The Pixelate effects are raster-based and use the document’s raster effects settings whenever you apply the effect to a vector object.

Color Halftone

Simulates the effect of using an enlarged halftone screen on each channel of the image. For each channel, the filter divides the image into rectangles and replaces each rectangle with a circle. The circle size is proportional to the brightness of the rectangle.

To use the filter or effect, enter a value in pixels for the maximum radius of a halftone dot (from 4 to 127), and enter a screen-angle value (the angle of the dot relative to the true horizontal) for one or more channels. For Grayscale images, use only channel 1; for RGB images, use channels 1, 2, and 3, which correspond to the red, green, and blue channels; for CMYK images, use all four channels, which correspond to the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black channels.

Crystallize

Clumps colors into polygon shapes.

Mezzotint

Converts an image to a random pattern of black-and-white areas, or of fully saturated colors in a color image. To use the filter, choose a dot pattern from the Type pop‑up menu in the Mezzotint dialog box.

Pointillize

Breaks up the color in an image into randomly placed dots, as in a pointillist painting, and uses the background color as a canvas area between the dots.