Photoshop Button Maker
Tutorial Details
- Program: Photoshop
- Difficulty: Beginner
- Completion Time: 30 minutes
In this simple tutorial, we’re going to create a clever little way of making little buttons using a couple of layers and one interchangeable image layer. As always you can download the sample PSD at the bottom of the tutorial to follow along and copy layer styles out of.
Step 1:
Start by drawing in a colored background. I’ve used dark brown/greys here and used a subtle radial gradient. Then in a new layer, draw a circle and fill it with a color. It doesn’t matter what color you use; I’ve used green here.
Step 2:
Next we are going to apply some layer styles. We’re using two types of Inner Shadow (one using Inner shadow and one using Inner glow). Also we have a subtle Gradient Overlay and a Drop Shadow and a bit of Satin. I’ve chosen these to try to make the object look 3D by using shadows at the edges curving away and a radial gradient to make it look like light is hitting the middle. The satin is just to add a bit of extra something!
Anyhow, rather than going through the exact settings, just download the source and right-click the layer to Copy Layer Style.
Step 3:
This is what the circle looks like with the layer style applied, kind of cool!
Step 4:
Next using the Circular Selection Tool, we draw an ellipse which is longer horizontally than it is vertically (as shown). Create a new layer and draw a radial gradient from white to transparent in it. Note that you want to drag the gradient so that total transparency occurs outside of the selection (i.e. the white part has a bit of a sharp cut off when the selection area ends).
When you’re done, rotate the ellipse by about 30 degrees. This is our main highlight.
Step 5:
Now duplicate the highlight layer. Switch the first one’s visibility off for a moment so you can see what you’re doing, and then hold down Ctrl and click on the second highlight layer to select its pixels. Then hit the down and left arrows a few times and press delete. This should leave you with a thin bit of highlight (as shown).
Step 6:
Switch your first highlight layer back on. Then duplicate the second highlight and rotate it down the bottom left as shown. And now you have your button style!
Step 7:
So next we want to make the button interchangeable. To do that, we simply get the main green layer and set the Fill to 0%
Fill is a bit like Opacity except that if you make something 0% Opacity then you make the layer styles transparent too, whereas if you make it 0% Fill, the layer styles are still visible. This is perfect for us because we get rid of the green, but still have everything we need to make our buttons. Now all we need to do is slot something underneath.
Step 8:
So I grabbed a British flag and you can see it here underneath the button and how the 0% Fill is working.
Step 9:
All you need to do is hit Ctrl and click on the circle layer to select that sized circle, then press Shift+Ctrl+I to invert the selection, go to the flag layer, and hit delete. And you’re done! One button!
Step 10:
I then created a few extra buttons using some random pictures. Oh and the "Button Maker" font I used is called "Dynamoe" in case you are wondering!
Sample PSD
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Really useful! Thanks so much for sharing! and thanks for the source file, made everything much easier :)
Very good and understanding tutorial, thank you!
Step 5 is not very well understood. I could never get the Ctrl+Click combination and pressing the left arrow key to lower pixels…
Awesome post. All new stuff for me. Thank you for putting this together.
In Step 2 which layer do you copy?
it helps me a lot, esp with the psd file.
thanks.
your tutorial it doesn’t make sence at all!
as this is a beginners tutorial i think you could have been a bit more descriptive and gone through the exact steps and also have instructed the layers to be named as confusion and time could have been avoided, but i still appreciate the tutorial and the sharing of knowledge
As a student I can’t help but comment that you need to sometimes be confused and spend time figuring things out in order to learn how the things work. One thing is following orders, another is discovering new solutions on your own. The things you find out on your own are techniques that stick with you for much longer.
In my studies, I’ve been told over and over that when I do a tutorial, the best thing you can do for yourself is recreate the thing you were just taught to do. That way it sticks.
Have fun:)
i do not understand this tetorial and how to make a pin. it sounds really cool, but i am trying to understand how to make it. I do not even know where to find some of the tools that are mentioned.
nice tutorial thanks very much! The PSD file is great too to help understand what it is you’ve done to create the highlights etc
This was a total waste of time!! It is supposed to be for beginners but the author skips many, many, crucial steps that beginners do not know how to perform.
yah I agree , beginners would like this more if there were more details given. maybe some are not familiar with working with layer, styles etc,
btw I’ve dl’ed the psd and studied the layer style of the main pin shape, nice styles ^^, learned some some there.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Mady my first nice-looking Photoshop something which went beyond a frame with drop shadow!! :D
This was an excellent and very easy to follow tutorial, thanks! Had an awesome button in like 20 minutes.
Reading the other comments, I would say the level is probably intermediate, you need some familiarity with layers, gradients, rotating/resizing, and so on. But if you’ve got those basics, this is really easy to follow.
simple & awesome! thanks!
Thank you so much =))
But it look not really like a button, i see it look like Awards !!! ^^
Awesome, this came out great. Man I love this website, this site has the best quality of tutorials. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for the help…..
this didnt help me. i wanted to know how to make the effects. i know how to make circles and combine images. but i still am not the best with drop shadow, inner glow, outer glow and stuff like that.
How would this work on squares or rectangles?
step 9 is very confusing.needed a little more explanation for noobs like me.
-www.corbylove.blogspot.com
Thank you for this tutorial… the psd download was very helpful!
How do you download the source?? That part is not very clear… help…
Nice tutorial, found it very useful and effective.
One point though which may seem minor but is a pet hate of mine and many other Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish people but you’ve gone and named the Union Jack badge as “England” in the PSD when it really shouldn’t be.
Sorry to be so pedantic and I’m sure it was a simple mistake… Thanks for the tutorial.
i am still lost on step 9. can someone walk me through the steps for photoshop cs5.
from where could i dowmload it..?!
U should have explained layer options …as that would have made it more understandable for beginners like me. Just watching the blending options from PSD was not ver useful. Anyways thanks for the Tut i needed something like that for my fb app :)