Ben-Day comic dots effect

Ben-Day dots are the small, evenly spaced dots used in comic books and newspapers to fill areas with colour and shading from a limited ink set. The technique is named after the illustrator and printer Benjamin Day, who developed it in the late 1870s, and it became the signature look of 1960s pop art.

This effect fills your photo with a regular dot pattern and reduces the colours to a limited number of levels, so the result looks like a hand-separated comic panel rather than a photo. It builds on the same ideas as halftone but leans into flat colour and bold dots.