Make a Typographic Stencil Contact Sheet

Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog, set Width to 1600 and Height to 1260, choose a White background and click Create.

1. Delete Layer 1 with the trash button at the bottom of the Layers panel. You'll make every layer yourself.
2. Select Background, set the foreground colour to #EFEAE0 and choose Edit → Fill. With nothing selected, it fills the whole layer.
3. Choose Filter → Add Noise…, set Amount to 4 and pick Mono and Gaussian. That gives the paper a faint tooth.
4. Click the top ruler at 70 and 1530 for the side margins.
5. Click the left ruler at 225, 515, 540, 830, 855 and 1145. Those are the top and bottom of three film strips, 290 px tall with 25 px of paper between them.

Click New Group in the Layers panel and rename the group Strip 1 (double-click its name). With the group selected, click Add Layer. The new layer goes inside the group. Rename it Film 1.

Pick the Rectangular Marquee. Drag from where the left margin guide meets the 225 guide to where the right margin guide meets the 515 guide. Set the foreground to #16140F, choose Edit → Fill, then deselect with Cmd+D.

Each frame is a photo, and the dark workbench in it shows around the stencil card. Add a layer named Bench 1.

The frames sit 20 px in from the strip ends, with room above for the edge print and below for the frame numbers. Draw a 340 × 188 marquee whose top-left corner is at 90, 274. Hold Shift and drag three more of the same size starting at 450, 810 and 1170 on the same line. Shift adds each new rectangle to the selection, so you get four windows with 20 px gaps.

Fill them with #2C2823. Then run Add Noise with Amount 7, Mono and Gaussian, so the bench has some grain. Deselect.

Sprocket holes are a repeating pattern, so you make one and let Fill with Pattern do the rest. Add a layer named Perf Cutter and zoom into an empty patch of paper below the strips.

1. Pick the Shape tool, set Shape to Rectangle, Corner Radius to 3 and the fill to white. Click once (without dragging) and enter 24 × 16 in the size dialog.
2. Draw a marquee around the hole that is 45 px wide and exactly 16 px tall, with the hole 10 px from its left edge. The width is the spacing from one hole to the next. The height matches the hole, so the holes stack without seams.
3. Choose Edit → Define Pattern. With a selection active, only the selected pixels become the tile.
4. Press Delete to clear the tile (it has served its purpose) and deselect.

Lopsy tiles a pattern from the canvas's top-left corner. So if a row starts on a multiple of the tile's 16 px height, each row of tiles covers exactly one row of holes.

Still on Perf Cutter, draw a marquee across the whole strip from y 240 to 256. Hold Shift and add a second row from 480 to 496. Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick the pattern you just made, leave Scale at 100 and click Apply. Deselect.

The holes land 10 px off the frame grid, so switch to the Move tool and press ← ten times. Now the first hole starts at x 90, in line with the first frame, and there's 20 px to spare at each end.

1. Cmd-click the Perf Cutter thumbnail in the Layers panel. That loads its pixels as a selection.
2. Click the Film 1 row and press Delete. The holes are now cut through the film, and the paper shows through.
3. Deselect and delete the Perf Cutter layer.
4. Select Bench 1 and choose Layer → Merge Down so the strip is one layer.

1. Click Background, then New Group. The group lands above Background, outside Strip 1. Name it Strip 2 and add a placeholder layer inside it.
2. Select Film 1 and press Cmd+A, then Cmd+C.
3. Select the placeholder and press Cmd+V. The copy is pasted in exactly the same place, already selected, with the Move tool active.
4. Press Shift+↓ 31 times and ↓ 5 times to move it down 315 px. (Shift+arrow moves 10 px at a time.)
5. Deselect, rename the pasted layer Film 2 and delete the placeholder.
6. Do the same for Strip 3, moving it down 630 px.

Select Film 1 and add a layer named Plates 1 above it.

With the Rectangular Marquee, draw a card in each frame: a rectangle about 286 × 154 px. Shift-add the other three. Don't centre them perfectly. Offset each one by up to 15 px and make them slightly different sizes, so the frames look like four separate photos. Place the third card about 30 px right of centre, so it hangs off its frame. Fill with #D9BC84 and run Add Noise with Amount 5.

Now set the letters. Pick the Text tool, choose Stardos Stencil, weight Bold, size 150, colour black. Click on the first card, type R and press Tab to commit. Click with Plates 1 selected each time and type I, V and E on the other cards. Each letter lands on its own layer above Plates 1.

