fringes that grow toward the corners, change direction around the optical center, or arise from different wavelengths focusing at different depths require more than constant horizontal and vertical RGB offsets.

Why do I see cyan when I moved only the red channel?

Cyan is the additive combination of green and blue. When red is displaced relative to the other two channels, one side of a contrast boundary can contain extra red while the opposite side contains green plus blue without matching red, which appears cyan. The exact visibility depends on the colors and contrast already present in the image.

References and verification

The behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.