How to make newspaper cutout letters (ransom note text)

What it is

Newspaper cutout lettering, the ransom note look, builds a word out of letters that seem clipped from different papers: each on its own scrap, mostly off-white newsprint with the odd black or red one, every scrap turned a few degrees, nudged off the line and sized a little differently, with a small shadow where it lifts off the page. It comes from punk sleeves and zines, where headlines were literally cut out and glued down.

Doing it by hand means a separate box, rotation and colour for every letter, and starting again whenever the copy changes. In Paletoo it is one effect, Cutout, on live text. It finds each letter from the text’s own shape and deals the scraps from a seed in reading order, so the same words and seed always give the same collage, and retyping the headline makes a fresh collage for the new letters.

Where it is used

Use it for gig and protest posters, zine and editorial covers, fashion and streetwear campaigns, “breaking news” and announcement posts, podcast titles and any headline that should feel hand-made, urgent or a little mischievous. It works best on short, loud headlines set in a heavy face.

Made in Paletoo with this mix:

How to make it, step by step

1. Open your design and select the headline. Short words in a heavy face work best: each letter needs enough body to read on its own scrap.

2. Open the Effects tab, find Retro & print and press All; the Cutout card is in the first run, Print.

   

3. Press the Cutout card. One step goes on under Applied, and every letter now sits on its own scrap of paper, turned and nudged, with a soft shadow under it.

   

4. Click the Cutout row to open it. The presets at the top are Ransom note (letter by letter, wilder) and Clippings (whole words, calmer). Coverage sets how many pieces get a scrap, Rotation how far they turn, Offset how far they jump off the line and Paper contrast how often a black or red scrap appears.

   

5. Further down, Seed deals a new collage, Cut switches between Letters and Words, and Size variation, Paper margin, Grain and Shadow finish the paper.

6. Double-click the text and retype it — the scraps are cut again for the new letters. Then press Export.

Watch it

Make it your own

Readability comes first. A long headline with high Rotation and Offset quickly becomes a jumble, so turn them down as the copy gets longer, or switch to Clippings, which keeps whole words on one scrap. Keep the wild Ransom note for two or three short words.

Paper contrast sets the rhythm: at zero every scrap is light newsprint; raise it and black scraps with light letters appear, and now and then a red one. If a black scrap lands on an important letter, change Seed until the collage falls the way you like. A little Size variation makes it feel cut from different papers; too much breaks the line.

Lower Coverage to leave some letters bare, for a looser, half-finished collage. Paper margin sets how much paper shows round each letter, and Grain roughens the scraps. Turn Shadow off for a flat, scanned look, or keep it to lift the scraps off a photo.

More effects

• 

  How to make a photocopy effect

  Dense toner blacks, greys in scan lines and grey copier paper, from any photo.
• 

  How to make a torn edges effect, like Photoshop’s Torn Edges

  Ink and paper, split at a ragged, grainy edge.
• 

  How to make a knockout outline that cuts through

  A stroke that cuts through the layers under the text.

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