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[See Torn paper: matching up the torn edges for more on this topic, as well as better illustrations of the final product.]

I have a document with a lot of short excerpts from another book scattered through it. Putting frames around them looks a little too 'clean'. How can I get a 'torn page' type effect, to make it look as if the excerpt has been physically torn out of a book? (I've occasionally seen this done in printed books, although I can't find an example right now.)

I'm not wedded to a very specific look here -- Googling 'torn page' gives plenty of examples. But just to give this some frame of reference, here are some of the nicer ones:

enter image description here

http://www.vectorstock.com/i/composite/84,79/white-paper-rip-edge-vector-198479.jpg

enter image description here

http://lh6.ggpht.com/-eO-uRyGeA_0/TUkzCMuwuJI/AAAAAAAAB6E/2och4rP0l88/386--x--277--torn-paper.jpg

(The strong colouration in this second example is a probably a little too distracting for actual use, although it might be interesting as an option. It's more the edge effect I'm interested in.)

enter image description here

Edit (again): I tried typesetting my text according to the updated versions of the answers below. Here are the results:

enter image description here

Or with interpolated shading: http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/mg262/combined2.pdf

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    I am quite sure some tikz answers will show up soon; I'd like to note that it seems to me that some fractal-based solution might be a good idea. Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 20:14
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    For clarification: Are you interested in actually cutting off text, or just framing it with ragged edges that look like a torn page? Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 0:13
  • @Charles Staats: just framing. Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 0:24
  • Relevant: mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/4148 (if someone's looking for ideas) Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 4:44
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    To insert a image sample which looks right, you can capture the screen when using the appropriate pdf viewer, and crop the relevant part. A good tool for this kind of things under Windows is irfanview. Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 18:28

3 Answers 3

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Not exactly the result you wanted, but it can be a starting point. It combines framed and tikz packages. The idea can lead to further improvements.

Framed-tikz

See http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/framed-tikz/ (btw, I'm the author)

UPDATE: Playing with the idea of a fractal decoration, and also with shaded paper and blurred drop shadows, I got the following results. Currently the implementation still does not use framed, so it is restricted to the case in which the framed paragraph does not break among pages.

Results

\documentclass[a5paper]{article} \usepackage{lipsum} % To generate test text \usepackage{framed} \usepackage{tikz} \usepackage[margin=1cm]{geometry}% for screen preview \usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing,calc,shadows.blur,shadings} \pgfmathsetseed{1} % To have predictable results % Define a background layer, in which the parchment shape is drawn \pgfdeclarelayer{background} \pgfsetlayers{background,main} % This is the base for the fractal decoration. It takes a random point between the start and end, and % raises it a random amount, thus transforming a segment into two, connected at that raised point % This decoration can be applied again to each one of the resulting segments and so on, in a similar % way of a Koch snowflake. \pgfdeclaredecoration{irregular fractal line}{init} { \state{init}[width=\pgfdecoratedinputsegmentremainingdistance] { \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{random*\pgfdecoratedinputsegmentremainingdistance}{(random*\pgfdecorationsegmentamplitude-0.02)*\pgfdecoratedinputsegmentremainingdistance}} \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{\pgfdecoratedinputsegmentremainingdistance}{0pt}} } } % define some styles \tikzset{ paper/.style={draw=black!10, blur shadow, shading=bilinear interpolation, lower left=black!20, upper left=black!15, upper right=white, lower right=black!10}, irregular border/.style={decoration={irregular fractal line, amplitude=0.2}, decorate, }, ragged border/.style={ decoration={random steps, segment length=7mm, amplitude=2mm}, decorate, } } % Macro to draw the shape behind the text, when it fits completly in the % page \def\tornpaper#1{ \tikz{ \node[inner sep=1em] (A) {#1}; % Draw the text of the node \begin{pgfonlayer}{background} % Draw the shape behind \fill[paper] % recursively decorate the bottom border decorate[irregular border]{decorate{decorate{decorate{decorate[ragged border]{ ($(A.south east) - (0, random*5mm)$) -- ($(A.south west) - (0, random*5mm)$) }}}}} -- (A.north west) -- (A.north east) -- cycle; \end{pgfonlayer}} } \begin{document} \noindent \tornpaper{ \parbox{.9\textwidth}{\lipsum[11]} } \bigskip \noindent \tornpaper{ \parbox{.9\textwidth}{\lipsum[15]} } \end{document}

NOTE Some pdf viewers (eg. Sumatra) have issues to display the interpolated shading used in the last examples.

