What would you quickly like to do?
- Instant Vector
- Engraved Text
- Photo to Sketch
- Watermark
- Barcodes
- Colorize
- Pixel Shadow
- Bonus: Where's my 3D Transform Filter?
Instant Vector
To apply quick vector to an image, simply open the image in Photoshop. Now go to Filter>Artistic>Cutout. A dialogue box will appear. Play around with levels, edge simplicity, and edge fidelity settings for your desired vector image. It's very easy and yet quick.
Engraved Text
Open a new document in Photoshop and fill it with a dark color. Type some text (preferably in black or at least darker than your background color), Now go to Layer>Rasterize>Layer. Create a copy of the layer (Ctrl+J) and press Ctrl+I to invert the color. Then, select the move tool and using the arrow keys on your keyboard to press down once, and right once, and change the opacity to about 20%-30%.The further away you move the inverted copy layer, the deeper engraved it looks.
Photo Sketch
To convert an image to sketch, open up the image that you want to work on in Photoshop. Now, go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U) which will convert image to black and white. Make a duplicate of the layer (Ctrl+J). Then, go to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges. Next, change the Blend Mode to Overlay. That is it!
Watermark
To protect your image, you should always watermark your image. Here's a very easy and quick way to watermark. To watermark an image, type up something using big text and repeat it all over the image. For instance, you could type Copyright, Sample, Sample Only, Your company name etc. Anything. Make sure you are using large font if the image is large. Now select your watermark layer and decrease the opacity to 30%. It will watermark your image.
Barcodes
To create barcodes, open a new document in Photoshop using the size 200px by 80px (or whatever size you would prefer) and white background. Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and use the settings:
Amount: 400%
Distribution: Gaussian
and make sure that Monochromatic is checked.
Then, take the Single Row Marquee Tool and make an one pixel wide selection. Next, press Ctrl+T of your keyboard to free transform and drag it to top and bottom! You've your own barcode!
Colorize
To colorize a grayscale image in Photoshop, open up the image. Using any selection tool, choose the part that you would like color. Now press Ctrl+U. A dialogue box will appear. Make sure that Colorize boxed is check. At this point, play around with the Hue Slider for your desired color.
Pixel Shadow
One pixel drop shadow gives text a very sleek look and it's very simple. In Photoshop, type something using a pixel font or anything related. Now navigate your mouse to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. Use the settings:
Angel: 135
Distance: 1px
Spread: 0px
Size: 0px
and press OK. That should do it!
Where's my 3D Transform Filter?
If you use Photoshop CS then you must've noticed that you don't have the 3D Transform Filter anymore. The Adobe team actually removed it from Photoshop CS. Perhaps, they thought that it is quite useless. But you could use it even now. If you still have Photoshop 7.0 in your computer, go to the folder
C:\Program Files\AdobePhotoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins\Filters and copy the file named 3D Transform.8BF and paste it in C:Program FilesAdobePhotoshop CSPlug-InsFilters. Restart your Photoshop and you will have your 3D Transform Filter back! You can find it under Filter>Render>3D Transform. Enjoy!