# Misprint: Smart Texturing In Photoshop - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/misprint-smart-texturing-in-photoshop/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Quick win · Rated 7 /10 # Misprint: Smart Texturing In Photoshop By Gareth B. Davies · Updated August 2026 Jamie Bartlett · Graphic designer and left-handed letterer Intermediate · 32 min A 32-minute crash course in one specific Photoshop trick: faking three-color misregistered ink printing entirely with smart objects. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmisprint-smart-texturing-in-photoshop%2F460620841) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## What it actually teaches Jamie Bartlett's "Misprint" is a tightly scoped technical tutorial, not a broad design course. Its entire purpose is to build one repeatable effect: a misregistered, ink-textured print look built from a document with only two or three flat colors. The class opens with a short project-setup stretch (new document, sample text layers in cyan and magenta, a yellow background stripe) before pivoting into the real content, which is a step-by-step construction of layer styles, smart objects, blend-if sliders, and a chain of smart filters. The middle lessons are where the value sits. Bartlett walks through adding a color overlay and inner glow to each color layer, converting each into its own smart object, then applying Ripple, Median, Add Noise, Gaussian Blur, and Difference Clouds in sequence, each contributing a different kind of imperfection: rough edges, softened corners, grain, and subtle textural variation. The order of these filters matters, and the course is careful to explain why Difference Clouds sits at the bottom of the effect stack rather than the top. ## The knockout and misregistration trick The most genuinely useful lesson is the knockout technique covered around the "Adjustments & Knockout" and "Misregistration" sections. Rather than letting cyan and magenta ink simply multiply on top of a yellow base, and turn muddy green and red the way it would in a botched real print run, the course shows how to duplicate each color's smart object, strip its filters back to just Median and Ripple, recolor it to match the paper, and slot it beneath the ink layers to punch a clean hole through the yellow. Combined with a following step where the cyan and magenta layers are nudged with arrow keys and given a fractional rotation, this is what actually sells the illusion of a physical, slightly-off printing pass. It is a clever, non-obvious solve to a problem most people wouldn't think to fix at all. The course closes by demonstrating how the whole rig survives an art swap. Because every element depends on smart objects and clipping masks rather than baked-in pixels, updating the text or dropping in an entirely new two-color design, as Bartlett does with an Instagram-themed ad, updates the whole texture stack automatically. That reusability is the course's actual selling point, and it is demonstrated convincingly rather than just claimed. A short bonus lesson on generating a speckled paper-grain overlay with Torn Edges and Stamp filter gallery effects rounds things out. ## Where it falls short The pacing is fast and assumes real Photoshop fluency. Clipping masks, right-click "copy layer style," and canvas-size matching inside nested smart objects fly by with minimal pausing, and anyone unfamiliar with those mechanics will need to rewind constantly. There is also very little explanation of why certain numeric values were chosen (a 0.15-degree rotation, 7 percent noise) beyond "this looked good to me," so the course teaches a recipe more than a set of transferable principles. At 32 minutes it does not waste time, but it also does not linger long enough to build real intuition, this is best treated as a technique to absorb and adapt rather than a design philosophy to internalize. The standout The knockout technique, duplicating a color layer and punching a paper-colored hole through the yellow base so overlapping inks read as clean cyan and magenta instead of muddy green and red. ## What you will learn - · Building layer styles (color overlay plus inner glow) to prep text or shapes for texture work - · Converting layers into smart objects so filters and edits stay fully editable - · Using Blend If sliders to fake ink transparency and paper show-through - · Stacking smart filters like Ripple, Median, Add Noise, Gaussian Blur, and Difference Clouds for a printed-ink look - · Knocking out background colors so overlapping ink colors don't muddy each other, the way real CMYK passes would - · Nudging and rotating individual color layers to simulate print misregistration, then swapping in new artwork without rebuilding the effect Best for: Designers and letterers who already know their way around Photoshop layers and smart objects and want a reusable, retro-print texture effect for posters or branding work. Skip it if: Total Photoshop beginners unfamiliar with layer styles, clipping masks, and smart objects will struggle to keep pace with the rapid setup steps. Clarity of Instruction Actionable Steps Engaging Teacher Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmisprint-smart-texturing-in-photoshop%2F460620841)