The Basics of Photoshop: The Tool Bar (Shape Tools)

Although many people tend to use Photoshop for its great picture enhancing features, not all graphic designs may use a photo. As a graphic designer, there will be times when you may be required to create your own designs from scratch. If you’re looking to do this — whether it be for a logo, design, or just an added touch — then the shape and pen tool are just for you.

The Shape Tool

For basic shapes and symbols, the shape tool will allow you to create quite a few variations by simply choosing your preferred shape or tool and dragging your cursor across your work area. Not only will you be able to create your own shapes, but also have the option to create a solid shape or an outline.

Rectangle Tool

As the name implies, choosing this tool will allow for a simple rectangular shape to form. You can even create a square shape by holding down shift and dragging your tool across the canvas.

Rounded Rectangle Tool

Similar to the rectangle tool, the Rounded Rectangular Tool will from a rectangular or square shape with rounded corners.

Ellipse Tool

Another choice among the shape tools, this Ellipse Tool will allow for a nice elliptical or circular shape.

Polygon Tool

Allows the user to create just about any polygon shape such as a hexagon, octagon, triangle, etc. You can change the number of sides by using the Options Bar.

Custom Shape Tool

A much more versatile tool that provides a much larger selection of shapes and symbols. You can access these shapes by using the Options Bar and selecting your shape. You may also switch each set of shapes by clicking on the gear icon on the top right corner of the panel.

The Line Tool

This tool creates straight, rasterized lines. You may also straight your lines horizontally or vertically by holding down shift as you drag your cursor across your work area.

The Pen Tool

This handy tool allows you to create your own original shapes or lines by simply clicking throughout your work area to create paths. You may also bend your paths by holding and dragging the end point of your path and moving it to your desired shape. To change the stroke, you may go to the Brush Tool and use the Options bar slider to change the thickness.

Add Anchor Point

A simple tool that allow you to create a new anchor point to an existing one.

Delete Anchor Point

Opposite of the Add Anchor Point Tool, this tool deletes any extra anchor points to an existing path.

Convert Point

Allows you to select an anchor point by clicking and holding to change the curvature of the path.

The Freeform Pen Tool

As the final feature within the Pen Tool, the Freeform Pen Tool allows you to create organic, free-hand shapes. What makes this shape different from the original Pen Tool is that your shapes will be hand-drawn entirely by you without the help of Photoshop. You can use this tool by clicking and holding your cursor while moving it across your work space in order to draw your own shapes.

This concludes the shape building tools. Next week we will discuss the Brush Tool, Eraser Tool, as well as the Gradient and Paint Bucket Tool!

The Basics of Photoshop: The Tool Bar (Selection Tools)

The Tool Bar — Photoshop’s most handy bag of goodies. With the effective use of each tool, one can almost fully manipulate any photo or design to their heart’s desire. Let’s begin with the selection tools.

The Move Tool

Just as the name implies, this tool allows you to move or position your selected work. You may find yourself going back to this tool a majority of the time, so you’ll definitely want to keep this one on standby.

The Marquee Tool

With this tool, you will have the ability to select either your complete design or even a mere portion to perform any task you may need. Whether you need to cut out a piece of your design or change its color, the marquee tool is fairly simple to use. As an added bonus, it also comes with several different ways to make your selection needs a bit more convenient. You can access these extras by simply clicking and holding down the marquee tool icon.

Rectangular Marquee Tool

This tool will allow a “rectangular” selection to any portion of your design. You may also hold shift while expanding your selection, if you wish to keep it proportioned.

Elliptical Marquee Tool

This will select any portion of your design in an “elliptical” shape. By holding shift, you can achieve a true circular selection.

Single Row Marquee Tool

This will select any number of rows of pixels within your image.

Single Column Marquee Tool

This will select any number of columns of pixels within your image.

Lasso Tool

This is yet another (more efficient) selection tool. With this, you may select any organic shapes within your image. For example, say you would like to select the outline of your body. However, you find that your marquee tool seems to only select basic shapes (squares, circles, etc.) and you desperately need to make an outline of yourself. What do you do? You use the Lasso Tool.

Using it like a pencil, you will make your selection by holding down your left mouse key and outline your desired image. Although, if you find that you don’t have a steady hand, you can find other options that may suit you.

