The newspaper photo effect: halftone, grain and a warm paper tint
A newspaper photo is a fine halftone in dark grey ink on off-white paper, a little soft, with flat contrast. Four layers make it, in the Editor or in Effects, with a live halftone to set the dots.
Beginner2 min readUpdated 27 September 2026Effects · Halftone, Film Grain
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The recipe in the Editor
- Open the photo. From the Layers panel's adjustment menu add Black and white, then Curves and click the Faded film preset in Properties. The blacks lift and the whites dim, like ink on newsprint.
- Add Filter, Artistic, Halftone. Set Dot Size to 20 to 30 and Contrast to about 45. Set the filter layer's blend mode to Multiply so its white disappears and only the dots print.
- Add a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), fill it with an off-white such as #E9E3D3 using Edit, Fill…, drag it to the top and set it to Multiply. The whites become paper.
- Add Filter, Enhance, Film Grain at Amount 10 to 20, and optionally Filter, Enhance, Blur at the lowest radius, lowered to 30 per cent opacity, for the softness of cheap paper.
- Headline in a condensed serif or a heavy grotesque, set in the same dark grey, and it reads as a clipping.
Common mistakes
- Dots too big. That is a comic or a pop-art print. Newsprint dots are barely visible.
- Pure black and pure white. Newsprint never had either. The Faded film curve and the paper layer fix both.
- Halftone on Normal. The dots then sit on white, and the paper tint cannot show through. Multiply.
What dot size looks like a newspaper?
Small: on a 1080 px image, a dot cell of 3 to 4 px, which is Dot Size 20 to 30 in the Editor. At print size, newspapers use about 85 to 100 lines per inch.
Can I do it in one click?
The Halftone tool does the dots in one click and downloads a PNG. The paper tint and the flat contrast take two more layers in the Editor, which is what makes it read as newsprint rather than a halftone.
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