Graphics Zone - Quick Logos

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Quick Logos, Buttons and Graphical Text Links with EyeCandy and Photoshop

by BarryHilton, Adult NetSurprise

Start by opening a new image in Photoshop, 300 pixels wide by 200 pixels high (File > New), tick the Contents White check box to give your new image a white background.

Now, click on your foreground color, at the bottom of the main tool bar... in our tutorial we used the following value: RGB: R:0 G:45 B: 211 or HEX #: 002DD3. Feel free to select any color you want, it doesn't have to be blue for this tutorial.

Next, add some bold text using the Text Tool on the main Tool Bar... Any heavy bold looking font will be fine, in our tutorial we used Futura Md. Type the text you want... we're using 'A', but any word or words are fine. When your happy you need to Rasterize your layer so you can apply the EyeCandy Filters... Go to the Layers Menu at the top of the screen and select Layer > Rasterize > Type. You should have something like our example below:

Now, we're going to apply our first filter... The Swirl! Before we do this though, we need to lock the transparency of our text... go to the main Layers Menu (Window > Show Layers if you can't see it) and at the top of the menu you should see 'Lock'. Click the check box to the right of 'Lock', next to the grey and white checked square. This will keep the transparency of your text locked. If you don't do this your Text will end up like this...

Go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select 'Eye Candy' then 'Swirl', enter the values below to create a nice textured effect (you may need to alter the values a little depending on the font you used):

Now, we'll add an Inner Bevel to make our text look more 3d, and to make it stand out more from the background. Go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select 'Eye Candy', then 'Inner Bevel'. Enter the values below, again you might need to alter the values a little, especially 'Smoothness' to get your bevel to look right with your text.

We can now add our Perspective Shadow to really make our text stand out! To apply our Perspective Shadow we need to turn off the Transparency Lock on our text, go to the main layers Menu, and untick the box at the top between Lock and the Grey and White checked square.

Again, we'll be using Eye Candy, so go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select 'Eye Candy', then 'Perspective Shadow'. Enter the values below to create your quick and easy logo, button or graphical text :o)

If you want to build up a set of graphical links for all your site, don't worry... Eye Candy remembers the last set of values for each of its filters... So if you want to apply the same technique to another word just follow the tutorial through again and all the values you entered in the filters will remain the same!