Magnetic Lasso Tool

This is similar to the original Lasso Tool, only a bit easier. Instead of worrying about whether or not you followed the outline of your image, it will draw a selection that magnetizes to the nearest outline.

Polygonal Lasso Tool

Essentially the same as the original Lasso Tool, except instead of holding down your left mouse key, it only requires a few clicks around your image to obtain nice straight edges.

The Magic Wand Tool

As one of my favorite selection tools, it is among the easiest to use. By clicking on any part of your image, it will select the entirety of the area. However, the Magic Wand Tool isn’t always the most accurate. If you find that your selection hasn’t been completed, holding shift and clicking on the rest of your desired selection may fix that problem.

The Quick Selection Tool

This is by far my absolute favorite selection tool to use. With the Quick Selection Tool, you can select any basic or organic shape within your image by simply holding down your left mouse key and dragging your tool around your desired image to make your selection. However, you want to be sure you’re under the proper settings. As a feature of the Quick Selection Tool, you’ll find several modes on your Options Bar. They are the New Selection mode, Add to Selection mode, and Subtract from Selection mode.

New Selection Mode

This is your basic mode to create a selection.

Add to Selection Mode

This will be your default when choosing the Quick Selection Tool. This feature will allow you to add any area to your selection as you drag across your image.

Subtract from Selection Mode

This feature will remove or subtract any of your selection from an image. The same rules apply—drag over your image if you would like to remove some of your selection.

This concludes our Photoshop lesson on selection tools. Next week we’ll be discussing Shape Tools and the Pen Tool. See ya then!

The Basics of Photoshop: Part One

Ah, Photoshop — just about every graphic designers best friend. Photoshop is one of the most helpful softwares out there. It is used by many graphic designers, photographers, as well as many other professionals within the business of processed imaging. It’s a great tool for touching up a photo or even creating your own business logo.

Now, let’s begin with the layout.

As you can, you have quite a bit of work space along with many interesting tools and features surrounding it. Let's now break it down starting from the top (literally).

Like all programs, Photoshop uses a menu bar with your basic file menu along with many other tabs such as edit, image, layer, type, select, filter, etc. These will not only allow you to save your work, but they also provide you with quite a few features to discover.

The options bar is quite a handy tool that allows you to change your settings for each tool you use. As a default, it also provides you with options to zoom in or out of your work area.

This will be your holy grail for all of your designs. Here, you will utilize these tools in order to create your designs or touch up your photos. I will be going through these tools in the next post to come.

Consisting of various windows, the palettes act as an extension for several tools as well as allow you to create layers and channels to divide your work into an organized fashion.

Last but not least is your work area. This is where all the magic happens. This is your canvas to create whatever you wish.

As I've said before, this is the basic breakdown of Photoshop to allow you to get familiar with your work space if you decided to use this program. If you would like to try your hand at using Photoshop, you may purchase it or download a trial version from Adobe. Next week, I’ll explain just about everything you need to know about your tool bar. See you soon!

Typefaces in Graphic Design

I’m sure by now, after learning about the two kinds of typefaces, many of you have noticed the different types of fonts used on billboards and advertisements. Whether they are a strong bold sans serif or a simple, elegant serif typeface—signage may utilize one, if not both typefaces at the same time. A good rule of thumb is to make sure each of your fonts are indeed different in some way.

Let’s start off with the example below.

Notice how the text manages to transition, back and forth, from a serif to a sans serif typeface. Although several different font families are used, the overall message can be understood and the text is also given character. However, using this many typefaces is not recommended. Although it is a bit cliché, when it comes to graphic design, less is definitely more.

When it comes to choosing fonts, using different font families is probably the most prominent method for graphic design. Just as you see in the example above, make sure each of your typefaces have some sort of difference between them. Even though a majority of the text is made up of a serif typeface, simply changing the typeface of the word "Mother" to a sans serif typeface has truly made this frame come to life.

Let’s take a look at one last example.

Despite both typefaces being sans serif, simply adding a bolder font or even just changing the font style to “bold” will make your message just as effective. 

Now go on out, create your design, and make a statement! 

