I received a wonderful package from France last Friday afternoon. It was filled with a variety of naturally aged antique French invoices, receipts and handwritten documents that I purchased from an online seller ten days prior (fast shipping from France to Canada). 
I scanned this three-page official French document to share with you. It was included in the set. 
Some of the vintage French documents I’ve shared on my blog in the past are available here, here, and here.
I scanned several of the remaining documents from the package to create a printable set of vintage French ephemera for my Etsy shop. Both the printable pages and the individual files are included. Currently 50% off in my Etsy shop. Commercial use is permitted (see my shop policy for details). No licensing fee.
Image is linked to my shop.
These are wonderful! I would like to buy some.
Hi Lori,
I have the digital set for sale in my Etsy shop; however, if you are looking for originals, I would recommend checking Etsy and/or Ebay.
Julie
Beautiful !!!
I’m happy to know you like them, Anna. 🙂
Ok, number one, I LOVE this so so so much! Thank you Julie!!!! And 2nd, do you mind sharing what Scanner you have? I have bought several, various prices, and they never seem to get a crisp, gorgeous and clear scan. Thank you again, and I am super glad you are back and posting here and there!!!
You’re welcome, Sherri. I’m happy to know you love this. 🙂
I have the Epson/Perfection V700 Photo scanner. I’ve had it for many years. It has scanned thousands of photos and documents and still going strong but I bought it so long ago that I don’t know if they would still be making it.
For sharper scan results, I always begin by scanning at 1200 or 600 dpi (depending on the size of the image I’m scanning) then reduce the size in Photoshop with Image/Image Size/25 (or 50 if scanned at 600) Percent with Bicubic Sharper (reduction) selected in the Resample box. Then I pull the resized image into a 300 dpi blank document and save it before doing anything else.
I hope this information is helpful.
Julie
Hi Julie,
I thank you for the scanning information. I scan sometimes at 600 dpi but wondered if I was wasting my time because I resize them to 300. I keep the original though. I really didn’t think I’m saving a scanned image.
I have a really old Epson Perfection 4180 Photo scanner. And a very, very old Epson printer which, unbelievably, is still offered on Amazon.
I also am still using PS CS3 and that’s probably what I’ll always be using. I can’t believe that they’re leasing PS now! Do you lease or do you have an older version?
I think I need the French Printables! And thanks for the samples!
Kathy
Ignore that last sentence of the first paragraph! I don’t even remember what I was going to say! Lol!
The text in this comment block is so light I can hardly see it. Strange! It’s lighter than anything else on the page. Is that just my computer or the way it is?
Kathy
I’m glad you found the information helpful, Kathy. If you scan an image at 300 dpi and the same image at 600 and resize it to 300, then zoom in to 100%, I believe you will see the difference, especially if you use the Bicubic Sharper (reduction) option in Photoshop.
My inkjet printer is old too. A Canon Pro 9000 Mark II that I bought when I did digital scrapbooking. It’s a large format “tank” but a reliable tank, even after all these years and hundreds of print jobs later. I bought it to print my 12″ x 12″ layouts. It prints up to 13″ x 19″.
I lease Photoshop. I love that the updates are automatically taken care of.
You’re welcome for the samples. I’m happy to know you like them.
The text in the comment block is light when typing but dark after the comment has been posted. The posted comments show up dark on both my monitors.
Julie
Hi Julie,
I just wanted to tell you what my experience was like scanning at 1200 dpi! I had never done higher than 600 so I didn’t know that my computer might not be able to handle it. I first got a message that I couldn’t use “descreen” and scan at 1200 I unchecked that box. I don’t even remember why it was checked.
Then everything wasn’t responding and I had to close a bunch of windows before it would work, but at least it worked. It seemed like it took about 5 minutes for it to complete the scan, if not longer. Lol!
I am assuming it’s the computer, and maybe my PS also. I don’t know if I need a bigger scratch disk, or even if I have one. I saw that mentioned somewhere the other day so I might look that up.
But I’m okay with 600 dpi, but it is fun to make a tiny 1 inch image so much bigger without losing resolution!
Do you get a discount on the leasing of PS? I hope you get free tech support.
I know you do the best scans on the internet and I appreciate that you’re still doing it for us graphic lovers! I’ve been crazy about graphics since the beginning when they were just a bunch of blocks. They were very pixely but I loved them! I thought it was magic to be able to print images at all!
Thanks for your help!
Kathy
Thank you for the beautiful French documents. They are fabulous! You are sweet.
You’re welcome, Debbie. It makes me happy to know you like them! Thank you for the lovely comment. You are sweet too! 🙂
These pages are fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
I can just imagine someone writing this, with perhaps a quill pen.
Do you have any idea what this document is?
I don’t speak French, but it looks like maybe a contract?
Thanks! Carole
You’re welcome, Carole. I’m so glad you like these pages!
It could very well have been written with a quill pen. I don’t speak or read French either and couldn’t tell you what kind of document it is. Perhaps one day a blog reader who understands French will come along and let us know. 🙂
Such beautiful hand writing, what a fantastic piece of history!
I agree with you, dtc. They took such pride in penmanship back then.
That writing is so beautiful with the scrolly letters!
I definitely agree with you, Julie. 🙂
Julie what a great set, thank you for sharing! ♥
You’re welcome, Robin. ♥ 🙂