Make digital art look printed with a paper texture
Put a paper texture on top of your artwork, set it to Multiply and lower the opacity. Pick the paper to match the style of the work.
Digital art is perfectly flat. Printed art is not: paper has tone, fibres and small unevenness that catch the light. A paper texture on top gives your work that surface back in a few seconds.
Step by step
- Pick a texture from the paper & grunge collection. For illustrations and lettering start with cold press watercolour paper.
- Place the texture JPG on top of your artwork as a new layer.
- Set the blend mode to Multiply. White disappears and only the darker parts of the paper show.
- Lower the opacity until the texture sits behind the design. 40–80% is usual.
- If the paper colour changes your colours too much, desaturate the layer (Image → Adjustments → Desaturate). You keep the texture and lose the tint.
Which paper for what
| Work | Texture |
|---|---|
| Watercolour and gouache style art | Cream watercolour paper |
| Posters and collage | Heavily crumpled paper, folded sheet |
| Zines, punk and rough type | Dirty photocopy |
| Packaging and labels | Kraft card |
| Paintings, photo-to-painting | Natural canvas |
| Maps and old documents | Parchment, old book page |
Small tricks
- Texture on top of everything, including text. Type that sits above the paper looks stuck on.
- Crumpled paper and type: on heavy creases, lower the opacity over the text area with a soft mask so the words stay readable.
- White parts of your art stay white in Multiply. If you want the paper tone there too, add the texture once more at low opacity in Normal mode.
No Photoshop? Photopea (free, in the browser), GIMP, Procreate and Affinity all have Multiply. The steps are the same.