Header Graphic - A Tutorial
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When learning new software it is often helpful to have a basic tutorial. Tuts are also great when you want to see how something is done. We're learning Photoshop and want to see how a header graphic or title bar can be made. Our goal is the following title bar.
Photoshop Tools and Image Features Introduced
- Opening an image and creating a new image
- Color picker or Eyedropper tool
- Paint bucket tool
- Layers
- Rectangular Marquee tool
- Move tool
- Crop tool
- Eraser tool
- Text tool
- GIF, JPG, PNG
Step 1 - Get an image
Before we leap forward to the end when we don't know how to begin, let's remind ourselves where we usually start when we make a graphic - with an image. I got the following bicycle image from Freefoto.com, a decent source for non-copyrighted images. Grab this bicyle image by right-clicking on it (control-click on a Mac is the same as a PC right-click!), and choosing "save as", "save target as", or something like that. Save it to the desktop for now.
Step 2 - Open image in Photoshop and make a working copy
Open Photoshop (the blue "Ps" icon on your Mac) and let it get settled. Then select File-Open. Browse to the Desktop and double-click the bike image. It's called "intro_bike.jpg". Easy.
We could work with the original. Instead, we'll duplicate our original and play with the copy. Select Image, then choose Duplicate. Now we have two bikes, intro_bike and intro_bike copy.
Step 3 - Creating the header graphic
Create a new file by selecting File-New. This will become our header graphic.
When the options box comes up, make it 700px wide and 100px high, with transparent background and RGB. (Make sure it isn't 700 inches wide, or things will get ugly real fast; you can go wider than 700px, but not for this tut.) Good.
We now have three different images open in Photoshop: our intro_bike, intro_bike copy, and a short and wide checker-board image called Untitled-1, or something. With me so far?
Close the original bike so you don't get confused. Like most things in Photoshop, you can do this in a lot of different ways. Here are two:
- Click the Window option at the top, select intro_bike.jpg at the bottom of the drop-down menu. This brings it to the surface. Then click the red circle in the upper left corner of the image.
- Just find the intro_bike.jpg image under the other images on the desktop. Click it to bring it to the top. Then click the red circle in the upper left corner of the image.
Step 4 - Pick a background color
Let's pick a nice background color for our header graphic that works with our bike image. We're only going to grab the bicycle, right? If we look, we find that dark tan wall color is very prominent and that's not a bad background color for an exercise. We'll use it for now. We need our color picker tool. 
(Find this eyedropper in the tools palette (left sidebar, towards the bottom of the bunch.)
Get the cursor over to the eyedropper, and click it. Now we head all the way back over to intro_bike copy. Put the eyedropper over that wall color and click. We should see the foreground color in our foreground/backgound area of the toolbox change to the wall color. 
If you didn't get just the color you want, try it again until you're happy or until 2 minutes have elapsed. Next step, please.
Step 5 - Pouring our background color
We're going to pour our background color over the blank header graphic (Untitled-1).
Time-out for layers mini-tutorial:
- First, highlight the header graphic by clicking with the mouse. If we created it correctly, it looks like a grey/white checkerboard because the background is transparent and the base layer is empty. Let's add a new layer to that file and pour our background color into the new layer. Look to the right in Photoshop. You'll see a column full of boxes that do a bunch of
stuff you don't know about - yet. At the bottom of that column is a really cool box that contains your layers, enables you to quickly add filters, and more. - Think in three dimensions for a minute. Photoshop lets us put visual elements on top of, under, or next to each other. Layers control the "on top of" and "under" relationships beween our elements. Wha? Think 3-D, and you'll catch on. While the picture to the right shows 2 layers (Layer 1 and Layer 2), we have only one layer, the base layer or Layer 1. We could pour our background color right there. But let's make a new layer and pour onto that.
- You can do this a lot of ways. 1) You can select Layer-New, 2) right-click on the base layer and choose "Duplicate Layer", or 3) just click that tiny little rectangle with the folded corner at the bottom of our layers box. I say, go with option 3. Pop! Now we're working in two layers. (Layer 2 will be on top of Layer 1. But you can grab Layer 1 and drag it above Layer 2 if you want. It doesn't do anything yet, but just wait!) Highlight the new layer (Layer 2), then move your cursor over to the blank header graphic. Ok, timeout over.
Head back to the toolbox for a new-to-you tool, the paint bucket. 
Find Mr. Bucket in the right column, about halfway down the box. Highlight him. He shares real estate with Ms. Gradient, a box colored in a black/white fade. If you see Ms. Gradient, right-click her or just click and hold the button until the menu appears. Choose Mr. Bucket. You're ready to pour some paint!
Double-check your foreground/background box. Is that tan color you picked with the eyedropper still in the foreground? I thought so. (If not, click the little double-sided arrow on the tool and swap the colors.) Mouse over to the header graphic, and click to pour that color all over Layer 2 of the header graphic.
Now we're cookin', er, paintin'.
We're almost ready to move our bike image into the header. But first it's back to layers. If we put the bike on the same layer as our background image, we'll lose some flexibility. So, add a new layer for our bike. (Remember how?) Revisit the layers mini-tut if you need a refresher. Add a new layer, then select continue below.
Don't like the look? Restyle!
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