Home RetroSupply Blog 12 of the Best Free Vintage and Retro Photoshop Actions

12 of the Best Free Vintage and Retro Photoshop Actions

12 of the Best Free Vintage and Retro Photoshop Actions

One of the most effective ways to save time when you’re designing or illustrating is through the use of Photoshop actions – automated sets of commands that are executed with the click of a button. As you’ll know, they’re particularly useful when it comes to quickly achieving complex or hard-to-replicate effects, or when you’re facing any sort of repetitious design job.

That’s why we’ve taken the time to create a series of super-affordable, premium Photoshop actions for quickly creating vintage and retro effects. You’ll find all kinds of ultra realistic retro print effects – everything from offset to ink starve, wood type, halftone, retro 3D and more – at super low prices, over in the actions section of our shop.

Take me to RetroSupply’s super-affordable retro and vintage Photoshop actions.

There are also thousands of free Photoshop actions online. But when it comes to creating retro and vintage effects, quality resources can be hard to find, so we’ve put together this handy collection of some of the best options out there.

As you’ll see, we’ve included a few RetroSupply bargains among the freebies, too. These are some of our most popular retro and vintage Photoshop actions – they’re clearly marked, and might just help you take your artwork to the next level.

So read on for our selection of the very best free Photoshop actions for creating vintage and retro effects (plus a few ridiculously affordable premium options too)…

LITHPRINT ACTION: HARD BOILED

rawimage

Another free Photoshop action that will produce an ‘old photo’ vibe, Lithprint Hard Boiled – also by Maximilian Jänicke – transforms photographs into arresting lithograph-style images. It works best on images with medium contrast levels, so consider using levels or curves first.

SUBTLE GRIT TEXTURE PHOTOSHOP ACTION

HOODZPAH

A quick and simple way to make your graphics look perfectly aged, and retro, and grainy. It works great for social media posts or any artwork around 1200px to 1600px. It adds tooth to the crisp lines, the softens the edges, and finally adds noise and grain for a subtle, yet effective, end result.

Bad Print Effects action

Spoon graphics

Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics has been around from many years and throughout that time he's put out thousands of high-quality illustration and design tools. Our pick is a Photoshop action to give you the finishing touch to your retro or vintage themed designs.

RISOGRAPH PRINT PACK

RetroSupply Co.

The Risograph Print Pack not only allows you to instantly recreate the aesthetic of a Risograph printer, but you'll also be able to quickly change the pattern scale, ink colors, paper color, and ink density– all in the comfort of non-destructive processes.

RetroSupply's Risograph Print Pack is perfect for artists and designers who want to apply fast Risograph textures to their artwork without the use of brushes (or when brushes would be an impractical choice for the job).

Sounds like this fits into your workflow? Try the Risograph Print Pack today!

RETRO INDIE CAMERA ACTIONS

PIXELBUDDAH

Get nostalgic, artistic film filters for your digital photographs with this collection of 30 experimental Photoshop actions. Aside from being free, the best part about these vintage film actions is that they're non-destructive. So you can get light leaks, film grain, dark room defects, and more with just a click of a button in Photoshop.

FREE ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATION EFFECT ACTION

SPOON GRAPHICS

If you’re looking to create an old-school, wood-cut illustration style, try Chris Spooner’s engraved illustration effect Photoshop action. You can choose from three levels of detail, and he says that the moire effect seen in the preview images doesn’t appear at 100% scale.

FREE HALFTONE AUTOMATOR action

MATT BORCHERT

Quickly and easily convert your images into halftone dots and lines with this free Photoshop action. Created by Matt Borchert, it won’t destroy your original image, and applies the halftone effect on a new transparent layer.

THE MID-CENTURY PRINT PACK

RetroSupply Co.

The Mid-Century Print pack contains 7 of RetroSupply's best-selling actions that simulate a wide variety of retro print effects– including registration errors, ink roughening, monotones, halftones, ink starve, illustrative photograph effect, and more.

Each action comes with a tutorial video and two versions of the action– one with easy text prompts and one without for once you get comfortable with the action.

Plus, this pack is full of extra free bonus goods like Photoshop brushes to add subtle ink distressed textures, retro paper textures, vintage stock art, and more!

3d action

JONASFAN93

Action 3D is a set of four free Photoshop actions that will give your images a retro anaglyph 3D look – in other words, the stereoscopic 3D effect you see at the cinema if you remove your 3D glasses.

Gum Bichromate print action

rawimage

Recreate a 19th century gum bichromate print aesthetic with this set of free Photoshop actions. Created by Maximilian Jänicke, the set includes an action each for vertical and horizontal photos (it doesn’t matter which one you use for square photos), plus a texture to help create the ‘old photo’ look.

MAPITA: 3D ISOMETRIC MAP ACTION

BLUGRAPHIC

Convert a flat map into a retro 3D isometric map in one click with this free Photoshop action. There are three styles: sand, snow and grass; and you’ll also find a selection of buildings, trees and clouds to decorate your map inside the download. And although it’s intended for maps, the makers say you can apply the 3D isometric effect to anything from fonts to logos.

RETROLAB PHOTO EFFECT ACTION KIT

RetroSupply Co.

Give your photos a vintage film look in one click with RetroSupply's RetroLab. RetroLab gives you 100% control over how you process your photos so you can easliy customize the effects to get just the right look for your photos.

Plus, RetroLab includes tons of free bonuses like presets, film actions, seamless surface actions, leak actions, camera flash and hot spot actions, film grain, stain and dust brushes, frames, seamless textures, and much more!

DUOTONE EFFECTS ACTION

GRAPHICPEAR

Create dramatic, eyecatching, and colorful effects with one click of a button. This free action is easily applied to photographs and will work just like a filter and you can easily change out the colors, making this the action accessible for a wide range of creative processes.

ANIMATED GLITCH ACTION

PIXELO DESIGNER

Turn your photograph into a retro inspired glitch animation with this free Animated Glitch Photoshop Action from Pixelo. With the click of a button, you'll get a looping animated glitch that you can save as an animated GIF.

COME BACK TEXT EFFECT ACTION

PIXELBUDDAH

Add soft glowing, retro futurism vibes to your text with this free Photoshop action. It comes with a high-quality PSD file and 6 color combination options.

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