Basic Button tutorial (PSP)

[matthew]

open a new image 200X16 pixels and flood fill with #2c2c2c



go to Selections > Select all

Then go to Selections Modify > Contract > Number of Pixels:1


click on your forground and stroke properties box in the materials palette, and select gradients and choose the grey gradient, using these settings


Angle: 180
Repeats:0
Invert:Unchecked
Style: Linear

and flood fill the selection

Magnify the image and add a highlight to the top of the gradient. I've used #eeecec




You now have a template for all your buttons.





Go to Adjust > Colour Balance > colour Balance, and play around with the colours. Here are some examples of how the colour balance of the button template can be changed.




I've also added some dropshadow to make them look more 3 dimensiona:

Go to Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow, and make these settings

Vertical:1
Horizontal:1
Opacity:15
Blur:0
Colour: #000000

There are other options to change the colour and look of the buttons. go to Adjust and try out all the different options available. Try out effects too.

Also you can play around with the various layer blend modes in the Layers Palette.


Adding Text

Returning to the original button template, i'm going to add some text. The font i'm using is 04b09.


Set the same colour (#2c2c2c) used for the border in the background and fill properties material box

Select the text tool and make these settings.

Size:8
Stroke width:0
Anti-Alias:Smooth

click on the image and enter your text, and press ok.

Postion the text using the move tool (in the tools Palette)



You can give your text an inset or outset effect using similar settings as the Dropshadow settings above. use black for an outset effect and use white for an inset effect. Because the text is very dark the outset colour isn't going to show up very well, so i'm going to go for the inset look.


Vertical:1
Horizontal:1
Opacity:40
Blur:0
Colour:#ffffff(white)




Go to layers > Merge > Merge down

Select the brush tool, and set the width to one pixel, and using the border colour draw a line down your image as in the example below.



Then select the Selection tool (in the tools Palette) and set the selection type to rectangle. Make a selection as in the example below



Then copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+V) your selection. And that's it basically.

[~•XyMiC•~]

Hey cool, Thanks

[conceptional]

This tut was a lifesaver!

[lostsoul]

is it just me or is the text on the button sposd to look fuzzy? just a small obsevations but i spose it depends on what text you use.

[matthew]

Yeah, that's why I don't make buttons that way. None of the anti-alias settings(Sharp, Smooth, Off )look right to me, but that's the best of them. Ideally you'd want it off, as it's a pixel font, but it just looks all crushed and messed up. Perhaps I need to understand the settings a bit more.

[serpent]

That's an excellent tutorial Mahud. Thanks for that!