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How To Create Graphics In Photoshop

I'm sure that you have experienced this: You need some help to understand how to do something on the computer. Someone volunteers to show you. They get in front of the computer and go click, click, click - Done! You saw that they did it, but you are none the wiser as to how to do it. Frustrating, isn't it! This article is a step-by-step guide in creating a Photoshop graphic.

Step 1

To start move your mouse to "File" and click "New". Next you are asked to specify the size of the new graphic. Usually you will already know what size you need as you will be creating a graphic for a particular purpose. Let's say we are going to make a header graphic for a web page. On a sales page the headers are usually about 700 pixels wide by about 120 pixels high.

Second Step: Decide On A Background.

In choosing a background we have 3 options. We can choose a solid color, a gradient, or a picture as the background.

If we choose a solid color we need to specify what color we want. We can do this on the floating toolbox, usually on the left-hand side of the work area. You will see 2 color boxes one over the other. Click on the top box and a color chooser comes up. Choose your color. Now click on the bucket tool. If you don't see a bucket tool move your mouse over the tools until you find the gradient tool. Right click on the gradient tool and you will see two options, gradient or bucket.

When the bucket tool has been chosen, move the mouse pointer over the new graphic. When the pointer changes to a bucket, left click. Now the new graphic is filled with the color you chose.

To fill this with a gradient, change the bucket toll into the gradient tool. Once again you need to choose a color. This time you will need to choose 2 colors. The top square is your starting color and the bottom square is the finish color of the gradient.

Having chosen the gradient tool you will notice on the top of the work area new choices have appeared. This will allow you to choose the style of the gradient.

Importing a picture into your graphic as a background is easy. All you need to do is open a file with the picture you want to use. Make sure that the picture is larger or equal in size to the graphic you are creating. With your mouse just drag and drop the picture into your new graphic. Now just move it around to where you want it. That's it.

Just one note on this: It does not work with Gif images.

Third Step: Working With Layers

Photoshop works with layers. Each time you add something new to the graphic you are working with you add a layer. On the right hand side of the work area you should see "Layers". Click on it and a whole list of the layers of the active graphic will be shown. You can click on any of these to make them the active layer.

To import a picture is exactly the same as what you did in dragging and dropping the background into the graphic. When you drag in a picture you always have some background with the picture. If the background is mostly one color you can easily remove the background and thus expose the background you want seen. To do this you will need to use the eraser.

If the background is mostly one color the :Magic Eraser " will do this with one click. To open the Magic Eraser right click on the eraser and 3 options will appear. After removing any unwanted background, the layer can be moved to wherever it is required. Just pick it up with the mouse and drag it into position.

Step 4 The Text

In Photoshop your text is also a layer. Each time you insert new text you create a new layer. You are able to move the text around as you can any other layer.

On the left hand tool box click the "T". Move the mouse to the area where the text is to go. Click the mouse and start typing. You can choose the font, size and style as in any other Windows program.

Now the text can be jazzed up a bit to make it stand out. On the top bar is "Layers". Click on this and from the drop-down box choose "Layer Style". This opens up a host of options such as; drop shadow, inner glow, bevel & emboss, stroke and others. Just play around with these and you will soon see what they do. Try them. You will see instant results without committing them.

You have now created a simple but professional looking graphic you can use on a web page.

Just save it in Photoshop PSD format. This will allow you to come back and change anything you like. To save it as a smaller file suitable for the web, go to "File" and choose "Save For Web & Devices". This will produce an image that will load faster.