When mass printing dominated the mid-twentieth century, the number of colors in an image was reduced by replacing gradients with dots. The technique was seized upon by pop artists, like Lichtenstein and Warhol, to such an extent that it’s entered our visual language.

However, despite it being one of the simplest ways to evoke retro printing, it’s not that easy a technique to produce in Photoshop.

Happily designer Matt Borchert has fixed the problem for us by providing Halftone Automater, a great set of Photoshop actions, free to download for WebdesignerDepot readers.

There are 12 distinct actions: dots, diagonal lines, and horizontal lines; each divided into small, medium, large, huge and gigantic sizes.

Download the files beneath the previews:

Waterfall image via Nesster

Retro street image via Mohamed Adel

Captain America image via JD Hancock

Beach image via Ares Nguyen

Taxi image va Chris Goldberg