Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes

Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes

Posted In : Graphic Design

In this Photoshop tutorial I'll show you how to create a Custom Brush using a folded piece of paper and then how to use that brush to create an old piece of paper.

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you how to create a Custom Brush using a folded piece of paper and then how to use that brush to create an old piece of paper.
Step 1

To begin this tutorial I took a plain white piece of paper, folded it in fours and left it in my pocket for a few hours. Next I scanned the paper using the Grayscale setting on my scanner. Because the both the paper and the scanner back are white, I placed a dark colored magazine behind the paper giving the cool result of a little text showing through onto my scan as you can see below.

I’ve imported the scan into Photoshop directly from the scanner by using the File>Import dialog from the main menu and then placed the scan above a white background layer. (*note: You can make a Custom Shape from ANYTHING you can bring into Photoshop from photos to line drawings.)

No matter what you’re trying to make into a Custom Brush, it will need to be black and white. If you’re using a color photo or image, you can quickly discard the color information by choosing Image>Adjustments>Desaturate from the main menu.
Step 2

It is important to understand that when we create a Custom Brush anything on the stage that is white will be transparent when we convert the image to a brush, black will be opaque and the gray areas in between will be partially transparent.

Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Tools bar by pressing the M key, then draw a selection around the area that you would like turn into your Custom Brush.
Step 3

With the selection made, choose Edit>Define Brush Preset from the main menu, give the new brush a name and click OK. How easy was that? Your new brush has now been saved and if you switch to the Brush tool by pressing the B key and choose the brush drop down from the Brush Options menu at the top of Photoshop, you’ll see that the newly created brush has been added to the end of the list.
Step 4

I can now delete the Scanned Paper layer from my document and get to work creating a new piece of paper.

Create a new layer called Paper Background and set the foreground and background colors in the Tools bar to #d3c29d and #b7a783 respectively. Press the M key to call up the Rectangular Marquee tool and since the standard aspect for a piece of paper is 8.5 x 11, we will set the constrain options for the Marquee tool to Fixed Aspect Ratio with a width of 11 and a height of 8.5.
Step 5

Now that we’ve got our colors selected and the Marquee tool setup, lets go ahead and drag a nice big selection onto the stage and fill it with the foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).
Step 6

With the selection still active choose Filter>Render>Clouds from the main menu. This will create a nice variant of color on our old paper using a mixture of the foreground and background colors we set in Step 4.

At this point it’s safe to deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).
Step 7

We will now use an Inner Glow layer style to darken the edges of the paper.

To call up the Layer Styles dialog you can either double click to the right of the layer name in the Layers palette, or Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options, then click on Inner Glow text on the left to add the following effect. Click OK when you’re done.
Step 8

Add a new layer by clicking the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and name it Folds.
Step 9

Now we’re going to use our new brush to create the folds and texture of the paper.

Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white, then press the B key to switch to the Brush tool and from the Brush drop down at the top choose the new Folded Paper brush we created earlier. If you were following along at home you’ll now notice that the brush we created is oriented horizontally, but our paper is vertical. This problem can be solved easily by opening the Brushes palette from the main menu by choosing Window>Brushes. Click on Brush Tip Shape in the menu on the right and change the Angle to 90°.
Step 10

Position the brush over the paper and use the bracket keys [ or ] to enlarge or reduce the brush size until it’s just a few pixels larger than the paper size then simply click once to paint one instance of the brush onto the stage.
Step 11

Next lets Control-Click (PC: Right Click) on the Folds layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. This will clip the Folds layer to the Paper Background layer and will effectively hide anything outside the papers area. The clipping mask also allows the Inner Glow layer style which was added to the Paper Background layer to apply to the Folds layer as well.
Step 12

Now lets make the Folds layer blend correctly with the underlying layer by changing the Blend Mode to Color Burn and the layer’s Fill opacity to 40%.
Step 13

An old piece of paper should have some blemishes around the edges so lets click back down to the Paper Background layer in the Layers palette to select it and then add a Layer Mask by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will allow us to rough up the edges of the paper without actually erasing from the actual layer. When the Layer Mask is added you will notice that it is by default selected (*note: You can tell the layer mask is selected rather than the actual content of the layer because of the black brackets that appear around the icon of the layer mask.)
Step 14

Press the B key to switch to the Brush tool, then choose the Chalk 60 pixels brush from the Brush Picker. This will be the rough edge brush I’ll be using to antique the edges of the paper.
Step 15

With the foreground color set to black use the brush to paint black into little sections around the edge of the paper, effectively removing those areas from view. The black we paint onto the stage with the layer mask selected will be masked away.
Step 16

With the Paper Background still selected, press the Create A New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a layer directly above it. Notice that the new layer is also clipped to the Paper Background layer just like the Folds layer.

