Parchment colors, worn appearance works well for something "aged", perhaps 100 years plus. Thick stock, non glossy, is good for something circa 1940's plus. Sepia tones, black & whites certainly convey an era prior to our World of Color. Retro (1950s-'70s) can be achieved by mimicking old LP album styles.

Recycled matte, uncoated paper is one of our favorite looks and feels for starting the "old" appearance. Old things usually aren't shiny.

Optionally, we can do a matte aqueous varnish on the packaging. Uncoated stock paper is not for all types of artwork as the colors can blend together. Crisp wording and fine knockouts don't do well with uncoated paper, for instance.

Distressed features, such as old, torn pages, wear, breaks, cracks, etc can all be added in with creative artwork.


This Vintage scrapbook book used uncoated stock paper, with some special features to create the look. Check out the full spec here: Molly's Vintage Scrapbook Featured Title. Look at the fun photo holder corners....embossed to stand out.

Using embossing or debossing can give an item a definite texture, such as distressed and "dented" look, or wood grain. See more examples and instruction on how to set up embossing or debossing on cd or dvd printed packaging.

Sepia tones are usually simulated in process color and are ideal for WWI or WWII imagery.

If you don't want to go too old, retro can be achieved by features like book binding (chipboard covered with a paper wrap) on the old vinyl LPs. See 1950s and '60s Verve or Blue Note LPs. for some great examples of the art. You could dgo earlier yet, like the 78 style sleeves (swinging sleeves). For retro on a budget, may we suggest some inner sleeves (colors like parchment, or printed 1C or 4C) for the discs, and just using a thick stock with pockets opening to the outside. Here are some examples - and also see our page especially for Retro LP Style CD Albums.




Featured Title Oria Blue - Swinging style sleeve

Complete with some authentic old titles.....

If you have art you'd like to show us, we'd be happy to help you with suggestions on how to achieve the look you are after. Either email it to us (hello@megalodon.com) or use our upload page. Alternately, if you have a photo of something you want to emulate, let us see that too and we can work from that. If there are certain titles on our site that you like, we can tell you about the features that help create that look.