Switch to the Move tool and centre each letter on its card with the arrow keys. Then select each letter layer and click Rasterize Layer (the T button at the bottom of the Layers panel). You're about to use them as cutters.

For each letter:

1. Cmd-click the letter's thumbnail to select its shape.
2. Click Plates 1 and press Delete.
3. Delete the letter layer.

Stardos Stencil has bridges in its letterforms: the little gaps that keep a stencil's inner pieces from falling out. They come through as card. What you see through the holes is the bench on the film layer, just as you'd see the bench through a real stencil.

A used stencil has paint on it. Cmd-click the Plates 1 thumbnail. That selects the card but not the holes, so no paint can land in them.

Pick the Spray tool and set Size 40, Density 10, Opacity 38 and Softness 60. With the foreground at #1A1714, drag a loose, wobbly loop around each letter, then a second, tighter one. Make each loop a slightly different shape so no two cards match. Deselect when you're done.

Real cards never sit square. For each card:

1. Draw a rectangular marquee around the card with a few pixels to spare.
2. Switch to the Move tool. Transform handles appear around the box, with round rotation handles sticking out from the corners. Drag a rotation handle to turn the card a degree or two, just enough that its edges aren't square.
3. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Turn neighbouring cards in opposite directions. The holes and the residue are on the same layer, so they turn with the card.

The third card hangs past the right edge of its frame, the way a careless photographer would frame it. It needs trimming at the frame line.

Draw the four 340 × 188 frame windows again (Shift-add as before), then choose Select → Inverse. With Plates 1 active, press Delete and deselect. Anything outside the frames is gone, and the third card now looks cropped by the camera.

Click the effects button (the sparkle icon) on the Plates 1 row to open the effects drawer. Tick and set:

• Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 3, Blur 4, Opacity 60
• Inner Glow: colour black, Size 8, Opacity 25

The shadow lifts the card off the bench and falls into the top and left edges of each cut, which helps them read as holes. The inner glow darkens the card's edges like a photo would.

Repeat the last six steps for the other two strips. Each time, select the strip's film layer first (Film 2, then Film 3) so the new Plates 2 and Plates 3 layers land in the right group. Everything sits 315 px lower per strip: strip 2's frame windows start at y 589 and strip 3's at 904.

• Strip 2: T, &, K and E.
• Strip 3: R and F in frames 9 and 10. Leave frames 11 and 12 empty for now.

Vary the details so the frames don't look cloned. The K plate in strip 2 and both plates in strip 3 were used for red paint, so spray their residue in #D42A1E. Give the second E a different tilt and offset from the first, so it doesn't look like a duplicate photo.

The last two frames are test proofs: what the stencil sprays onto paper. Add a layer named Proofs 3 above Plates 3 and draw two cards with the marquee in frames 11 and 12. Fill them with #F3EFE7 and add noise at 3.

1. Type an R in Stardos Stencil Bold at 144, slightly smaller than the cut letters because the proof card is smaller. Centre it on the first proof card and rasterize it.
2. Cmd-click its thumbnail, then hide the letter layer with its eye icon so you can see the paint.
3. Select Proofs 3. Set the Spray tool to Size 60, Density 70, Opacity 85 and Softness 35.
4. With the foreground at #D42A1E, zigzag back and forth over the letter until it is nearly solid.

The selection keeps the edges crisp and the speckle inside reads as spray paint. Deselect and delete the letter layer.

Frame 12 gets two coats that don't quite line up:

1. Red pass: type a K, centre it on the second card, then press ↑ and ← 4 times each. Rasterize it and spray it red exactly as before.
2. Black pass: type a second K, centre it, then press ↓ and → 5 times each. Rasterize it and spray it in #1A1714.

The red peeks out along one side, like a stencil that slipped between coats.

To finish the proofs:

1. Cmd-click the Proofs 3 thumbnail. Spray a soft red mist around both letters with Size 46, Density 6, Opacity 28 and Softness 70.
2. Tilt each card with a marquee and a rotation handle.
3. Give the layer the same Drop Shadow, with an Inner Glow at 14 opacity.

Pick the Gradient tool, set Type to Radial and open Advanced…. Use two black stops: the first at 0% opacity and the last at 50%.

Add a layer named Vignette 1 above Plates 1. For each frame, marquee the 340 × 188 window and drag the gradient from the frame's centre to just past its bottom-right corner. Do the same for strips 2 and 3. In strip 3, put the layer above Proofs 3 so the proof cards get the vignette too.

