How to Create an Inky Woren Effect in Adobe Illustrator 2022

Inky effect in adobe Illustrator

Sometimes I want them to look a little more worn and handmade when they are finished. The problem will designing on a computer is it can make designs sometimes feel too pixel perfect! In this tutorial I will show you how to achieve a rustic worn inky effect on your designs in Adobe Illustrator. This is perfect for giving your designs a worn and handmade feel to them.

If you can image when people used letterpresses and as you would press the ink would bleed over the edges slighty, this is what I set out to achieve with this effect

Step 1 - Expand your design

Now you have finished your design, place it in the middle of your canvas in Adobe Illustrator. You need to make any fonts into shapes and combined them all

Select your design - Menu - Object - Expand


Tick all options available - Click OK


Step 2 - Unite

You now need to make it into one shape, if you cannot see the patherfinder tool

Menu - Window - Patherfinder


Select your design and click Unite (it is the two filled in shapes as shown)


Step 3 - Blur your design

Now you need to apply a blur effect to your design

Select your design - Menu - Effect - Blur - Gaussian blur


Select preview and you can experiment here to see how it will look. The higher you slide the Radius the more blurred it will make it and make it inkier in the end.


Step 4 - Rasterize

You need to convert your design from Vector to image now. You do this via the rasterize function

Select your design - Object - Rasterize


I like to select transparent background to remove the white. Select 72 Resolution as the higher you select the more stress it will put on your computer. If you have a very detailed design it can possibly crash your Adobe Illustrator. Select OK


Step 5 - Image Trace

Now your design is an image we will use this amazing tool called 'Image Trace' to find 'Image trace'

Windows - Image trace


Select preview to see what it looks like as you mess around with the settings.

Change the Preset to Sketched Art

Select - Ignore White

Feel free to experiment here and play with the sliders to achieve different effects

Once you are happy uncheck Preview and click Trace


Your design will look like this, all of the sharp corners will be rounded and will have a much more handmade, worn feel to your design.

Step 6 - Back to vector

To convert your design back to a vector follow the process as before

Object - Expand

Now you will have your finished Inky rustic design Vector Design


Before and after