The Paper Hack
Kraft, off-white & textured paper — for free.
Printing onto real coloured, off-white or brown kraft stock washes out your artwork and can at least double the cost. There's a far better way: drop one of our high-res paper textures into your background, and we print it crisp, full-colour, on bright white house stock — the look of premium stock, none of the cost.
Fake the stock, keep the colour — in three steps
The trick is simple: let a photo of the paper do the work, printed onto our crisp bright white. You get the character of kraft, off-white or textured stock without the washout or the doubled bill.
Download the texture pack you want
Kraft/brown or off-white/textured — grab the set (or all of them) from the downloads below.
Place it as the full-bleed background
Drop it on the very back layer of your artwork, run it right off all four edges, then design on top.
Send it as normal
We print it sharp and full-colour on bright white house stock. Handy little hack. 🙂
Grab the textures
High-resolution scans of real GF Smith Colorplan and Munken papers, ready to sit behind your artwork. Free to download and use on any Ex Why Zed job.
Download everything
All 13 textures — every kraft, brown, off-white and textured white in one zip.
Kraft & brown
Off-white & textured
The hack, explained
We strongly steer you away from it — printing onto coloured or kraft stock washes out your artwork and at least doubles the cost. This hack gets you the same look: drop a kraft or off-white texture into your background so it looks like coloured stock, then we print it crisp on bright white.
Place the texture on the very back layer of your cover or page, size it so it runs right off all four edges (into the bleed), then design your artwork over the top. Export as normal and send it to us.
High-resolution scans of real papers. The kraft & brown set has 6 textures; the off-white & textured set has 7. Grab a single set, or download everything in one zip.
Send it over. A real person checks every file by hand, free, before anything prints — so we'll flag it if the texture or your artwork needs a tweak.
Get the premium look for free.
Download the textures, drop one behind your artwork, and send it as normal — or order a free sample pack to see our bright white house stock in the flesh.
Rather we printed it properly?
Your project deserves better than a home printer.
You've got the know-how — now let us do it for you. From first zines to 500-copy hardbacks, we've printed it all since 2006: beautifully bound, every file checked by a real person, and delivered on your deadline.
Get your print quote →★★★★★ 5/5 on Reviews.io • Free paper samples • Order a test copy first