Press the X key to change the foreground color to white, then using the same brush with it’s opacity set to 30% paint around the worn edges with white to add a little dimension to the wear.
Step 17

If you downloaded the grunge brushes from the Create An Old Envelope tutorial you can use them here on a new layer called Grunge to add some nice watermarks and grungy effects to the paper. I used a blend mode of Color Burn and lowered the fill opacity to 22%.
Step 18

Click back to the Paper Background layer and add a nice Drop Shadow layer style as shown below.
Step 19

The last thing our paper needs is some writing. Click on the Folds layer (or whatever you called your top layer) and switch to the Type tool by pressing the T key. With the Type tool drag a rectangle onto the stage where the text on the paper should live then using a font like Bickham Script Pro or Champignon, type out your text.
Step 20

Of course we’ll need to age the text to match the paper, and luckily we’ve already done most of the preparation. Change the layer blend mode to Color Burn and lower the opacity to 50%.

While still on your Text layer hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the thumbnail for the Folds layer to load the layer as a selection. This will create a selection using only the information contained on the Folds layer.

Now simply click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette to convert the selection into a Layer Mask that will instantly age the text consistent with the folds and wrinkles on the paper.
Step 21

Because of the blend and opacity changes the text is now too light, so simply press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Text layer. This will double the effects of the Color Burn blend mode as well as effectively increase the density of the text creating a more convincing effect.
Step 22

And there you have it, a nice effect produced by creating your own Photoshop Custom Brush. Nice work!

49 Comments

  • Naoki Ninetails  SAID:

    Holy cow. I would have said it was a direct scan if you’d shown me the file version. I am utterly amazed. More! More! :D

  • Paulo Sales  SAID:

    nice paper…great tut…

  • Paulo Sales  SAID:

    the background pattern is amazing…where did you find it?

  • Adam  SAID:

    Pure Magic - I read your tutorials with pleasure and it just goes to show how powerful photoshop is - keep ‘em coming, great stuff :D

  • Tim  SAID:

    Another great tutorial!

  • weckl  SAID:

    good job

  • aronil  SAID:

    Dude!! Once again i’m in complete awe!!

  • Paulo Sales  SAID:

    thkz hero…

  • Iceman7  SAID:

    Wow. Just WOW. I’m so impressed. Superb stuff man. :)

  • armestar07  SAID:

    This is by far one of the most captivating tutorials I ever seen. Keep them coming.

  • Iceman7  SAID:

    Ok i couldn’t resist commenting again. I just made my own version of this and it looks beautiful.

    I’m going to use this and make my girl some prints with photos from the past and a poem.

    Beautiful work man. Each day i eagerly check my RSS feed to see if you’ve conjured up something … and you never fail to wow me. Thanks for doing this.

  • dilirum  SAID:

    Fantastic work as always. I’m with Paulo… dig the background/pattern almost as much as the old paper. Thanks for sharing a bit of your genius.

  • loserette  SAID:

    Dude! i don’t know where else to comment on this, but the new logo is the shizznit! ME LOVES.

  • dilirum  SAID:

    Haha… Word Loserette… I was envious of the old header/logo … the new one is amazing though! Nice work. Hope you made a tut of how you developed it. =)

  • HERO  SAID:

    I’m glad the new design meets your approval! Hopefully the new features will be something you can benefit from as well.

  • osaru  SAID:

    Very nice!
    I like this style very much! Cool!

  • Frosty Web Designs  SAID:

    Thats real cool, I think I did something like this a few years back, when I took a photoshop class.

    None the less, good graphic skills!

  • gillian  SAID:

    woo!! nice tuts! more of this!

  • Jitendra K Bharai  SAID:

    Hello !!!

