Tag: how to

How to create your own Photoshop Brush

Photoshop comes with some fabulous brushes but did you can you make your own? In this blog post I help you in learning how to create a Photoshop brush so you can create your own.

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Create a Spiral Photoshop Brush

blackobject

Create anew document and then a new layer. Draw a black object. We produced this one by creating Bezier curves using the Pen tool and then filled in the path. Ctrl/Cmd-click the layer to select the object and choose Edit > Copy. Select File > New and change the background contents to Transparent.

Define your Photoshop Brush

define

After the new document has been created, select edit > paste and the shape you copied will appear on the transparent background layer. Choose Select>All and then edit > Define Brush Preset. A brush name window will appear for you to name your brush. Enter the text in the name box and click OK.

Time to experiment

stroke

Create a new document. Choose the brush tool and select a colour by clicking on the foreground colour swatch in the tool bar. Select Window > brush preset. Scroll to the bottom of the brush presets palette to find your new brush. Click it to select it. Now make alterations to the size, opacity and flow of the brush using the top toolbar options. See what kind of patterns you can create!

Save the Photoshop Brush day

save-brush

Finally make sure you save the photoshop brush. To do this simply select the brush > then press the dropdown next to the small image of the brush > then the arrow pointing right in a circle and a drop down will appear. Next click save brush…a file save as will appear, give your brush a good name, jobs a gudden!

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In my next post I will discuss how to create retro 3d photographs so they really do stand out!! Free 3d wallpapers will also be available for free!

 

 

What is a favicon?

When you bookmark a page on a website it is added to a selection of other favourite websites in your bookmark window. Some have icons and others don’t. Why is this? They have a favicon in their root directory.

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What is a favicon?

A favicon is just that a “fav” icon so when a visitor bookmarks your website it has a recognizable branded icon next to the website link. This may seem like a pretty pointless part of your website but you would be wrong.

Recommended design method

If your company logo has been designed well then it will pretty easy to simply it into a favicon. Just look at the special features of the log, in the above example the O in Solv is considered to be the prominent feature of the corporate identity, MigSolv copyright 2013) so it taken into photoshop and seperated from the rest of the logo.

Why it is important

A favicon helps your user to identify your website quickly & easily and if your company doesn’t have one it looks like one of two things. A) You don’t finish your website which might also represent your company’s image that you don’t finish things & B) You don’t understand technology trends properly.

Recommended favicon size

The size of the favicon is usually 32px x 32px.

How to create in photoshop

You have two options, either use the logo you have now, go to edit > …image size and change the pixel size to 32 x 32.

Save with .ico

Once you are happy with your icon make sure to save it as a filename.ico. This isn’t a drop down file type so you will have to manually enter the .ico at the end of the file name.

Upload to root folder

Lastly upload your completed favicon to your websites root folder and web browsers should then pick up that you have one. Your mission is complete! Good job soldier.

 

Alternative Free favicon generator

If you are not an owner of photoshop ( or GIMP ) or just not confident enough in the program then you can use this free favicon generator which does the job for you.

Link

Designing a favicon

If you would like a professional designed favicon for your website please feel free to contact me using the contact button and I will give you a very reasonable quote. Happy creating folk! 🙂