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How do you achieve the background paper effect in Marissa Mayers CV?

It looks like there are a bunch of soft sketched lines and squiggles, or it was printed on that creme contour expensive paper and photo-copied as seen in the picture:

enter image description here

Solution:

I found the images in this search: https://www.google.com/search?q=paper%2Bwith%2Binclusions&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch

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    It is a recreation of a real paper type, with random flecks of contrasting coloured fibres embedded right through... I'm just having the darnedest time remembering what it's called...
    – Tetsujin
    Jul 27, 2019 at 14:11
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    @Tetsujin looks like a kind of recycled paper - the flecked or fibrous pattern is sometimes called "inclusions"
    – Billy Kerr
    Jul 27, 2019 at 14:21
  • Thanks @Billy I'll give that a go and tweak the title. Jul 27, 2019 at 15:01
  • Marissa won't be too happy to see all her data out in the open like this.
    – Lucian
    Jul 27, 2019 at 15:17
  • Marissa is quite famous for her CV periodically escaping onto the interweb at large. I doubt it being in yet one more location is going to really be cause for concern. Just google 'Marissa Mayers CV'
    – Tetsujin
    Jul 27, 2019 at 17:06

1 Answer 1

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There's a textile dust overlay image (or more likely a fill pattern made of a dust photo), a grey background and the written paper is a separate layer with a drop shadow. It's between the grey background and the dust overlay.

If you watch carefully, you can see the dust pattern is the same on both pages, only shifted and it's repeated even in one page. That proves it's an overlay. A real paper hasn't repeating fibre patterns.

You can check it by yourself for ex. layering the pages and having in the top layer blending mode = multiply. You find easily a layer placement where the dust particles fit. Here they are a little shifted vertically:

enter image description here

Very likely all images and texts on the paper are also separate layers between the white paper and the dust, except the face. The person obviously thinks she is worth staying above the dust.

I have made a resembling dust image by brushing a cloth above the glass of a scanner a while and scanning the result against a white paper. People who own film dias get the same effect simply by storing a dia on the table few days. If you want it without tinkering, purchase a stock image with a dusty dia texture.

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  • I googled around for dusty dia texture and that get's me a step closer, not surprising there aren't many examples, even on stock image sites. Jul 27, 2019 at 14:12
  • This search got me what I want, thanks. google.com/… Jul 28, 2019 at 11:07
  • That's a good selection, they do not seem dusty. User Billy Kerr obviously knew it in the beginning.
    – user82991
    Jul 28, 2019 at 11:13

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