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How to Get Registration Error

How to Get Registration Error

Traditional printmaking is imperfect. Even today, printmakers are likely to experience slight shifts in their printing from layer to layer. This quirk, called offset or registration error, is a quick and easy way to recreate traditional art effects in your digital art.

Watch or read the instructions below to learn how you can simulate registration errors digitally using some quick tips and The Complete Mid-Century Brush Collection for Procreate.

Note: Although this technique is demonstrated in Procreate, you can follow along in most image software.

Can't Watch the Video? Here's what You missed:

  1. Select the layer that you would like to offset.
  2. Use your programs move tool.
  3. Drag the layer so that it no longer lines up with the other layers.

💡Top Tip: As with other techniques of this kind less is more. You do not want to shift your layer so much that the artwork becomes unreadable to the viewer. In real printmaking, the layer of color was typically only off by very small increments.

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