How to Make Templates Like Easy Digital in Photoshop CS5

EasyDigitals offers layered template files you can purchase and customize, creating a wide range of graphics designed to celebrate sports victories, school graduations and social milestones. These templates incorporate freeware typefaces you can download and use legitimately for personal projects. Constructing templates like these in Adobe Photoshop CS5 requires an understanding of your project objective and the kinds of file resources necessary for template customization.

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Digital art with a transparent background
• Freeware font software

1. • 1
     Choose a project size and purpose. To create a template, you need a document size, targeting printed or onscreen representation. If you're designing a template to be printed, select your size based on printing on standard media, whether you fill the entire sheet or trim out a smaller object from a larger piece of paper.
   • 2
     Click on the Foreground Color swatch in the Photoshop toolbox to bring up the Color Picker. Choose a color that suits your project. Click on the "OK" button to return to the document window. Press the "X" key on your keyboard to switch the positions of the foreground and background colors in the toolbox. Click on the color swatch that came to the foreground and set it to a contrasting color in the Color Picker.
   • 3
     Open the "File" menu and choose "New" to create a new Adobe Photoshop document. Set your color mode to 8-bit RGB and the resolution at 300 ppi so your document will print without pixelation. Enter a distinctive name and click on the "OK" button to bring up your file.
   • 4
     Open the "Window" menu and choose "Layers" to bring up the Layers panel if it isn't already visible. Double-click on the icon of the default "Background" layer to bring up the "New Layer" dialogue box. Rename the layer "Base" and click on the "OK" button. This change enables the layer to accept a layer style.
   • 5
     Add a "Gradient Overlay" to your "Base" layer. Set the gradient type to "Linear" and both gradient color stops to one of the two colors you defined in the Color Picker. Click on the "Color" swatch at the bottom of the dialogue box and reduce the "B" or brightness value of the color stop at the right by 20 percent.
   • 6
     Open the "File" menu and choose "Place" to bring your free-floating artwork into your document. Scale your graphic and move it into a corner of your document so it bleeds off the page.
   • 7
     Switch to the Marquee tool. Make a rectangular or elliptical selection the size you want your first photo-masking vignette to appear. Create a Color Fill layer called "Photo Mask 1" and fill it with a solid gray, using 125 as the channel value for all three RGB channels in the "Pick a Solid Color" dialogue box.
   • 8
     Create a second photo-mask Color Fill layer to represent the location of an additional photo in your template layout. Name this layer "Photo Mask 1" and make it the same color as your first photo placeholder.
   • 9
     Make another selection to create the basis for your type area. Create another Color Fill layer called "Type Box" and fill it with white, using 255 as the channel value for all three RGB channels.
   • 10
     Switch to the Type tool. Set your typeface to one of the freeware fonts you selected. Set the style, color, size and alignment in the Options Bar as well. Click on the live area of your document and type placeholder characters to represent a name or title.
   • 11
     Create another type layer, this one using a second freeware typeface as an accent. Set this type larger than your first type layer. Click on your the live area of your document and type placeholder initials.
   • 12
     Save your file in Photoshop's PSD format. Create a text file that includes links to the website from which to download your freeware typefaces. Create a ZIP archive that includes your template file and your font list.