UPDATE See also the related question Torn paper: matching up the torn edges

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    Even if it's not quite what I'm looking for, that's beautiful! I don't suppose you'd consider turning it into a package? Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 20:20
  • Regarding the update: the q. doesn't request multi-page excerpts, so I think you're safe! Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 10:47
  • Acrobat 9.4.1 displays correctly, some portability limintations: Evince 3.6.1 shows an artificial grid inside a the paper, qpdfview 0.4.1 shows the paper correctly but there are glitches in the shadow, xpdf 3.03 shows all black. Commented May 6, 2013 at 22:17
  • @JLDiaz, Also, is there any change one can use this frame around a lstlisting enviroment? I can't do it (\lst@next has an extra }). The error has to do with fragile issues. Commented May 6, 2013 at 23:21
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    Since version 3.0, shade=bilinear interpolation should be shading=bilinear interpolation. Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 23:50
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EDIT: Added color on request.

Here is an approach which builds on Marc van Dongen's answer to Simulating hand-drawn lines.

\documentclass{memoir} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing} \definecolor{paper}{RGB}{239,227,157} \usepackage{lipsum} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}[pencildraw/.style={ % decorate, decoration={random steps,segment length=2pt,amplitude=1pt} } % ] \node[ preaction={fill=black,opacity=.5,transform canvas={xshift=1mm,yshift=-1mm}}, pencildraw,draw,fill=paper,text width=.8\textwidth,inner sep=5mm] {\lipsum[1]}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}

Output: enter image description here

And yes, this does not really look like paper.

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  • Thanks! Is memoir a requirement? Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 22:16
  • No, memoir is not required. See also the question that I linked to. Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 22:16
  • By the way, is it possible to change the colour of the 'rectangle' enclosed by the line, or does the ragged edge make that difficult? Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 22:53
  • @Mohan, it's easy to change the color. Simply replace fill=white with another color. You could define a new color \definecolor{paper}{RGB}{239,227,157}, and use fill=paper Commented Dec 8, 2012 at 23:05
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    @Ipsen... I would say that this is also well worth making into a package. Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 10:45
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I think this would be a natural application of the tcolorbox package.

In the answer below, I've used part of Jesper's answer to decorate the tcolorbox environment; this approach permits an environment-based approach, so that you can use, for example,

\begin{tornpage} \lipsum \end{tornpage}

enter image description here

Furthermore, the tcolorbox allows page breaks.

enter image description here

Here's a complete MWE which can be built upon.

% arara: pdflatex % !arara: indent: {overwrite: on} \documentclass{article} \usepackage[many]{tcolorbox} \usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing} \usetikzlibrary{shadows} \definecolor{paper}{RGB}{239,227,157} \usepackage{lipsum} \newtcolorbox{tornpage}{% enhanced jigsaw, breakable, % allow page breaks frame hidden, % hide the default frame overlay={% \draw [ fill=paper, % fill paper draw=paper!50!black, % boundary colour decorate, % decoration decoration={random steps,segment length=2pt,amplitude=1pt}, drop shadow, % shadow ] % top line (frame.north west)--(frame.north east)-- % right line (frame.north east)--(frame.south east)-- % bottom line (frame.south east)--(frame.south west)-- % left line (frame.south west)--(frame.north west); }, % paragraph skips obeyed within tcolorbox parbox=false, } \begin{document} \begin{tornpage} \lipsum[1] \end{tornpage} \begin{tornpage} \lipsum \end{tornpage} \end{document}
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