Lesson A: Creating Content

Something from nothing is the theme for this lesson. First, we’ll fill the canvas with patterns, gradients, and colors. We’ll complete a backdrop on top of which we’ll create type.

Create a New Doc

We’ll start by creating a new document.

• Launch Photoshop. If you are not shown the home screen, click the Home button at the left end of the Options Bar.
• Click the Create new button. Many media choices are listed across the top of the resulting dialog box. I’d like you to choose Photo because it contains the reliable default settings we need for this lesson.
• Choose Default Photoshop Size. Interestingly, there’s nothing particularly photo-centric about this preset. Click Create in the bottom-right corner of the dialog box.

Creating a Pattern Fill Layer

Have a look at the Patterns panel in the upper right. In it is a list of folders, each of which has several patterns some nice folks at Adobe made for us. For the 2020 release, these are much nicer than what was previously supplied! If you have an image that would make a nice pattern, choose Edit > Define Pattern…, and it will be added to this panel.

• To see them all, hold down ⌘/Ctrl and click on a small arrow to the left of a folder’s name.

This exposes the contents of all the folders.

• Drag a pattern swatch onto the document “canvas.”

The first one you drag creates a fill layer. Subsequently dragging or just clicking on a pattern replaces the pattern in the layer. Like any layer, its Opacity can be adjusted. Like adjustment layers, fill layers are born with a mask that can be painted with black to hide its content. Also, if there is an active selection when the pattern fill layer is made, it will be masked to the selected area. Recently applied patterns appear along the top of the Patterns panel.

• Apply a Water pattern last.
• Choose File > Save As…, choose to Save on your computer, and then choose where your other course files are stored.

Creating a Gradient Fill Layer

Atop that pattern, let’s create a different kind of fill layer.

• Expose the Gradients panel. To see them all, hold down ⌘/Ctrl and click on a small arrow to the left of a folder’s name. This exposes the contents of all the folders.

If you were to drag a gradient preset onto the canvas, it would replace the pattern we applied.

• Create a new, independent fill layer by option/Alt-dragging the gradient preset onto the canvas. Yes, this obscures our pattern choice. That will be mitigated a bit shortly. First…
• Double-click the gradient fill layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel. You’ll see a number of options, but note the menu for Style. Try each choice.
• Adjust the Angle control for each Style. Commit the gradient’s options by clicking OK.

If you’re curious about how to customize gradients, and you most certainly can, the Compendium chapter “Layers & Smart Objects” has a section on fill layers, including “Gradient” (page 137). Be forewarned that you can spend hours editing gradients!

The Benefit of Blend Modes

• With the gradient fill layer highlighted, change its blend mode via the menu near the top of the Layers panel (it’s currently set to Normal). In fact, when the blend mode menu is exposed, you just have to hover over a mode’s name to see it previewed. Choose Multiply.

It’s a long list and each choice does something different. I put together a visual and technical reference of each one in (you guessed it) the Compendium: “Blend Modes” (page 171). Read it! The bottom line is that most of them will allow these layers to visually interact.

Creating a Color Fill Layer

We’re going to replace that gradient with a solid color. It should inherit the gradient layer’s Multiply blend mode.

• Expose the Swatches panel. To see them all, hold down ⌘/Ctrl and click on the small arrow to the left of a folder’s name. This exposes the presets in all the folders.
• Drag a swatch (I recommend one in the Pastel set) onto the canvas, replacing the gradient we applied. To create a new, independent fill layer requires option/Alt-dragging the preset onto the canvas. This time, however, we’re replacing the one type of fill layer with another.
• To make the overall texture quite subtle, highlight the pattern fill layer in the Layers panel and change its Opacity to a lower value, like 30% or so. Then highlight the top layer again.

Now we have an interesting, but not distracting texture over which we can put some text.

Type Layers

We now have a stage to do a little “type casting.” You’ll need the Type tool and a bit of restraint. There are several ways to approach this tool, but in Photoshop it’s most common to need only a little bit of text, written large, for designs like book covers or fancy magazine article lead-ins. If you need lots of text, there are other applications (like InDesign) better suited for the task, and other books in this series to guide you through them.

But there are reasons to create type here in Photoshop. Let’s examine one approach.

• Activate the Type tool by clicking it in the Tools panel or tapping the T key.
• With it, click in the center of the image. Very likely, the words “Lorem Ipsum” start where you clicked and go rightward from there.

Until the type is committed, the type layer that holds it will have a generic name like “Layer 1.” But before we commit this type, let’s get it in better form. If the text becomes unselected at any point, just triple-click it with the Type tool.

• While the text is still highlighted, change its color by clicking on the color chip in the Options Bar (initially, it’s probably set to black). This opens the color picker. See its how-to, “Color Picker and Panels” (page 220). While the color picker is open, the text’s highlighting is disabled so you can see what you’re doing. Choose a color that works well with your backdrop, then click OK.
• Set the alignment to centered by clicking on the Center text icon in the Options Bar. Since you set the type by clicking at a point in the image, the text is aligned to that point. So your text should be somewhat centered in the image. If not…
• Fine-tune the text’s position. Watch the cursor as you move it slowly away from the text. When the cursor is not directly over the text but not too far away, it becomes the Move tool! When you see it, press and drag to move the text. Clicking when the cursor looks like a generic arrow commits the text—but not yet!
• Adjust the type size by scrubbing the size icon (just left of the current size). You may want to adjust the position of the text again afterward.
• Choose a different font from the font menu. Make sure the text is highlighted so that as you hover over font names, you’ll see a preview in your document. Choose whatever you want except Papyrus, Comic Sans, Times New Roman, or Copperplate. Those will break your computer. Well, not really, but they ought to.

Does the spacing between any letters look odd? In mine, I dislike the space between the “P” and “S.” If you have a similar complaint, you can kern those letters:

• Click once between two letters with the Type tool so a bar cursor blinks there. Hold down option/Alt, then use the left and right arrow keys (← or →) to change that spacing.
• Once you’re happy with your text, commit it by clicking the check mark (✓) in the Options Bar.

Later, to quickly highlight the text, double-click the layer thumbnail. This switches to the Type tool too.

• Save.