[Tutorial] - Create your own custom buttons

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In this tutorial i will try and teach you how to make smooth and elegant buttons for your vbulletin.

Requirements:

- Adobe Photoshop (preferabbly version 6 or 7)

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Instructions:

1/ Open up Adobe Photoshop and make sure your foreground color is 'A0A0A0' and your background color is '646464'.

2/ Press 'Ctrl + N' which will open up a screen allowing you to create a new image. Use these settings:



3/ Now in this case we're going to make rectangular buttons. To create a one pixel border which IMO all buttons should have we press 'Ctrl + A' then goto 'Edit > Stroke'. Use these settings:



4/ OK now you have a one pixel border around your button we need to create the background gradient. To do this we need to use the 'Rectangular Marquee Tool'.

Now create a new layer by pressing 'Shift + Ctrl + N'. Select inside your one pixel border and fill with white by going to 'Edit > Fill' and in the dropdown selecting 'white'.

Then Click the 'Gradient tool'. Now you have a gradient bar at the top which looks like this . Click it. The screen that pops up should look like this:



5/ In the presets box scroll down until you see the 'Copper' option. Click it. A new color gradient should appear. Now just below the colour part there are little triangular points. Two should be darkish brown and two should be very light brown. Click one of these little points and then the options below should become selectable. If you are selecting a dark brown point then change the 'Color' dropdown to 'Background'. And if it's a light brown point then change it to "Foreground". After you've done that it should look like this:



Now click the "Ok" button

6/ You should already have the gradient tool selected and the area selected inside the one pixel border we have created. Drag your mouse from the top of the selected area to the bottom in a straight, vertical line.

You should end up with a gradient looking like this:



7/ Now we add the text. Select the "Text" tool and choose a pixel font. I'd reccomend downloading the Visitor2 font. With the font tool drag the area you want the font to be in and then let go of the mouse. Then on the top toolbar make your font color white. And Type in the text you want on the button.

A new text layer should have been created on the layers tab on the left. Click it. Then goto Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow

Use the settings that are already but modify these settings:

Distance: 1
Spread: 0
Size: 3

Then you should end up with a nice and simple button which looks like this:



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Tips:

- You can always change the color of your gradient and then change the color of your font to match. Try different gradient effects too apart from "Copper".

- Never use stroke on a pixel font. It looks very untidy. If you use drop shadow like i've done then make it very minimal.

- You can change the dimensions of your buttons and add extra items or objects to make it look nicer. Example:

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Regards

- miSt

[refertech]

[high]* refertech says ahhhh, ok i'll work on it and come crying back i'm sure. [/high]

[Cyberhouse]

Very nice tutorial, easy to follow.

[Dean C]

Thankyou Cyberhouse

- miSt

[refertech]

I'm coming right along, thanks to your tips Mist. Thanks.

How do you center the text vertically and horizontally on the button?

[Dean C]

Well have it center by clicking the center alignment button in the toolbar (have to already have the horizontal type tool selected)

Then select the mouse tool (it looks like a mouse icon) and then move it to the center of the image manually. It's the best way

- miSt

[refertech]

So you just eye ball it by moving the text around?

Theres no way to select the boarder of the button and then center the text in the selections some how?

[TECK]

03-20-03 at 05:25 PM Mist said this in Post #45
Well have it center by clicking the center alignment button in the toolbar (have to already have the horizontal type tool selected)

Then select the mouse tool (it looks like a mouse icon) and then move it to the center of the image manually. It's the best way

- miSt

Or make the text onto a new image, copy the layer, select the second layer you want to center the text (ctrl+leftclick) and paste the text, it will be centered.

[SouledOut]

I dont like to brag, but I make cool graphics like that too (even though I can tell that's simplistic for someone of miSt's talent). . It's a good tutorial, but I'd suggest adding a stroke to the text, as it's hard to read :/. I like the font, I think I'll add it to my existing 400. Again, it's a good tutorial, and I suggest that people who dont feel to secure with PS to use it. Great job, you've done a great service. Makes me think that I should do stuff like this....

[Dean C]

Well i'd suggest otherwise. Since i made this tutorial i've tried to eradicate pixel fonts from my life but there is only ONE pixel font that i use a stroke with and even still i have the stroke on a very low opacity. And that is 04_09b but that's the only one cuz its not so small as the rest. Adding a one px stroke to any other pixel font looks horrible and is very hard on the eye to read

- miSt

[steve1386]

Thank you Mist!