If you’ve ever wanted to give your digital illustrations that gritty, worn-out comic book feel—complete with halftones, ink misalignments, and retro textures—this post is for you.
Today, I’ll walk you through a step-by-step process using our Splat Color Process Macros for Affinity Photo, turning a simple flat-colored illustration into a vibrant, vintage comic book panel.
Let’s dive in.
Want to follow along or reverse-engineer the process? Grab this free Affinity Photo demo file with the full layer structure already set up. It’s a great starting point to experiment with the Splat Illustration Kit workflow and see how everything fits together.
Before we jump into macros, we need to separate our inks and colors into different documents. The free Affinity Photo file provided with this tutorial already is formatted to jump right onto Macros, so if you’re are using this one, you may want to skip this first part.
In Affinity Designer, lay down your flat colors, these should be on their own layer. You can the Splat Colors swatches included with the pack to have that retro vibe right from the start.
Separate the ink linework from the colors. Copy the inks layer, then go to File > New from Clipboard to create a new document. Save this new document as Inks.afdesign.
Back in your original file, save a copy as Colors.afdesign.In this Colors file, hide or delete the inks and fills layers—so you’re left with only color fields.
You should now have two files:
Open Inks.afdesign in Affinity Photo.
Place the Colors.afdesign file into the same document (File > Place or drag-and-drop).
Rename the embedded layer to “Colors“. Your layer stack should now look like this:
Now the fun begins.
Open the Library Panel in Affinity Photo and start applying the Macros. If you’re new to Macros, think of them as automated workflows—like Photoshop Actions, but with more flexibility. Macros in Affinity Photo are exclusive to the app and allow you to apply complex effects with a single click. The real power, though, is in the customization: many of our Splat Macros include adjustable sliders and options, so you can tweak each effect to suit your illustration. Whether you’re adjusting halftone size, paper aging, or ink damage, you’re always in control of the final look.
Misprinted Inks – Global: Adds wear and tear to the linework. Try increasing the effect to preview it, then dial it back to around 45% for a more natural look.
Film Separation: This macro breaks your Colors layer into a simulated four-color printing process—Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Each color plate becomes its own layer, giving you full control to toggle them on or off, adjust opacity, or even mask specific areas. It’s a powerful way to replicate traditional print techniques and fine-tune the mood of your piece. But, we’ll get to that later.
Spot Red: Pulls all pure reds into their own layer, followed by Spot Red Damage which adds uneven ink blotches to the red layer for a degraded look.
Spot Blue: Same as above, but for saturated blues. Alternatively you can apply Spot Blue – Damage: Adds scratches and fine wear to the blue layer.
Line Work Phaser (optional): Slightly fades your black ink and adds print misregistration for an authentic offset vibe.
Colors Alignment: Randomly misaligns your color plates for that classic print feel. Default settings use to work fine.
Screening: Adds halftone dots to reduce digital flatness and simulate screen printing. Adjust dot size to suit your artwork.
Bake Colors: Merges the ink and color layers into a cohesive, printed-on-paper appearance.
Vintage Printer: Unifies linework, color plates, and damage. You can adjust: Paper aging (70% gives a nice yellowed look, Linework temperature (warmer/red or cooler/blue), Color shift (5–10% is enough for a subtle push).
Newspaper Me (optional): Adds grain, yellowing, and a cheap print texture that wraps everything together.
Splat includes a curated set of hand-crafted paper textures—each one created by scanning real vintage materials, then carefully retouched and merged into high-resolution overlays. These textures are designed to bring that last layer of authenticity to your piece, mimicking the look and feel of aged, worn-out comic book pages. They’re perfect for adding stains, scratches, and subtle paper grain that tie your entire artwork together.
Open the Assets Panel and drag in one of the included flat paper textures.
Once all the main effects are in place, you can dive into creative exploration by tweaking individual elements. All layers—color plates, textures, halftones, and damage effects—are fully editable and non-destructive. Think of this as a creative playground—a mini vacation where you get to fine-tune every detail until your artwork feels just right. You’re in complete control, and there’s no wrong move here—just experiment, undo, and enjoy the process.
You can hide certain color layers to simulate cheaper printing, mask out areas where you want smoother colors, or reduce the opacity of specific plates to soften the overall tone. Refer to the video above for some examples.
Tip: You can apply Levels adjustments to individual layers for targeted tweaks, or place one on top of everything to fine-tune the overall contrast and brightness of your entire piece.
We just turned a simple flat-color robot illustration into a gritty, retro comic book panel using only Splat Macros in Affinity Photo. These tools are designed to give you room to explore, improvise, and push your art into new territory—whether you’re going for pulp sci-fi, superhero action, or indie zine energy.
You can grab the Splat Color Process Macros over at our site and start experimenting with your own artwork.
