Floyd–Steinberg dithering: follow the gradient.

Make this look in three steps

1. Open the blue ribbon example with Floyd–Steinberg already selected.
2. Keep Scale low enough to retain the source detail that matters. Compare the brightest and darkest areas before adding contrast.
3. Choose your final colors, export and check for unwanted smoothing in the application where you place the image.

The four error weights in Make

Make passes 7/16 of the error to the cell on the right, then 3/16, 5/16 and 1/16 to the below-left, below and below-right cells. These weights sum to one away from image boundaries. The renderer scans each row from left to right; it does not alternate the scan direction.

Why a smooth gradient still has texture

Intermediate tones are represented by the local balance of light and dark marks. A region looks smoother from a distance while its individual pixels remain visible close up. Some images reveal directional or worm-like structures. A lower scale or a different source contrast can change how noticeable those structures are.

Color is a separate choice

The blue example uses duotone after the dither pattern is rendered. In Make’s source-color mode, brightness still drives mark placement and foreground marks take their color from the source. This is not general-purpose indexed-palette quantization.