Adding textures to your work in Photoshop can really add a sense of detail. Depending on the textures and how you use them, they can help make a piece look more realistic, or grungy, or even cartoonish. They can really define a Photoshop piece. So, let's learn how to bring a texture image into Photoshop and use it to help our artwork look better.
(more…)
Popularity: 35% [?]
We are going to create a snazzy web 2.0 glossy button. I am using Photoshop CS2, but I'm sure these techniques will work in most versions. The size you make the button is up to you and should be customized to fit the site you are building. In this Photoshop tutorial we are going to be using tools like the gradient tool, marquee tool, pen tool, text tool, a pattern, and more.
We will be using a stripe pattern in the background of the button, so if you didn't complete the pattern in the web 2.0 header tutorial you can download it here.
Download Stripes Pattern
Let's get started.
Open up Photoshop and create a new file. Like I said, the size is up to you – I will be making mine 200px X 50px.
Create a new layer and name it bg.
First, grab the gradient tool.
Set the Foreground color to black.
Set the Background color to 50% gray.
Using the gradient tool click and drag from the bottom to the top – so that the black is at the bottom of the button.
If you want the button to be rectangular then skip to adding a stroke.
If you want the button to have rounded corners follow these steps.
Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool 
At the top set the Radius: to 10px and make sure Paths is selected.
Start in the upper left corner and pull out the shape to the lower right corner.
Right click and select Make selection… Feather Radius: 0 and click OK
Next hit ctrl+shift+i to invert the selection and hit delete on your keyboard and now the corners are rounded.
Whether you rounded your corners or not, let's add a stroke to the bg layer.
Double click on the bg layer to open the Layer Style window.
Click on stroke and set size to 1px, Postion: to Inside, and the Color: to black.
Create a new layer and name it stripes.
ctrl+left-click on the bg layer's Layer Thumbnail to create our selection.
Go to Edit->Fill… make sure Use: is set to Pattern
Now to load the stripes pattern you downloaded. Follow the directions on the image below then browse to the place you saved the stripes pattern and load it in – it will show up at the end of the list of patterns. Click it and hit OK.
Set the Opacity of the stripes layer to about 20%.
Grab the Text Tool (keyboard shortcut 't').
Set the options to Myriad Pro for the font Bold and 24pt – I used a light gray for the color.
Select the text and change the Vertical and Horizontal scale to match the image below.
Create a new layer and name it highlight.
Using the Pen Tool create a path similar to the image below.
Then right-click and pick Make Selection…
Click OK and fill it with white.
Once again ctrl+click on the bg layer's Layer Thumbnail to make it our selection.
With the highlight layer still active hit ctrl+shift+i to invert the selection and hit delete on your keyboard.
Change the opacity of the layer to about 15%.
shew… text reflection anyone.
Right-click on the text layer Home and select Duplicate Layer… and click OK.
Go to Edit->Transform->Flip Vertically
Hold down shift and drag the reflection down below the text.
Adjust the Opacityof the reflection to 40% or so or add a layer mask which ever you like. And there you have it – were are done with our Web 2.0 style button.
Download the psd file for this Web 2.0 style button and get an extra stripes layer so you can have to colored stripes. To change the color just ctrl+click on the Layer Thumbnail to create the selection and fill it with the color you want.
Grab the Photoshop file and the image file
Download Files
Popularity: 34% [?]
Valentine's Day is just around the corner – why not dress your Web site up with a new header. So, let's go through how to make a pretty new Valentine's Day header.
Popularity: 6% [?]