Reproduce Old-fashioned Printing with Permanent Press
I love Mister Retro’s Permanent Press. This $99 plug-in for Photoshop makes any piece of digital artwork appear as if it’s been printed using any number of old-fashioned presses. Even a text-only document can look like it was printed with ink on paper.
Amazingly, it can separate colors onto their own plates and let you adjust them individually — even CMYK. The degree of control is astonishing: you can make it appear as if the printing plates were misaligned, ink was too thick or too thin, or it was printed on odd substrates.
You can adjust the size and shape of halftone dots, and even the plate pressure.
But to make it easy for you, they include helpful presets that actually do what their names imply, including: Comic Book, Concert Poster, Letterpress, Matchbook, Newspaper, Pizza Box, Pop Art, Printed in Taiwan, Vintage Advertisement, Vintage Decal, and Wrapper.
Go see their examples — you’ll be impressed.
Jeff Gamet is a contributing editor for Design Tools Monthly, the executive summary of graphic design news. He is also the morning editor and reviews editor for The Mac Observer and iPodObserver.com, and contributing writer for Layers Magazine and Photoshop User. He writes the InBrief column for InDesign Magazine, and is the author of “The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X,” from Peachpit Press
When Jeff isn’t writing about the graphic design world, he’s talking about it on the Design Tools Weekly podcast with co-host Jay Nelson. He also talks about Apple and the Mac world every week on The Mac Observer’s Apple Weekly Report.
Jeff studies, tests and reviews new software and technologies for the Macintosh community as well as the design and print industries. He is a former Pre-press specialist, and has nearly 25 years experience with computer technology. Jeff trains, lectures and consults on techniques for more efficiently using Mac OS X in creative environments throughout the country.
In the rare moments when he can get away from his MacBook Pro, Jeff spends his time climbing and biking in the Colorado mountains.