Collapse Strip 1, Strip 2 and Strip 3 with the arrows on their rows. When a group is expanded, a new group goes inside it; when it's collapsed, the new group goes above it.

Click the collapsed Strip 1 group and click New Group. Name it Header, then add an empty layer inside it called Type Anchor. New text appears above the selected layer, and if a text layer is selected, changing the font restyles it. Selecting the empty Type Anchor before each new piece of type avoids that. Commit each piece with Tab.

• Sheet number: 07 in Big Shoulders Stencil, Black, size 145, colour #C8231B.
• Wordmark: RIVET & KERF in Stardos Stencil Bold, size 112, colour #16140F.
• Spec block: four lines in IBM Plex Mono Medium, size 13, colour #16140F, pressing Enter between them. The lines are FACE, WEIGHT, BRIDGES and CUT, each padded with spaces to 10 characters, then the value. So FACE gets 6 spaces before RIVET & KERF STENCIL, WEIGHT 4 before BOLD 700 / CAPS + &, BRIDGES 3 before 1.2 MM AT 40 MM CAP, and CUT 7 before 0.8 MM KERF, OILED MANILA.
• Line height: open the Text panel (the T icon in the strip on the right) and set Line height to 1.86. Text panel settings carry over to your next text, so set it back to 1.4 before the subtitle.
• Subtitle: CONTACT SHEET 07 · CUT TEMPLATES & TEST SPRAYS · FRAMES 1–12 in IBM Plex Mono Regular, size 15, colour #16140F.

Use the Move tool and the arrow keys to line everything up:

1. Put the wordmark on the left margin, with its cap tops at 50.
2. Put the subtitle on the same margin, with its cap tops at 158.
3. Put the 07 with its right edge on the 1530 guide and its top at 50. Its foot lands on the subtitle's baseline.
4. Put the spec block with its cap tops at 50 and its right edge at 1350.

The Line height of 1.86 drops the last spec line onto the wordmark's baseline, so all three blocks share a top and bottom.

Select Type Anchor and pick the Pencil at Size 2 with colour #16140F.

• Click at the left margin on y 192 and Shift-click at the right margin for a straight rule.
• Draw a vertical rule the same way at x 1373, from y 50 to 169. That puts it halfway between the spec block and the 07, with 23 px on each side.

Real film carries a line of yellow writing along its edge. Expand Strip 1 and select Film 1, so the text lands inside the strip.

• Edge print: in IBM Plex Mono Medium at 10, colour #E3C04A, type RIVET & KERF STENCIL · KERF 400 · SAFETY FILM · over and over. Make it long enough to run from the first frame to the end of the strip, just under the top row of holes. Start strips 2 and 3 a few words into the sequence, so the three strips don't line up like copies.
• Frame numbers: in IBM Plex Mono Medium at 12, also #E3C04A, one line per strip, just above the bottom holes. Plex Mono's characters are 7.2 px wide at 12 px, so 50 characters is exactly one frame plus its gap (360 px). Click under the centre of the first frame and type the frame number. Add spaces until you've typed 23 characters, then →1A to mark the frame line, then spaces until you reach 50. Repeat for each frame, using one fewer space after a two-digit number. Stop after the last number in each strip. Strip 2 counts from 5 and strip 3 from 9.

Collapse each strip again when you're done.

Click the collapsed Header group, click New Group and name it Annotations. Add a layer inside it named Grease Pencil.

1. Credit: type RIVET & KERF TYPE CO. · PROOFED 04 OCT 2026 · ROLL RK-07 · EVERY GLYPH CUT BY HAND in IBM Plex Mono Regular at 12, colour #16140F. Put it on the left margin, about 55 px from the bottom.
2. Note: type keep 11 + 12 — cut 50 each! in Permanent Marker at 30, colour #D42A1E. Place it in the bottom-right corner.
3. With the Move tool, drag one of the note's corner rotation handles to tip it about 5 degrees anticlockwise. It stays live, editable text.

A loupe on frame 9 shows off the stencil bridges. Collapse Annotations, click it and click New Group, and name the group Loupe. Add a temporary layer inside it.

Pick the Elliptical Marquee and draw a circle about 140 px across, centred on frame 9's R. Choose Edit → Copy Merged. That copies everything you can see inside the circle, not just one layer. Select the temporary layer and press Cmd+V. The circle is pasted in place on a new layer. Rename it Loupe View and delete the temporary layer.

Draw a rectangular marquee around the pasted circle and switch to the Move tool. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right handle until the circle is 1.5× its size, about 210 px across. Cmd keeps it in proportion. Release, deselect, and nudge it with the arrow keys until it's centred over the R again.

