Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we'll learn how to create a simple old paper texture, great for use as a scrapbooking background for displaying old, antique photos! I'll be using Photoshop CS5 here but any recent version of Photoshop will work.

Here's what our old paper texture will look like when we're done:

And here's just one example of how it can be used as a background for a photo layout:

Let's get started!

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Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document

Let's begin by creating a new document for our paper texture. Go up to the File menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choose New:

This opens the New Document dialog box. Enter the width, height and resolution you need. For this tutorial, I'll enter 1000 pixels for both the Width and Height, and I'll leave my Resolution set to 72 pixels/inch. If you're planning to print the final result, you'll probably want to enter width and height values in inches, and you'll want to set your resolution to 240 pixels/inch or higher. Click OK when you're done to close out of the dialog box. Your new Photoshop document will appear on the screen:

Step 2: Fill The Document With A Light Brown

At the moment, our new document is filled with solid white. Let's change the color. Go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill:

This opens the Fill dialog box. Set the Use option at the top of the dialog box to Color:

As soon as you select Color, Photoshop will pop open the Color Picker which is where we choose the color we want to fill the layer with. Select a light brown. If you want to use the same color I'm using, look for the R, G and B options (which stand for Red, Green and Blue) near the bottom center of the dialog box, then set the R value to 211, G to 178 and B to 140:

Click OK to close out of the Color Picker, then click OK to close out of the Fill dialog box. Photoshop fills the document with light brown:

Step 3: Add A New Layer

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Nothing will happen in the document window, but a new blank layer named Layer 1 appears above the Background layer in the Layers panel:

Step 4: Apply The Clouds Filter

We're going to use this layer to add some texture to the paper. First, make sure your Foreground and Background colors are set to their defaults by pressing the letter D on your keyboard. This resets your Foreground color to black and your Background color to white, just in case they were set to something different. The reason we're doing this is because the filter we're about to run uses the Foreground and Background colors. You can see what the colors are currently set to by looking at the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools panel:

With the Foreground and Background colors reset, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Render, and then choose Clouds:

There are no additional options for the Clouds filter, so Photoshop will simply go ahead and run it, adding random "clouds" to the layer. Your document will look something like this:

Step 5: Apply The Spatter Filter

Go back up to the Filter menu and this time choose Brush Strokes, then choose Spatter:

This opens Photoshop's Filter Gallery showing a large preview of the effect on the left, with the Spatter options appearing in the top right corner of the dialog box. Drag the sliders for both the Spray Radius and Smoothness options all the way to the right so they're both maxed out:

Click OK to close out of the Filter Gallery, at which point Photoshop applies the Spatter filter to the clouds, giving them more of a rough, textured look:

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Step 6: Change The Blend Mode To Overlay And Lower The Opacity

In the top left corner of the Layers panel, you'll find the Blend Mode option which by default is set to Normal. Change the blend mode to Overlay. This blends the clouds texture in with the light brown color on the layer below it. Directly across from the Blend Mode option is the Opacity option, set to 100%. This controls the transparency of the layer. Lower the opacity value down to around 15% to give the texture a much more subtle appearance in the document:

Your image should now look something like this:

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