Old paper background with Photoshop in under a minute

There are dozens of Photoshop tutorials to create this effect... long boring tutorials. I've seen one that actually involves walking around with a piece of paper in your pocket for few days then scan it and work on that image. I've seen tutorials stretching on 6-7 pages to achieve this effect. I don't have time for that... nor the will to read tones of explanations. It's just too much for me. Fortunately, Adobe Photoshop will do all the work for us if we apply the right filters in the right order. Now I will show you the fastest way to do it... the way I like it: fast and with great results. You don't believe me you can do it in under a minute? Start the countdown and do as I say... First open a new document (mine is 400x400 px, but it will work the same with any size) and press Ctrl + D to set the default foreground and background colors. The go to the menu Filters - Render - Clouds. Go again to the menu Filter - Render - Difference Clouds and apply this effect. Repeat this effect 3 times, pressing Ctrl + F 3 times. Now go to the menu Filter - Stylize - Emboss and click it. A new window will pop up. Apply this filter. You can play a little with the Height and see if you can get a better result. Click OK then press Ctrl + A to select all, go to the menu Select - Modify - Contract and contract the selection with 40 px. Go back to Select - Modify menu and this time chose Feather. Set a feather of 20 px. Press Ctrl + Shift + I to invert selection then press Ctrl + J (new layer via copy). On the new layer, set the Blending Mode to Multiply. Add a Black & White adjustment layer. Check the Tint box and punch up the Saturation. Hit OK then stop the clock. How long it took you? There you have it: a nice paper background made with Adobe Photoshop in just under a minute.

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