1. Glass: add a layer named Loupe Glass and draw a circle selection about 196 px across, centred on the loupe. Set the Gradient tool to Linear, then open Advanced… and make both stops white: the first at 100% opacity and the last at 0%. Drag from just inside the top-left of the circle towards its centre. With a white Brush at size 6, draw a short arc at about ten o'clock for a highlight. Set the layer to Screen at 40% opacity.
2. Rim: add a layer named Loupe Ring. Draw a circle about 212 px across, fill it with #1B1916, choose Select → Shrink… with 8 px and press Delete. That leaves an 8 px ring.
3. Rim effects: a Drop Shadow of Offset X 8, Offset Y 12, Blur 16 and Opacity 45, so the loupe sits above the sheet. An Inner Glow in #A8A196, Size 3 and Opacity 70, for a polished metal edge.

The loupe covers frame 9's number. Select the Loupe group itself (not a layer inside it), switch to the Move tool and press → 22 times and ↑ 24 times. The view, glass and rim move together, and the 9 shows again.

Collapse Loupe, click the collapsed Annotations group and click New Group named Tapes, with a layer inside it named Tape Pieces. Set the foreground to #E6DAB8.

For each piece of tape:

1. With the Rectangular Marquee, draw a rectangle about 110 × 34 px.
2. Hold Alt and use the Lasso to draw a zigzag across each end. Alt subtracts from the selection, which gives the tape torn ends.
3. Fill and deselect. Then marquee the piece, switch to the Move tool and drag a rotation handle to turn it into place.

Don't make the tapes symmetrical. This sheet has:

• a piece across the top-left corner turned 40°
• a short one on the top-right corner at 12°
• one at the bottom-left at a slight angle
• one across each end of the middle strip

Finish with Add Noise at 6 and layer opacity 78%. Add a small Drop Shadow of Offset X 1, Offset Y 2, Blur 3 and Opacity 25.

Step back and look at the whole sheet. At this size the bench showing through the holes is about as light as the bench around the cards, so the letters can read as printed rather than cut. Real holes look darker because the card shades them. Add a shade under each layer of cards:

1. Cmd-click the Plates 1 thumbnail. The selection covers the card but not the holes.
2. Choose Select → Grow… 20, then Select → Shrink… 20. Growing fills in every letter-shaped hole, since no stroke is wider than 40 px. Shrinking brings the outer edges back but leaves the holes filled.
3. Select Film 1, add a layer named Hole Shade 1 (it goes between the film and the cards), fill with #0D0B08 and set it to 60% opacity.

The cards cover the shade everywhere except through the cuts. Repeat for strips 2 and 3. While you're there, run Add Noise at 4 on each Plates layer to give the photos some grain.

Copy Merged takes a snapshot, so the loupe still shows the old, lighter holes. Rebuild just the view:

1. Expand Loupe and hide Loupe Ring, Loupe Glass and Loupe View with their eye icons.
2. Draw the same 140 px circle over frame 9's R and choose Edit → Copy Merged.
3. Select Loupe View and paste. Delete the old Loupe View and give the new layer its name.
4. Scale the new view to 150% as before, then nudge it to the loupe's new spot, up and to the right of the R.
5. Show the glass and rim again.

Expand Annotations and select Grease Pencil. Pick the Brush at Size 5, Hardness 75, colour #C42A20.

1. Draw one loop around frame 11, overlapping where it starts. Try to keep the bottom between the frame and its number so you don't cross out the 11. The top can brush the edge print, as a hurried pencil would.
2. At Size 4, draw an arrow from the note up to the circle's lower-right edge, with two short strokes for the head.
3. Run Add Noise at 60 (Mono) on the layer to break up the colour like wax.
4. Dab a size 4 Eraser at a few points to make skips.
5. Set the layer to 92% opacity.

With the grease pencil on, the bright 07 competes with it for attention. Select the 07 layer and add a Color Overlay in #A8382C, a deeper printed vermilion. An effect is quicker than editing the text colour, because you can toggle it on and off to compare the two reds, and the type stays live.

Finally, check the vertical rhythm. The gap from the header rule to the first strip should match the 25 px between strips, but right now it's 33 px. Select the Header group and drag the wordmark down with the Move tool: all the type and both rules move as one. Use the arrow keys to settle it exactly 8 px lower than where it started.

Save the project with File → Save Project and export with File → Quick Export PNG.