old paper look

[Rob Montague]

Got Google? 😉

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=photoshop+weathered+paper&btnG=Google+Search

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=photoshop+aged+paper&btnG=Google+Search

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=photoshop+parchment&btnG=Google+Search

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=photoshop+old+paper&btnG=Google+Search

You could also try searching the archive here on the COW.

[Rob Montague]

If you want to go Bonanza-style:
https://www.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=%3CFORUMID%3E&page=/articles/dallos_matt/fire/index.html

[Michael Munkittrick]

We’re working on something similar, except for a branding piece instead of a DVD project. Here’s what we did.

A.) Take a plain white piece of thin printer paper and get it wet but not soaked.

B.) Remove the paper from the water and let it drip-dry.

C.) Softly crumple the paper into a loose ball, then uncrumple to a reasonable facsimile of the original shape.

D.) Place your paper on a glass or microwave-safe plate and set the ‘wave to high for about 30 seconds. You will need to watch very closely as some waves have the tendency to arc if all of the water disappates.

E.) Remove the paper and use a lighter to add small burn-spots being careful not to go all the way through.

F.) Scan with a flatbed scanner at around 300 DPI and resize to fit in Photoshop.

As an additional step that was pointed out the last time I posted this, one person suggested that adding two or three drops of yellow food coloring and maybe a light wash of red would add a slightly “western” feel, like that of a wanted poster. I’ve done this same technique to come up with everything from old parchment to the “dead-sea” scrolls for our work with Discovery Channel in 2001. It isn’t very time consuming, but it can be a pain in the butt to get the perfect look. Another person said that they got pretty good results by using the reverse of this technique by using plain grocery bags and dipping them in lightly bleached water and simply hang-drying the pieces in the sun. The effect produced good results but looked more like handled paper than weathered paper.

Anyway, have fun and enjoy. If you have a place to upload it, I’ll drop you a very good page that we use once in a while in print work. It’s a full 8.5″ by 11″ sheet, but it looks really good.

Michael Munkittrick
Managing Creative Director
Evolve Media Solutions

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[Gene Torres]

Thanks for the quick replies. I think I’ll take a little time after work to try Michaels recipe. It sounds like what I need.