The Paper Project is inspired by some angst that I used to go through every time I wanted to have a project with a realistic paper texture. I could either search public domain images, license stock photos, or mess around with figuring out a texture that I made.

Many of these things do not have license that enable me to use them in the way I'd ideally prefer, given the fact that I work in tabletop roleplaying games where there's no way to protect content from reuse (and I don't want to do that to begin with), so a lot of stock or marketplace-based paper textures could have extra angst with them down the road.

The Paper Project is something that I put together. Unlike The Font Collection, which is a collection of others' work, the Paper Project has stuff that I generated using Midjourney, an AI image generator, and which I hold the license to.

You can use these however you see fit so long as you give credit to Loreshaper Games somewhere (you don't have to worry about a full attribution, though you can consider these to be under a CC-BY 4.0 license if that makes you more comfortable).

Content

There are a few families, and I hope to expand to more:

Antediluvian are modern water-damaged paper, but you could always add them as a multiplier (akin to the Grunge pack) to get more effects. (3 pages plus **NEW** One page and an alternate-form of that page.)

Deco Lined comes from a prompt that generated lined letterhead. You could do stuff with this if you want, though it's not necessarily ready for immediate use. (2 pages)

**NEW** Elegante are standard-style letter paper with a border design. May be harder to work with than the others due to aspect ratio stuff, but they're already cropped down for a little ease of use. (2 pages)

**NEW** Foundling are a set of found papers with mold/dirt, perfect for highly worn and weathered modern documents. (5 pages)

Grunge isn't technically a paper texture, but it's something you can add to any of these designs to give a little more texture. (6 images to be used with blending modes)

**NEW** Medievalist are vellum-style paper perfect for ye olde manuscripts. (7 pages, 1 alternate).

**NEW** Miscellanea include a collection of non-standard or one-off writing surfaces.  Currently contains: "blueprint" dark-blue paper, 2 canvasses, black chalkboard, construction paper, and leather book cover.

Museum is designed to emulate the look of ancient parchment. (4 pages, with two lighter alternates)

Parchmentish has highly weathered letter-style paper, intended for use in old-school found documents such as, well, letters. (5 pages plus one alternate more-weathered variant)

Postconsumer features lightly weathered paper with some signs of other use, perfect for grungy contemporary or 20th century vibes or adding a living feel to your paper. (11 pages plus one NEW page )

Retrofuturist has a cover and page. I messed up the format on the page, but it still is large enough for an 8.5x11 format. (1 cover with an alternate form, 1 pre-formatted page, **NEW** one page background with colors.) 

Scientism has graph paper, though it's a tad dysfunctional. Perfect for notes from your mad scientists. For more modern graph paper, just draw a grid over something like Antediluvian or Postconsumer. (4 pages)

**NEW** The Board features cardboard textures. Some have some mild weathering, distress, corrugation, or features such as folds and flaps. (6 pages)

The screenshots on the side of the page let you preview each of the styles.

Usage

These files are made with Midjourney and upscaled with realesrgan, and have dimensions of 4096x4096, 4096x5120, or 4096x6144. This is sufficient for use at a 300dpi 8.5x11 format in any case, and most will support larger formats. Some of the edges have artifacts or distress, while others are more edge-to-edge, but due to the resolution you should be able to crop the images to remove these where they are undesirable.

For me, I'll place an image behind text, then type over it. For a little more of a textured feel, you can reduce the opacity of the text (certainly no more than 90%!). Adding the texture above using a multiply blend mode can help achieve a similar effect, though you might get some color realism stuff.

I've used the postconsumer line with a low opacity to simulate artifacts from wear and tear in more modern paper.

FAQ

Q: These are free to use?

Yes, just make sure you give credit to Loreshaper Games. This can be as simple as "Uses textures from The Paper Project by Loreshaper Games." Midjourney's license terms give me ownership with a nonexclusive license going to them, so you're just getting the same nonexclusive license (with a caveat that you need to give me credit, so that people can find this if they want to use it themselves!)

Q: I can't open the zip file, can you help?

I used itch.io's system, butler, or 7-zip to compress the zip archives. Try using 7-zip and see if the files work for you.

Q: Can you add paper in X style?

Maybe. Be specific and I'll try running it through Midjourney. I've had mixed results.

Q: Can you provide it in [FORMAT]?

I have no intention of providing pre-cropped or alternate formats of these files. I might if there's enough demand, but I keep these for my own use and you get them the same way I use them. Feel free to convert or alter these to fit your needs.

Q: Why are they so dirty?

Because sometimes that's what I need when I try to simulate a historic document. Reduce the opacity, perform a levels/curves adjustment, or otherwise lighten the paper and you'll get less grit and grime without losing the feel entirely.

Q: Why don't all the files match the description/why is there a file with an odd filename in here?

That means I've made an error, reach out to me and I will resolve it.

Last updated July 27, 2022.