Whether you are making “Wanted” posters for a Western theme or just need to create the look of old paper for a design project, there are lots of techniques to create this effect. Ideally you can have at your fingertips a method that is scalable – so it works on small and large images – and consistent – so it looks the same from image to image if that’s what you need. This tutorial will teach you how to create that coveted “old paper” look using Photoshop’s built in layer styles tools.

1. Open a new document in Photoshop. Use an 800px X 600px canvas size for this tutorial. Some of the Style settings may need to be adjusted for larger or smaller canvases such as for printing brochures or posters.

2. Double-click your background layer to unlock it. If your Layers window is not open, go to Window -> Layers.

 
3. Right-click on the new “Layer 0” and select Blending Options.

 
4. At the “Inner Glow” menu, adjust your settings to match the ones we have below. We used the hexadecimal color FFEABE. If you are working on a larger image, the main setting you should look at is the Elements -> Size as this will adjust how far the color extends out onto your paper.

 
5. Go to the Color Overlay options and set the color to white. This is to prevent any invisible spots later that you may not be able to see until you print the picture.

 
6. Create a new layer with the New Layer button in your Layers window:

 
7. Make sure your colors are set to default black (foreground) and white (blackground). Go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds.

 
8. In the Layer window, change the layer setting to Color Burn and set the Fill to 75%

 
If you are not happy with the way your paper looks around the edges, simply select the layer with the clouds and hit Ctrl + F to render new clouds.