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How to Make Anything Look Printed in Photoshop

Make any flat artwork read like it came off a real printer. You build a second document that holds your grain and paper textures, use it as a displacement map so the art distorts along the paper fibres, then stack paper scans and a printer grain overlay on top. No plugin needed, and every stage stays live so you can push it further later.

  • 4 steps
  • Printer Grain Texture Pack
How to Make Anything Look Printed in Photoshop

Setup

Documents

SETUP: This setup requires 2 documents. One has the image you are texturing, the other has your textures.

Documents

Settings

  • Document 1 art.psd (the image you are texturing)
  • Document 2 texture.psd (your textures)
  • Art document size 16 in x 20 in

Step 1

Texture Document

TEXTURE DOCUMENT: I have 2 layers in this document, a printer grain texture and paper pulp texture. The printer grain texture is from my Printer Grain Texture Pack, the paper pulp texture is from TextureLabs.

The paper pulp texture is placed above the printer grain, and set to overlay.

Save this document somewhere you can find it.

Slide
Slide
UI — Layers panel
UI — Layers panel

Layer 1 (bottom)

  • Layer Printer Grain Texture
  • Blending Mode Normal
  • Opacity 100%
  • From Printer Grain Texture Pack

Layer 2 (top)

  • Layer Paper Pulp Texture
  • Blending Mode Overlay
  • Opacity 100%
  • From Texture Labs

Layers panel (top to bottom)

  • PAPER PULP Visible (smart object)
  • 09 Visible (smart object)
  • Background Visible, white

Step 2

Displace + Box Blur

ART DOCUMENT (16in x 20in): Convert your art into a smart object. Then apply the Displace effect in Filter>Distort>Displace. Choose the texture.psd document you just saved. Set both horizontal and vertical displace values to around 2-4. I set them to 3.

Next, apply the Box Blur effect in Filter>Blur>Box Blur. Set the value to 2.

Displace + Box Blur
UI — Layers panel
UI — Layers panel

Displace

  • Menu Filter > Distort > Displace
  • Horizontal Scale 3 (use 2-4)
  • Vertical Scale 3 (use 2-4)
  • Displacement map texture.psd

Box Blur

  • Menu Filter > Blur > Box Blur
  • Radius 2

Layers panel

  • Layer Group 3 copy 2 (smart object, classic layer name)
  • Smart Filters Visible, white mask
  • Smart Filter 1 Box Blur
  • Smart Filter 2 Displace

Step 3

Paper Textures

ART DOCUMENT: Apply paper textures above the art smart object. Adjust blending mode, levels, and opacity to get the look you like.

Paper Textures

Texture layers

  • Printer Scanlines Blend Mode: Overlay, From: Custom
  • Printer Scanlines Blend Mode: Screen, From: Custom
  • Paper Scan Blend Mode: Screen, From: StudioAAA
  • Construction Paper Blend Mode: Screen, From: Custom

Step 4

Place the Printer Grain on Top

ART DOCUMENT: Finally, place the texture.psd (PRINTER-GRAIN) document at the top using File>Place Linked. Set the blending mode to overlay.

BONUS TIP: For more printed distortion, scale up the texture layers in the texture.psd document, then save the document. Double click on the Displace smart filter to re-apply the displacement.

Place the Printer Grain on Top
UI — Layers panel
UI — Layers panel

PRINTER-GRAIN layer

  • Menu File > Place Linked
  • File texture.psd
  • Blending Mode Overlay
  • Position Top of the layer stack

Layers panel (top to bottom)

  • PRINTER-GRAIN Visible (linked smart object)
  • printer scanlines 2 Visible
  • printer scanlines Visible
  • paper scan Visible
  • CONSTRUCTION-PAPER Visible
  • Group 3 copy 2 Visible (smart object)
  • Smart Filters Visible, white mask
  • Smart Filter 1 Box Blur
  • Smart Filter 2 Displace

Finish

Result

That's it. If you want realistic, high-quality printer grain textures, check out the Printer Grain Texture Pack: 10 textures, 4800 x 6000 px, 300 DPI.

Result

Get the plugin used in this tutorial

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