PHOTOCOPY TEXTURES SOFTWARE

Note: Scanning at 1200 DPI takes quite a bit longer than 300 or 600 DPI. Here are the settings I used on my scanner to capture my textures: Just set it to the maximum DPI (on most printer scanners this is 600 DPI).

If you don't have a photo scanner a regular scanner on your printer will work just fine (your textures just won't be as detailed or large).

PHOTOCOPY TEXTURES SOFTWARE

Photo scanners have a higher DPI (mine goes up to 12,800 DPI) and the superior software that comes with it. Ideally, you want to do this with a stand alone photography scanner. Next, head home and get ready to start scanning your photocopies into your computer for further processing.Ĭhoose your favorite copies and scan them. FYI the copy machine attendant will look at you weird when you insist upon keeping this sheet! Step 3. This can result in some weird toner smears. If you make enough copies you might get 'lucky' and the machine will jam. Ask which machine is oldest or lowest on toner.

Pull the paper you're copying as it's scanning.

Here's some other things we tried to get more intense and unique photocopy texture effects: The results in more shades of gray in your copies. This setting turns down the amount of toner that is output from the machine. Setting the Sharpness to high would often result in copies that overcompensated for variations in shade resulting in some interesting textures.Įco-Friendly. Sharpness. Setting the Sharpness to low would sometimes result in toner 'bruising' type effects. Lower the density down a bit for subtle toner shading. Try pushing it to the max for more intense photocopy textures. Density seems to set the contrast of black and white. Here's some setting we found gave great results (they may have different names depending on the model of copy machine you're using):ĭensity. Photocopy different pieces of material and adjust settings to extremes. Once you've assembled your materials, it's time to take a trip to the copy shop. Miscellaneous. What do you have lying around your house that might make some interesting photocopy textures? We experimented with cardboard, linoleum, and leather and got some interesting effects. Remove the paper and let it dry and you'll have some old looking paper! The longer you let it soak the darker and more yellowed the paper will look. We used some of my grandfather's WWII Navy documents and some of the blank pages from old books.ĭon't have any old documents? Poor some tea in a shallow cookie sheet and then set a piece of paper in the tray. So we grabbed some old documents that had oxidation and yellowing in them. Historical documents. Here at RetroSupply we're all about adding some history to our work. This resulted in a banding effect that looked really cool! I found that when I photocopied a gradient there would be an area where the copy machine started to pick up the dark color more intensely. This will give the copy machine something to work with. So try printing out a variety of grayscale gradients onto paper to bring with you. Paper. If you just copy a plain white piece of paper in a copy machine you'll likely just get a plain white piece of paper out the other end. Here's some easy stuff from home I used to make photocopy textures: But you'll get even more interesting effects if you bring some materials with you.īelow are some of the textures we tried out when building our texture pack. You can get some great looking photocopy textures just by experimenting with the photocopy machine settings. Gather items to help you make your photocopy textures You might need to slightly adjust how you work but the idea is very similar across software. These tips will help you make your own photocopy textures for Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, or your favorite raster based design software. So I thought I'd share some of the tips I picked up while making the pack! It turned out to be harder that I thought to make a photocopy texture pack. We recently released a pack called the Photocopy Hate Machine (most hilarious product name to date, I think).

Photocopy textures