A tweet with 24.9M views: the tone of "printing" photos on paper, and five unused knockoffs

A small Tokyo company split a filter out of its diary app and made it a standalone photo editor. Its launch tweet got 14 million views in a day and hit #2 on the Japan App Store overall free chart. A month later, at least five copycat apps had launched (some copied the name and subtitle word for word), and none has more than 2 ratings today. This article covers what it is, why it was this one, where the money came from, why the copycats failed, and where to start if you want to build a visual tool that can go viral on a single image.

Jul 22, 9:30 PM tweet

2026 Jul 22, 9:29 PM Tokyo time, a developer named kazu. (@pnly_tar) posted on X: "リリースしました!紙に印刷したような風合いになる写真加工アプリです。" (Released! A photo editor that gives images the texture of printed paper.) It came with four example images: two-color halftone dots, slight misregistration between two ink layers, and visible paper grain, like a zine page or a small risograph poster.

He had only a few thousand followers at the time. X's own trends page recorded the post passing 24M views within 14 hours. As of today it sits at 24.9M views, 97k likes, 23k reposts and 105k bookmarks (X page, 11-06).

Four minutes later he added: "ちょっと使い方難しいかもしれないので、説明書きも作ったよ" (It might be a bit hard to use, so I made an instruction image). That post also got 548k views.

The next day, X opened a trends page for it titled "レトロ印刷風アプリ『tone』がクリエイターに大好評" (the retro-print app 'tone' is a big hit with creators). Illustrator Fuyusuke posted their processed image: "ちょっと可愛すぎて困りますよコレは" (This is a bit too cute, it's a problem). CG artist Mikan actually printed a processed piece: "かわいすぎる!" (Too cute!). Illustrator Hinofu said it "pairs really well with illustrations that have no main line."

What it is

tone turns a photo or illustration into the look of 1 to 3 color risograph printing: halftone dots, layered ink, slight misregistration, and five paper textures. Beginners can hit the "random" button over and over, and it picks ink colors automatically from the photo. Experienced users can adjust dot size, angle and density for each color separately, or export color-separation files with bleed and crop marks to print for real.

All processing happens on the phone, and photos are not uploaded. Exported images can be used commercially. The basics are free. More than 7 ink colors, saving custom presets, and 2× / 3× high-res export are sold as a one-time in-app purchase called "Ink Set 02" for ¥500 in the Japan store (KAI-YOU and note reviews; Google Play lists $3.19). There is no subscription and no ads.

It was made by Shikaya Co., Ltd. (株式会社四時半), a small Tokyo company that makes small apps and eyewear. The App Store seller name is Shikaka, Inc. (presumed to be the same company). According to the developer's own press release, tone started as one visual style inside their diary app "帳(とばり)" before they split it out as a standalone product.

Why this one: the idea isn't new

Halftone filters have existed for over a decade. Real Halftone, HalftonePix and Popdot on the App Store are 2013 to 2022 years old with dozens of ratings each. People who make real Riso prints use the desktop software Spectrolite for color separation, and Photoshop, Procreate and Canva can all produce halftone effects. More painfully, an iOS app called Pressed: Risograph & Halftone launched 6-30 three weeks before tone and did the same thing, and it has 2 US ratings to this day.

So tone didn't win by having the feature. It won on three things:

• Good-looking by default. The Riso texture has been one of the most popular aesthetics in zines and illustration circles in recent years, but until now you either had to know color separation or stack multiple layers in Photoshop. tone's default palette is soft, and each tap of the random button yields something that looks finished. The screenshot is the ad.
• Shown to the right people. Illustrators and designers on Japanese X are some of the most eager image-sharers, and the author was part of that circle. The four images in the launch post were reshared 23k times, and then illustrators processed their own work and posted it. Every output carries a recognizable "tone look."
• No friction to share. Free, commercially usable, no uploads, no subscription. An illustrator can process their own work and post it without worrying about rights, and without hitting a paywall.

Where users come from

Almost all the traffic was organic. No evidence of paid acquisition turned up (not finding it doesn't mean it didn't happen). The sequence was:

1. Launch post (7-22): 24M views in 14 hours, on X's trends page.
2. App Store charts: #2 overall free in Japan, #1 in Graphics & Design; Apple Japan also wrote an editorial feature story about it.
3. Media: 8-26 published a PR Times press release (130k iOS installs cumulative, Android version launched). It was picked up by Real Sound Tech, AppBank, livedoor and niconico News, and many individual reviews appeared on note.
4. Overseas: according to the press release, overseas creators made introduction videos on their own. Author 10-18's pinned English post "My apps" got 638K views and 16K likes. The app's English name was changed to a descriptive one: "tone - photos, printed". Since 10-28, the iOS version has charted in the category charts of 77 countries and regions: #4 in Ukraine and Brunei, #6 in Hong Kong, #11 in Taiwan, and at best #121 in the US store.

The peak ran from late July into August, mainly on iOS. The Android version caught the wave in 25 August, and it's a long tail: Google Play installs 10-29 16,579,11-06 17,976, under 900 a week, charting only in the Japan Art & Design free chart, best #79. The iOS version 10-30 is still being updated (2.1 release, adding batch imposition for print separations), and it's back to #12 on the Japan Graphics & Design chart, #11-04.