    Wow! You have a great site here man.I love it and the images are stunning.
    Keep them coming.

    jitendra

  • Michael  SAID:

    I never comment on these tutorials that I run across, but what you did there was just amazing and I had to at least add a word of praise for the talent you displayed on that art work. Very nicely done, thank you!
    -Banjo

  • joy  SAID:

    this is hot.. great job

  • joy  SAID:

    by the way.. i do the same thing but i am using a different software.. i love old paper haha but ur old paper is kewl.. ur a good inspiration man! :) God bless your works..

  • Andy  SAID:

    Sh*t, you’re really a pshero. That’s my first visit here and my jaw drops because of this tutorials. Great stuff!

  • Rafeek  SAID:

    i’m begining to love this site.. i bookmarked it

  • Pius Sarfo  SAID:

    Hi,
    Keep it up, you have really impressed me day in and day out.
    Ever since I visited your site I keep on improving.

    At first I was a little bit slow in working with Photoshop and sometimes I thought some of these tutorial were made with SPECIAL softwares.

    Thank you.

    From Ghana

  • HERO  SAID:

    Hello PIUS from Ghana! Welcome.
    I try to keep my tutorials strictly to Photoshop with no additional plug-ins so that everyone can follow along, so no “special softwares” as you say were used. Keep improving!

  • Mack  SAID:

    A very pretty and a detailed tutorial. You have explained everything in a nice way. I like it very much Thanks for the Tutorial

  • Marc  SAID:

    Very few- if any- people would do a tutorial like this and take the time to carefully explain and detail the steps. You have done a wonderful thing for thousands of us designers out here in the world. To say I appreciate it is an understatement. THANK YOU for taking the huge amount of time necessary to really document how you did it. It’s beautiful and HUGELY helpful. Thank you.

  • HERO  SAID:

    MARC,
    Thanks for the kind words. I do it because I love you. ;)

  • akuma  SAID:

    Awesome tutorial, very detailed and easy-to-follow. I’ll give this a try.

    Thanks a lot for the tutorial :)

  • Elsie  SAID:

    I love old papers and this tut is excellent. Thanks for the great tut and generous sharing via the downloads. I can’t wait to make more papers.

  • Dennis  SAID:

    Oh my god, I cannot believe it!!!! Amazing work!!!

  • Adez  SAID:

    A W E S O M E you really show the easy way to go in Photoshop, thanks dud!

  • uns  SAID:

    i love this site :-)

  • Elsie  SAID:

    Just had to come back to tell you how easy it was to make this paper with your clear instructions and screen shots. I also made a brush from own of my photos that I used for my paper and made the duct tape as well. Loved the little bubbles effect.

    Now if I can just find such a nice tutorial on how to do curled paper edges for scrapbooking…

    Thanks again, you rock!

  • Daniel  SAID:

    Man, this was golden! Thanks so much for taking the time time to walk through this so thoroughly. Killer tutorial.

  • Cathy  SAID:

    This is great, now if you can show me some worn grungy photo edges that I can use in scrapbooking. Thanks. Keep them coming.!

  • Eva  SAID:

    You sure picked the right name for your site. You are, as of now, my PhotoShop hero.

  • Inspired Arts  SAID:

    Beautiful Tutorial! Well worth keeping the in the bookmarks

  • Claire  SAID:

    Thank you. Tried a couple of old paper tuts and this is by far the best and easiest to follow. You are an angel!!

  • enuckon  SAID:

    Realistic effects and good work on explanation.

  • Goga  SAID:

    You are not just an absolutely great artist but also a fantastic teacher.
    Thanks for all the great tutorial.

  • Risa  SAID:

    You really are awesome and my pshero for sure!! Where did you learn and can I keep you forever!!!?? xoxoxoxoxo

  • Shashank  SAID:

    Superb!!
    You are not of this world…
    Tell me how do you get such wonderful ideas.

  • Shashank  SAID:

    I had never dreamt that such a thing is even possible!

  • Dean  SAID:

    Finally a person who knows how to make a usefull tut…

    Yes it’s true…
    To make old paper I looked up so many tut’s
    They sucked
    But this 1… Amazing
    Like I said
    Finnaly some ons who knows how to make a tut

  • Julian  SAID:

    Hero, you own. Thanks for doing this!

  • Mark  SAID:

    That was an excellent tutorial and one I will be sure to try in the not too distant future. Well done and thanks.

  • budijenjen  SAID:

    magic …. wondeful tut

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