Archive for the ‘Photoshop’ Category

How to create a pattern background for your website using PhotoShop

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

I create all of my mock ups for websites in Photoshop. Basically I lay everything out the way I want, work with my clients to get everything approved and then move on to development. One of the things that I have thought has been very helpful in this process is the ability to create cool backgrounds. I will show you how I created the background for this website and how I applied it.

1. Create a New file in Photoshop that is 20 x 20 pixels wide, RGB.

20x20

2. Next, I used the fill tool and fill it with a dark background color.

FILL

3.Use the line tool and make a few lines and such. patterns can be tricky, when they repeat you might not get what you expect. You can also create a grid. Make sure the lines are not too contrasting, otherwise the background may look a little busy. This is an easy way to learn how it works with random lines.

lines

4. Once you have finished your pattern, select Edit > Define Pattern

define_pattern

You will be asked to name your pattern.

5. Once you have defined your pattern, all you have to do is apply it to any background. I usually create a back ground for my webpage, however try it with a new file. Create a new file that is 200 x 200 px. For the background layer, make sure to define it as a layer. You can do this by double clicking on it and renaming it. After it is renamed, you need create a layer affect. Do this by selecting Layer > Layer Style > Pattern Overlay.

layer_style

After selecting Pattern Overlay, you will be prompted to a layer dialog box. Choose the arrow by the pattern and then you will see your pattern in the selectable squares. Select it.

select_pattern

After doing this, your page will have a tile of the pattern you created. This works on any size layer or shape, like a rectangle. Experimenting with patterns is a lot of fun!

pattern_bg

As you can see the tiles just repeats itself over an over. There is definitely a science.

Below are 2 few example of cool pattern from Kaliber10000

Kaliber10000 Pixel Pattern

Kaliber10000 Pixel Pattern

PhotoShop CS4 Updates

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

I have been working with computer design applications since around 1987. The first program that I used was Deluxe Paint II. This was an awesome application if anyone remembers.  You could do almost anything, vector, animation, rendering, and many other tricks. The resolution was not that great however the applications seemed to combine several different things. Now, it seems that Photoshop has become the all use application as well. Don’t get me wrong, PhotoShop cannot do all of the things that the other applications such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver can do, however PhotoShop CS4 is indeed very versatile. One new thing ability that was added to PhotoShop CS4 was the ability to move your files around the clipboard area as well as have them tabbed across the top. This was such a huge improvement, especially for the designer that needs to move layer groups from one file to another with ease. The tabbed file browsing is much similar looking to what a browser such as Firefox or Chrome does. When you open a new file it is just added to the top as a tab. When you minimize the tab it will float on top of your other tabbed files. The benefit of this is that you can have a file open and compare is with your file behind. The file behind will not move forward when you have a floating file in front of it. In previous versions of PhotoShop, this was the case, since every file was based on being stacked. Previously, you would have to open up the two different files and re-size them to compare and drag and drop layers. This new file browsing has really helped my work flow, especially when moving very large layer groups from one file to the other. It also helps if you have a widescreen monitor or dual screens.

How has PhotoShop CS4 helped you? I would love to hear!

Cropping an image on the web using CSS

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Ever had an image that you could not re-size, or did not want to re-size, however wanted to crop? Maybe the image was too large for your page or, you just wanted to show a small portion of the image. Using this technique you can also position text on top of the image, like a caption, without having to edit the image. This a very cool method to use, if  for  SEO purposed or to be reference the text in the HTML.

The intention is for you to use the CSS in the header of your document or in a linked Cascading Style Sheet (.css)

First lets start with an image as illustrated below:

pontiac_g6

I need to crop this image and I want to give it a caption directly on the photograph. For this particular instance I just need to show the front of the vehicle.

First I will start by creating a DIV contain for this:

<div><img src=”http://myserver/mycar.jpg”></div>

Above is a line of code that creates just a simple container. Next we need to create a class for the image for the CSS. You will actually use the class tag within the image tag to call to the CSS. The CSS class beloow will be added to your stylesheet.

.image {
border-width: 1px;
border-color: #ffffff;
border-style: solid;
width:225px;
height:70px;
background-position:50% 95%;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
}

In the CSS code above, I have created an image class with a 1 px border and and an area much small than the image. I have also told the background not to repeat itself.

Pontiac G6

Above you will see my cropped image with a title at the top in black. To make the image appear you HAVE to put in some kind of text for the image to show.This is what I used for the code:

<div class=”image” style=”background-image:url(http://myserver/mycar.jpg)”><div>Pontiac G6</div></div><br />

Notice that I had to use a little in-line CSS to make the image appear (background-image). This way, you do not have to put the background-image URL in your style sheet, in the case if you want to have several images cropped with a specific size using the .image tag as a reference. Also make sure to have the break behind the last DIV.

Now, how would I make the text in visible in a different position and in a different color? Start by creating a “title” class like we previously created the “image” class.

.title {
font-family: Arial, Gadget, sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;
font-weight: bold;
color:yellow;
position: relative;
top: 25px;
left: 30px;

}

Pontiac G6

Above you will see that I have positioned the text and have styled it to be a different font, color, and weight. By setting the position to Relative and adjusting the top and left, you can position your text to be anywhere within this DIV container.

Again, this is a case where we created a style with the CSS file so that we could create a “template” of sorts that we could reference again. The other method is to put all of the styling within a “style=” tag within the DIV.

How to mask images in PhotoShop

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Masking 101

Ever wanted to have an image within an image? Lets say you have a background image of something, yet you want a certain part of another picture to peek through it. You could easily cut part of the picture and paste, however masking gives you the benefit of moving around the image underneath, and re-aligning the “portal” that you are looking into.

First Step: Define the background image

Open an image that you want to use:

Second Step: Draw a portal. You can use just about any shape tool to do this and use a color that is easy to see against the background image. I will use the circle and select yellow as the color.

Photoshop mask step 2

Third Step: Add another picture to the file. Choose another picture that you want to use. make sure it is larger than the portal, however smaller than the background. I recommend opening the image, resizing it to something smaller than the original background, then either copying the whole image onto the background or dragging it to the background image. You can easily re-size the image by pressing CTRL T and then while holding SHIFT, dragging the image. I would only recommend reducing. If you need enlarge it there may be pixelation.

Masking Step 3

Step 4: Applying the Clipping Mask. Open your Layers pallet. You should have 3 layers, one for the background image, 2 for the circle, and 3 for the overlaying image. Make sure that the top image is a layer above the shape, in our case the yellow circle. Right click on the top layer (the image) in the layers palette and select Create Clipping Mask.

Masking step 4

Step 4: Save your file to whatever format you want, however make sure to keep a PhotoShop source file saved! If your image is not in the correct position, now worries, you can easily move either the masked image or the circle to your specifics. This is a lot easier than cutting and pasting. You can also adjust the size of your shape as well if it is too large or small.

Masking Final Step

Good luck masking!