Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes
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!
Lesson Files + Additional Resources
Download the free .PSD file and other lesson files Right Here.
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75 Responses to Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes
Naoki Ninetails
April 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
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
April 8th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
nice paper…great tut…
Paulo Sales
April 8th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
the background pattern is amazing…where did you find it?
Adam
April 9th, 2008 at 7:31 am
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
April 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Another great tutorial!
weckl
April 9th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
good job
aronil
April 9th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Dude!! Once again i’m in complete awe!!
Paulo Sales
April 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
thkz hero…
Iceman7
April 10th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Wow. Just WOW. I’m so impressed. Superb stuff man. :)
armestar07
April 10th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
This is by far one of the most captivating tutorials I ever seen. Keep them coming.
Iceman7
April 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am
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
April 12th, 2008 at 2:29 am
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
April 15th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Dude! i don’t know where else to comment on this, but the new logo is the shizznit! ME LOVES.
dilirum
April 15th, 2008 at 2:51 am
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
April 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’m glad the new design meets your approval! Hopefully the new features will be something you can benefit from as well.
osaru
April 16th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Very nice!
I like this style very much! Cool!
Frosty Web Designs
April 21st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
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
April 28th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
woo!! nice tuts! more of this!
Jitendra K Bharai
May 8th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Hello !!!
Wow! You have a great site here man.I love it and the images are stunning.
Keep them coming.
jitendra
Michael
May 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
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
May 19th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
this is hot.. great job
joy
May 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
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
June 20th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Sh*t, you’re really a pshero. That’s my first visit here and my jaw drops because of this tutorials. Great stuff!
Rafeek
July 7th, 2008 at 10:40 am
i’m begining to love this site.. i bookmarked it
Pius Sarfo
July 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
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
July 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
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
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
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
July 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
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
July 25th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
MARC,
Thanks for the kind words. I do it because I love you. ;)
akuma
July 29th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Awesome tutorial, very detailed and easy-to-follow. I’ll give this a try.
Thanks a lot for the tutorial :)
Elsie
August 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
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
August 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Oh my god, I cannot believe it!!!! Amazing work!!!
Adez
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
A W E S O M E you really show the easy way to go in Photoshop, thanks dud!
uns
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 am
i love this site :-)
Elsie
September 26th, 2008 at 5:43 am
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
October 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Man, this was golden! Thanks so much for taking the time time to walk through this so thoroughly. Killer tutorial.
Cathy
October 19th, 2008 at 9:03 am
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
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
You sure picked the right name for your site. You are, as of now, my PhotoShop hero.
Inspired Arts
November 10th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Beautiful Tutorial! Well worth keeping the in the bookmarks
Claire
December 1st, 2008 at 6:04 am
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
December 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Realistic effects and good work on explanation.
Goga
January 25th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
You are not just an absolutely great artist but also a fantastic teacher.
Thanks for all the great tutorial.
Risa
February 28th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
You really are awesome and my pshero for sure!! Where did you learn and can I keep you forever!!!?? xoxoxoxoxo
Shashank
March 13th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Superb!!
You are not of this world…
Tell me how do you get such wonderful ideas.
Shashank
March 13th, 2009 at 2:54 am
I had never dreamt that such a thing is even possible!
Dean
March 15th, 2009 at 4:50 am
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
March 24th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Hero, you own. Thanks for doing this!
Mark
April 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
That was an excellent tutorial and one I will be sure to try in the not too distant future. Well done and thanks.
budijenjen
June 8th, 2009 at 3:02 am
magic …. wondeful tut
Benjamin Moore Paint
July 9th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Really cool tutorial thanks a lot for posting. Could this be done with another program besides photoshop, maybe GIMP?
HERO
July 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am
BENJAMIN, This may be possible in GIMP, but I couldn’t tell you for sure as I’ve never used it. I do know that many of my readers are GIMP users and they find ways to do most everything there.
shahra
August 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Thank you so much for this tutorial,I find it very usefull !
D.R.
August 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
As a Photoshop hobbyist I’ve done work similar to this. You really went the extra mile with respects to the detailing of this that really put some beautiful finishing touches on the piece.
It would easily pass for a photo of the real thing, thoroughly convincing!
D.R.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:19 am
P.S. Thanks for letting us download your psd too!
Tabris Chen
August 31st, 2009 at 8:42 am
Simply stunning <3
Yves Rivers
October 12th, 2009 at 8:23 am
These tutorials are Fantastic and your site design is great, it’s clean and refreshing. I rarely see a site that has great tutorials and a fantastic site themselves. Thank You.
stef
November 7th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Great tutorial! Thanks a lot….
evilkitty75
November 20th, 2009 at 7:54 am
This 1 is beautiful, i used to make my own paper like this but i could never make a good blend for the big text but thx to u i have it thankyou so so much! xxx
Kelly
January 8th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
I have spent a lot of time on your site. It is clean, easy to navigate, lots of freebies, very very helpful, full of ideas and your imagination is just full of wonderful ideas. Thank your for creating this site.
Ben
February 4th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Stellar tutorial. Thanks so much!
PsdDude
February 26th, 2010 at 7:29 am
PSHERO you are my HERO :) Nice tuts you have here! i enjoy very much learning from your site!
Callie Menche
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:03 am
Where did you get the red background??
HERO
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
CALLIE, I made the background with a simple repeating pattern. Check out my tutorial on the subject HERE
Jessica
March 6th, 2010 at 6:21 am
You make a daunting task easy as pie! Speaking for the ladies out here using your site, you make it easy for us to do our digital scrapbooking design! A lifted edge tutorial would be the bomb, if you ever feel so inclined! Your tutorials have brought a new level of greatness to my designing work and just wanted to say “Thank you” from the bottom of my little Georgia Pea Pickin Heart!
toxa
March 18th, 2010 at 1:50 am
thanks for tutorial :)
Antony
March 19th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Great stuff! Thanks man.
Dyannamika
April 4th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I think you’re my new art hero!
dungno
April 10th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Great tutorial!!
massimiliano falduto
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 am
Nice tutorial, I have to thank a lot You cause I solved my problem with this tutorial to create a nice texture background.
Thank You
wiyono
May 1st, 2010 at 4:07 am
great tutorial. thank you.. i have succes create them..
ince
June 4th, 2010 at 1:27 am
the tutorial was superb and simple! thanks a lot and keep it coming!
surajit sarkar
July 14th, 2010 at 1:10 am
very cool design ………
Pinyon
July 14th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I’m having trouble at Step 20 (aging the text). When I have both the text layer and the folds layers selected, the Add Layer Mask icon as well as Layer > Add Mask are grayed out.
Any suggestions?
HERO
July 19th, 2010 at 7:55 am
PINYON, Try adding the layer mask to one layer at a time.
Khalid Majid Ali
February 12th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Great tutorial, to the point and an awesome result.