How to create paper, receipts or newspaper with torn edges
I was asked by a client to present their final figures in a pitch they were doing in the form of a receipt. I thought it was quite a nice little Photoshop trick and a nice idea. Here’s how.
Draw the outline of the receipt, or piece of paper, with the Pen Tool (P), and turn it into a selection by Cmd/Ctrl clicking the Path in the Paths palette. Switch to Quick Mask Mode (Q) and your selection will turn 50% red (you can change that in Preferences). Go Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize. A cell size of 3 will give you the torn edge effect. Switch back to Standard Mode (Q) to return the quick mask to a “marching ants” selection.
Fill the selection with a suitable linear gradient and there’s your paper.
Two typefaces I found that looked similar to the printing you get on these receipts were called FacsimileLL and Dot Matrix. FacsimileLL is above. I used the Free Transform Tool (Cmd/Ctrl-T) to size the type onto the paper. Remember, holding down Cmd/Ctrl whilst dragging the corner points creates the irregular shapes you need.
Lastly, for the drop shadow I, for once, didn’t use Photoshop’s own marvellous Layer Style. I opted to copy the paper layer, darken a blur it and Free Transform it irregularly (holding down Cmd/Ctrl whilst dragging the corner points) so it looks as though one corner is curling up slightly.
My client won the pitch, by the way, these little details really help!
A nice little effect, made all the better for helping to win your client their contract!
Thanks Neil, the client is happy and it’s got me some repeat business!
I think the end result is a little sloppy. There shouldn’t be a rough edge all around the receipt, just at the bottom and the top. Also, the sizing is off and it looks more like a post it note. It should be longer.
You could just use the real thing and use a dot matrix printer. You can get them real cheap now adays.