Monitor Filter

This node sells one specific illusion: an image that looks like it's on screen - a CRT, a low-res monitor, a green-phosphor terminal. It takes a pattern image, tiles it over your frame at a cell_size, blends it in with a hard-mix composite so the pattern genuinely restructures the pixels, then adds a blurred glow layer on top. The hard-mix part is the trick: instead of a soft overlay, each pixel snaps to pattern-or-image, which is what makes it read as a real display grid rather than a filter laid on top. If you've got a character looking at a screen in a generated scene and the screen just looks like a plain rectangle, this is the node.

How it works

Two layers, both controlled by the inputs. First, the pattern: an IMAGE input (the pack ships a bunch of candidate patterns under assets/patterns/) is tiled across the frame at cell_size pixels per cell, tinted by pattern_tint_r/g/b, and applied with hard-mix blending - every output pixel picks the pattern or the image, no partial values. That gives you the chunky, cell-structured "actual display resolution" look. Second, the glow: a glow_color_r/g/b layer (default green - terminal vibes) is offset by glow_offset_x/y, blurred by glow_blur_radius/glow_blur_sigma, and optionally doubled up with glow_layer_2 for that double-scanline halation glow around lit pixels.

The pattern is fully your choice - a phosphor dot mask for a CRT, a subpixel stripe for an LCD, vertical scanlines for a VHS-era monitor, or honestly anything you want, since the "monitor" is whatever pattern you feed it.

Inputs that matter

• pattern - the IMAGE that becomes the display grid. Start with one of the bundled patterns
• cell_size - pixels per pattern cell; lower = finer, higher = chunky low-res
• pattern_tint_r/g/b - tint the pattern itself
• glow_color_r/g/b - the phosphor glow color (green default, but red/amber is classic too)
• glow_blur_radius - how wide the glow spreads

One IMAGE in, one IMAGE out.

Install

Part of Photography Nodes:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/TrophiHunter/ComfyUI_Photography_Nodes

Restart, find it under TrophiHunter/Photography (ComfyUI Manager: "Photography Nodes"). The pattern assets ship with the repo, so nothing extra to fetch.

Where people get burned

The hard-mix blending is unforgiving: if your pattern has soft gradients or is too dark, the "monitor" reads as a dirty smudge instead of a screen, so pick a pattern with sharp structure. And the default green glow + 12px cells is very terminal - that's the intended vibe, but if you want a modern LCD read, drop the glow intensity to near zero and switch the glow color toward gray/blue. Also, remember this is a screen emulation; it completely restructures the image's pixels, so run it at the very end of a branch (after any upscaling) - there's nothing to recover on the other side.