Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics
back with another video tutorial for Adobe Photoshop.
Today I'm going to show you a series of filters and adjustments you can apply to your artwork
to give it an old, aged print effect.
The aesthetics of low-cost printing methods in the mid-20th Century is associated with
retro comics, magazines and matchbook prints.
Ink bleed, misregistration and visible halftone dot patterns are all side-effects of cheap
offset printing on cheap paper stock, but those visual traits that were once defects
from the printing process are now desired effects to give modern artwork the appearance
of a retro print.
Follow these steps in Adobe Photoshop to turn your crisp digital designs into nostalgic
retro prints. We'll add filters that replicate the appearance of high ink absorption with
irregular edges and bleeding corners; Convert all colours into halftone screens; Separate
and offset the black areas as if the printing plate is misaligned; Then we'll finish off
the effect with worn ink and paper textures to add the fine details of pulp grain and
distressed areas where
the print has worn away.
Since this tutorial is all about applying effects to a completed design, I've put together
some artwork using a sugar skull from one of my old video tutorials, along with some
accompanying text and colourful background colours to make the kind of weird and wonderful
designs you see on those retro matchbook prints.
Flatten your artwork to begin, then make a duplicate of the background layer by dragging
it onto the New Layer icon, or press the CMD+J shortcut, or CTRL+J on Windows.
Fill the original background with white, then select the artwork layer and convert it to
a smart object via the right click menu. This will ensure all filters and effects are applied
non-destructively so they can be turned off or edited.
The first effect to apply is under Filter > Noise > Median. This will round off the
corners of the artwork, which helps to mimic how the ink bleeds into the paper. If you
go too high with the radius setting things start to become blurred, so find a value that
rounds off the corners without distorting the overall artwork. I'm using 4px.
Another filter to eliminate the crips digital lines is Ripple under the Distort menu. Find
a value that adds subtle irregularities to the outlines, without being too prominent.
25% works for my artwork.
Real prints are made using halftone screens. On old, cheap offset prints the halftone dot
patterns are visible. Easily add the effect in Photoshop using the Filter > Pixelate > Color
Halftone filter.
Reduce the max radius to the lowest value of 4, then set all the screen angles to 45
degrees. You could leave these default values for a more realistic halftone pattern, but
the effect is more defined at 45 degrees.
Double click the slider icon next to the Color Halftone effect in the layers panel to edit
its blending mode. Change it to Soft Light to allow the dots to interact with the underlying
colours.
If you move the Color Halftone effect underneath the Ripple effect by dragging it in the layers
panel, the Ripple effect will actually be applied to the dots too, which helps give
them a distressed appearance.
Click the little eyeball icon next to the Color Halftone effect to turn it off for a
moment, while we make a selection of the black elements of the artwork to produce the misregistration
effect.
My first thought was to use the Select > Color Range command to make a selection of all the
black elements, but it's difficult to accurately find the right settings to capture every detail.
An alternative method I found was to convert the image to CMYK, so the black parts of the
artwork are separated under the K channel for key, or black in other words.
Go to Image > Mode > CMYK, but click no to Flatten or Rasterize the artwork.
In the Channels panel, make a duplicate of the Black channel.
One problem we have is that CMYK black is not pure Photoshop black, so go to Image > Adjustments
> Levels and increase the Shadows to darken the blacks to a pure 000 hex or RGB value.
Hold the CMD key, or CTRL key on Windows and click the thumbnail of the new Black Channel
to loads its selection.
Switch over to the Layers panel and add a layer mask to the artwork layer while the
selection is active, to mask out all the black areas.
The next problem we have is we're left with a fine 1px outline where the selection was
made.
Use the Step Backward or Undo command to erase the layer mask so the selection is active
again.
Go to Select > Modify, then choose Contract, since this is a negative selection. Enter
1px, then apply the Layer Mask again.
Change the artwork back to RGB under the Image > Mode menu, choosing not to Flatten or Rasterize
again.
Bring back the visibility of the Color Halftone effect.
Switch over to the Channels panel and make another selection of the Black copy channel
by clicking the thumbnail while holding the CMD key.
Add a new layer, then inverse the selection under Select > Inverse, before filling the
area with the black foreground colour using the shortcut ALT+Backspace to restore the
black artwork, but on a separate layer.
Press CMD+D to Deselect.
This black artwork layer can now be nudged out of place using the keyboard cursor keys
to simulate a misregistered print plate effect.
Next we'll need some texture assets to distress the artwork further. Download my Free pack
of Subtle Grunge Concrete Textures from Spoon Graphics. Open up any of the textures into
Photoshop.
Use the shortcuts CMD+A to Select All, CMD+C to Copy, CMD+W to close the image, then CMD+V
to Paste it into the main document, followed by CMD+T to Transform. Scale and position
the texture so it fills the canvas.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert to flip the texture so the fine details are white
against a dark background.
In order to make the dark background invisible it needs to be pure black, so use the Levels
to darken the texture.
Change the blending mode of this layer to Screen to make the black areas transparent,
leaving just the array of white speckles. A quick Sharpen filter can help enhance them.
Add a Levels Adjustment Layer and adjust the Output Levels to lighten the darkest areas,
making them a dark grey rather than pure black.
Make a copy of the layer with the black areas of the artwork and drag it to the top of the
layer stack.
Reduce its Fill value to zero, so its contents can't be seen, then double click the layer
to bring up the Layer Styles options.
Add an Inner Glow and reset to the default values.
To make it easier to find suitable settings, temporarily change the glow to a bright colour.
You can then alter the Choke and Size sliders to generate a soft outline around the artwork,
that doesn't completely fill in too many areas. I'm using 50% choke and 10px size.
Set the glow colour back to black to see a subtle outline effect that simulates the plate
pressure, where the ink is slightly darker with better coverage towards the edges.
Finally, open up an old paper texture to simulate the aged paper stock the print is applied
to. Even when they were brand new, many old prints were applied to cheap, heavy grain
paper, but as they have survived over the years they become yellow and stained.
This pack of Grungy Paper and Card textures can also be downloaded for free from Spoon
Graphics.
Copy and paste a texture into the artwork file. Scale it down to fit. Texture 4 has
some lines in the texture which I've cropped out.
Set the blending mode to allow the stained paper texture interact with the underlying
artwork.
Open up the Levels to adjust the contrast of the texture. Bringing in the highlights
brightens the texture, while darkening the shadows makes the texture detail more prominent.
If the yellow colouring is too intense, reduce the Saturation using the Image > Adjustments
> Hue/Saturation tool. -50% takes away the vibrancy while retaining a subtle yellow colour
cast.
To fine tune the effect, alter the opacity of the layer to tone down the texturing.
Adding a quick Sharpen filter also helps to bring out the texture of the paper grain too.
The final result is a retro style design with all the sought after defects associated with
old prints, including ink bleed, misregistration, halftone patterns, distressed textures and
paper effects.
If you want to add all those effects with just a click of a button, this whole process
is available as a Photoshop Action. Follow the link in the description to download Bad
Print Effects for free, and don't forget to join my mailing list while you're there to
get my entire bundle of free resources.
As always thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.