Typefaces: Serifs vs. Sans Serifs

As one of my favorite elements in graphic design, fonts can really give your designs meaning. In fact, they can even make or break the professionalism of just about any written work. Choosing the right font is crucial if you want your audience to grasp the concept and tone of your message. Just look at the font you’re reading right now. Is it easy for you to read and understand this paragraph? Does it flow? Is it too bland for your tastes? These are the types of questions you may want to think about when you decide to use fonts for just about anything.

In total, there are two typefaces to choose from. Each has thousands of styles to utilize. These typefaces are called serifs and sans serifs, which you may actually have seen before.

Serifs

Adapted from “schreef”, the Dutch word for “line”, serif fonts can often be identified in many books, newspapers, and documents. The reason behind the meaning of the word is due to the distinct set of lines placed upon each letter.

For example:

This is Times New Roman. A serif font many of us are familiar with. Notice the small lines on the edges of each letter. Compare this with Arial, the font I’ve originally been using. It is said that these particular lines allow greater readability as opposed to sans serif fonts. However, that is still to be disputed, depending on each person’s preferences.

Sans Serifs

As you can see, these have become my personal preference due to their cleaner and more spacious look. They are derived from the French word “sans”, meaning “without”, which is why they lack the lines we’ve seen from serif fonts.

Sans serif fonts are often found within many advertisements, posters, and comics. When creating graphic designs, this is the recommended typeface to catch the eye of your audience due to the enormous amount of serif fonts we see in most published works.

Now that you’ve learned about these two typefaces, I hope for many of you to grow more aware of them. What you choose to do with the style of each font is up to you.

Using Color: The Relationship Between Graphic Design and Color Schemes

Now we will discuss the relationship between color and graphic design. As you may already know, color plays a big role when it comes to logos and advertisements. It is the first thing that catches your eye when glancing at any graphic design. Why do you think candy packaging is so bright and colorful? Children are especially drawn to this, which is why many candy companies may choose such bright, obnoxious colors. However, despite the amount of color in each design, it is how they are used that creates an effective, eye catching design that many people are attracted to.

Now that you know the specific types of colors you are going to learn how to utilize these colors, whether they are alone or accompanied by others. There are many ways to mix and match colors — some even require scientific processes — but for now we will be looking at only three types of color schemes.

Complementary

These types of colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel. Referring back to the name, these colors complement each other to create strong contrast within your design. In the example below, you can see how effective they can be. However, it is not recommended to use these types of colors often. Even though it may seem eye catching, the strong contrast can be an eye sore, depending on how you use it.

Chili's Bar and Grill uses
a red and green complementary color scheme.

Analogous

Unlike complementary, these neighboring colors can prove to be just as effective with a subtle tone that can be most pleasing to the eye. The best part of analogous colors is that more colors may be used as opposed to complementary colors that only require two. Depending on how you use them, analogous colors tend to be the safest choice among graphic designers due to the simplicity and unlimited possibilities for the colors involved.

Firefox not only utilizes an analogous 

color scheme, but a complementary color scheme 

made up of orange and blue.

Triad

Typically, triad colors utilize three contrasting colors that are evenly spread across from each other on the color wheel. They can be a bit tricky to use, which is why referencing a color wheel would be most helpful. For those that may not be color experts, there are even some online tools such as the Adobe Kuler tool, which you can find at color.adobe.com. When used properly, these colors can create a very strong, yet subtle contrast to draw the eye.

Burger King's logo uses a strong triad color scheme of red, yellow orange, and navy blue.

Using Color: Tertiary Colors

The final component on the color wheels are tertiary colors, or as I like to call them, the “in-between” colors. Now, to explain this a bit more clearly, imagine that you’ve just mixed the colors red and yellow in order to make orange. However, you seemed to have spilled more red paint into the mixture than yellow. So now what do you have? Of course, you may be thinking, “red orange,” which is not only correct but it is also one of the most well-known tertiary colors.

RYB

RGB & CMYK

As you can see, there are quite a few tertiary colors within the color wheels that are imbedded in between the primary and secondary colors. In fact, there are two tertiary colors for each primary color. For RYB, many artists simply mix more of one primary color on their palette in order to create a tertiary color. That way any mistakes in creating their new colors can be corrected just by adding in more of a certain color.

