Sometimes the most difficult part is knowing where to start. Have you ever had someone show you just how to do some something. They go click, click, and click - Done! And you’re none the wiser; You see everything is easy once you know how. That’s my purpose here. It is to help you see it as easy. So let’s look at these four steps.

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.

Step 2. The Background.

There are three options to choose from. 1. We could put in a solid color as the background. 2. For more flair we may decide on a gradient. 3. We could insert a picture as our background.

If we decided on a solid color, here’s how to go about it. On the left hand side of the page there is a floating tool box. Towards the bottom of this box are two color boxes, one on top of the other. Click on the top box and a new window will appear. Choose the color you want by clicking the mouse on the color and click OK. Then choose the Bucket tool. If you cannot find a bucket tool, move your mouse over each of the tools till you find the gradient tool. Right click and it will reveal 2 tools, choose the bucket tool.

Once you have chosen the bucket tool, move your mouse over the new graphic you are creating. You will see the mouse pointer turn into the bucket tool. Just one click and you have your chosen color as your background.

If you want to use a gradient as your background, you will need to turn the bucket tool into the gradient tool. From the floating toolbox on the left choose the color. This time you will need to choose a color for both the top and bottom color boxes. The top color is what your gradient will start with and the bottom is the finish color.

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.

This works with JPEG Files but does not work with Gif files.

Step 3: Import more images.

In Photoshop you work with layers. Each time you add something new you create a new layer. On the right-hand side of your work area you will see “Layers”. When you open this you will see all the layers. You can click on any of these layers and make them the active layer and the edit that layer.

You could now import a picture. Just use the drag and drop method mentioned earlier. When you do this you will notice that not only do you get the picture but also some background you don’t want. You can remove this with the eraser tool.

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

Each time you start new text you create a new layer. This means that the text can be moved into any position just as any layer. Photoshop does not always space the lines of text as I like. I overcome this by making each line a new layer and them I can move them where I want them.

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.

There is only one thing left to do. Save it. First save it in Photoshop PSD as this will allow you to come back and edit it. Next if you wish to use it as a web graphic you can “Save it for Web and Devices”. This will create a smaller faster loading file for web pages.