Where the money comes from: not much

Revenue isn't public. Rough math: 130k iOS plus 18k Android installs; a one-time in-app purchase usually converts only a few percent of users, so at 2%~5% that's about 3000~7500 purchases at ¥500 each. After store cuts, cumulative revenue lands around ¥100M~¥2.6M, roughly $10K–20K (est.).

That's decent pocket money for a small company, not enough to live on. The author seems to know it too: the roadmap in the press release lists "stacking text as one print layer," "multi-image compositing," and "animated GIFs," and the last item is "printing the work on paper and T-shirts." The money may sit in that physical printing step, which hasn't shipped yet.

Who's competing: five clones, under ten reviews combined

Three to five weeks after tone took off, a batch of copycats appeared on the App Store, some copying the name and subtitle wholesale:

Sources: App Store pages and iTunes lookup, 11-06.

The ones with more features, all-free pricing, or closer names didn't take off. Pressed, which launched three weeks earlier, didn't either. For this kind of product, what decides it isn't the feature list. It's two things: whether it looks good at first glance, and who sees the first post. The copycats had neither.

Can you ride it?

Building another Riso photo-editing app to ride tone is a long shot. The original already owns the name, the aesthetic, and the memory in Japan's X creator circles, its English version is live in 77 stores, and five precedents are sitting right there.

What you can actually take is its playbook: run it again with a different texture and a different community:

• Change the texture. tone's core is "simulate a real physical process" (plates, ink, paper, misregistration), not "add a filter layer." The same approach carries over to cyanotype, thermal receipts, screen printing, letterpress, photocopiers, faded Polaroids, embroidery, and knit patterns. Each has its own hobbyist community, and each is the kind of thing where one image proves whether it works.
• Change the community. tone blew up in Japan's X illustrator circles. The Western Tumblr and Instagram illustration scenes, Korea's X fan-art scene, and China's Xiaohongshu journaling and zine scenes each have their own taste. Someone who already has a place in those circles can post a four-image before-and-after thread at almost no cost.
• The hard part is taste. The code for an app like this is small (tone processes everything on-device, no server). What's hard is making the default output look good at first glance, and being inside the community yourself.

If it were you

C: worth learning from, not worth chasing. tone proved that "a good-looking visual tool + the right tweet" can reach hundreds of thousands of installs with zero paid acquisition. But the money is modest (est. $10K–20K cumulative), the original lane is now occupied by tone and five clones, and the taste and community position that decide success can't be copied quickly. Worth doing as a cheap experiment, not as a business.

• Good fit for: indie devs who are designers or illustrators themselves and have some standing in a creative community; people who have done image processing (Metal / WebGL / Core Image) and can tune an effect to look good by default within a week or two; people who want it as a portfolio and audience-building piece and don't expect it to pay the bills.
• Bad fit for: people trying to win tone's users with more features and free pricing (the five August clones did exactly that); people who outsource the taste and have no account in the target community; people who need stable monthly revenue. A one-time ¥500 purchase won't support one person.
• How to build it: pick a physical process tone didn't cover that has a hobbyist following (cyanotype, thermal receipt, screen print, and photocopier all work), build for mobile only with on-device processing; spend the most time on default settings and add a "randomize" button; allow commercial use of outputs; free base, one-time purchase to unlock more colors and HD export, no subscription.
• How to get users: the launch is a single post with four before-and-after images, followed by a how-to diagram. Post it in your own community, not on product launch sites. After launch, actively repost users' work. Once it takes off, add a press release and an English name in descriptive form (like "photos, printed") to catch App Store search.
• When to move: there's no hard deadline. The print-texture aesthetic is still alive, but the novelty of phone photo editing fades fast. If you do it, aim to ship in the first half of 2027, before big platforms bake this look in as a built-in filter.
• What would mean I got it wrong: (1) tone's roadmap (physical printing on paper and T-shirts) ships and clearly earns money. That would mean the money is in the physical step, so this category is more than "learning" and the grade should go up. (2) Someone uses a different process with the same posting playbook and reaches million-view threads and top chart positions. That would mean the playbook is repeatable, so the grade should go up. (3) Canva, Instagram, or the iOS Photos app ships a built-in Riso or print-texture filter. Then the room for a standalone app in this category is effectively closed.

Data and sources

• Launch post, how-to post, and pinned English post on X (x.com/pnly_tar), read via 11-06; 24 hours and 14M views came from X's trending page "Retro print-style app 'tone' is a big hit with creators" (7-23).
• iOS 130k installs, #2 on the free overall chart, #1 in Graphics & Design, Android version 8-25 launch, roadmap, developer interview: PR Times 2026-08-26, company statement.
• Pricing and features: App Store Japan page (2.1 version, 10-30 update), KAI-YOU, and a personal review on note.
• Google Play installs and charts: Google Play, daily data from 10-29 to 11-06.
• iOS category charts by country: App Store charts, 10-28 to 11-06.
• Copycat apps: App Store pages and iTunes lookup, 11-06.
• Revenue is estimated; whether they ran paid acquisition is not fully verified.