A much easier and accurate way artists achieve these tertiary colors is by mixing the primary and secondary colors together. Going back to my example from earlier, making red orange would be as simple as mixing red and orange together.

The same applies for RGB and CMYK. Although I stated in my last posts that these two color formats are used differently, the way they are mixed are exactly the same as the traditional RYB format. And yes, to make matters even easier, the tertiary colors for each of these two color formats are indeed the same.

Please reference these color wheels when using color for future graphic design projects.

Using Color: Secondary Colors

Now that we’ve covered primary colors, we will now go deeper into the color spectrum and watch as the primary colors multiply for each of the three color wheels. As part of the next wave of colors, we will see the results of mixing these three primary colors, which are known as secondary colors. However, keep in mind that these secondary colors vary from each color wheel.

RYB

Let’s go back to art class. As a visual, think of the primary colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow) mixed together on a paint palette. Of course, it’s common knowledge that mixing red and blue makes violet, blue and yellow makes green, and yellow and red makes orange. Now, we have newly formed colors. In the diagram above, you can see these secondary colors as they open the doors to thousands of new colors to be formed.

RGB

When dealing with RGB, you are dealing with the color within light. The reason for the primary colors being red, green, and blue is due to the colors within light that the human eye can pick up. Although we may not think about it, light does have color, but it is often distorted. Because we can’t see individual colors, the most common color of light people often see is white—the combination of the three primary colors. Although, when broken down, it was discovered that individually mixing two of each primary color can achieve a secondary color (see diagram above). These colors are yellow, magenta, and cyan.

CMYK

Now if you remember the primary colors for CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow), I’m sure you’ve noticed. Yes, the secondary colors for RGB are indeed the same as the primary colors for CMYK. Knowing this, you can see that the primary and secondary colors for these two color wheels are merely flipped. However, unlike RGB, mixing the primary colors for CMYK will create black, which is why it is often used for printing. This will allow printers to create a variety of bright, vibrant colors, while having a side option for black ink. As you know, most printers today don’t always require black ink. Merely mixing all of your colors together will allow for a fairly legible black ink for text or any images that require a bit of shading in for shadows. 

Using Color: Primary Colors

The world is a colorful place. Luckily, graphics are a big part of the world now. Many of us will see graphics everywhere - on TV, billboards, ads, posters, books, etc. And a majority of the time, color will most likely be the first thing about a graphic that we will see. In fact, in a recent study, it was stated that the human eye can see up to 10 million colors, which is why it's important to carefully select the most eye-pleasing colors there are. The first thing you should know about color are the many different types that exist.

The Color Wheel

Like many things in this world, colors have a basis that we use to distinguish each one from among others. The color wheel is that very basis we have developed. Within the color wheel, there are three types of colors. They are primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. Each contain a different set of colors, from simple ones to those that are seen as more complex.

Primary Colors

They are the first set of colors on the color wheel and are the original source of many colors that we see every day. By mixing these colors, we can create a plethora of many others, but keep in mind, they cannot be recreated once they have been mixed with others. These primary colors are made of but three colors within three different sets for different purposes.

RYB

This is the most commonly used color wheel out there. For RYB, the primary colors used for this type of color wheel are red, yellow, and blue (hence the acronym). These primary colors are often referenced by many artists in order to provide themselves with a gateway to a vast amount of color options.

RGB

Abbreviated for red, green, and blue, these primary colors are best used for electronic programs such as television, video games, and online graphics. For anyone that may desire to create graphic designs for electronic rather than physical purposes, the RGB color wheel is what you’ll want to reference.

CMYK

The primary colors used in this color wheel are cyan, magenta, and yellow. The colors used in this color wheel are usually used in ink and specialize in printing. For many advertising agencies and print shops, this color wheel is the most referenced. Although, it is said that some painters also tend to use it to create a different tone for their art.

Welcome! 

Here you will learn the basics to developing creative, clear, and legible graphic designs with the help of several key elements to provide a foundation for just about any project you set your mind on. However, I want to point out that I am not a professional. The purpose of this blog is to provide a basic understanding of graphic design for those that may have just begun their journey into the field. I will cover a fairly wide range of topics such as typography, colors, scales, image resolution, value, as well as many others to come.

I hope you will enjoy!