Photoshop can be a frustrating, but also an enjoyable software program to learn or teach yourself. With a seemingly endless number of features, filters and plugins it can sometimes become somewhat overwhelming.
Indeed, Adobe's primary image editor is one of the only graphics tools that is used by a vast number of professions (graphic designers, web developers, photographers, pre-press and commercial printers, amongst others) for an almost endless variety of applications.
It is fair to say that few, if any, designers can claim to have mastered all of its techniques. Even the Adobe Photoshop help manual and the various third party teach yourself Photoshop books barely scratch the surface.
One of the most fascinating features about studying Photoshop is that you soon learn that it often provides a variety of different tools and techniques for achieving similar results. Indeed, experimenting with those techniques is often the best way of teaching yourself.
You never know what you are going to learn next about the program and this is one of the reasons why online tutorials can be so helpful. Not only can they offer immediate advice on solving problems, but they can sometimes also offer insights into new methods of creating old effects.
Adding shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS4
TIP : As with many design tips, there often many ways to apply a creative technique. A lot depends on the precise graphics project being attempted and the intended destination of that job.
Which software is best?
Which software is best? All four of the tools are more than capable of adding a drop shadow to design layouts. Deciding which application is best, can depend largely on personal preference, as well as the type of work being carried out.
Drop shadows in Adobe InDesign
Drop shadows in Adobe InDesign CS3 are quick and easy to apply.
1. Firstly, select the text or object. If selecting text, it is important to select the text box, rather than the line of text itself.
2. Right click on the mouse and, from the contextual menu, go to Effects and then Drop Shadow.
3. This will bring up the Effects dialog box which has numerous settings for fine tuning the drop shadow. Depending on whether an object or text has been selected, these settings may offer some different options.
4. To see the effect which each setting will have on the drop shadow, simply click the Preview checkbox.
5. Once finished, click OK.
Making drop shadows in Illustrator CS4
Some designers prefer to manually create custom drop shadows using variations of the gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator. This may be the best approach if you want to create directional shadows, or maintain more complex vector editable shadow effects.
But if that level of precise control is not necessary, there is a simpler one-stop approach to creating drop-shadows in Illustrator CS4.
1. Select the object or text box.
2. Go to the Effect menu.
3. Go to Stylize and then select Drop Shadow.
4. A Drop Shadow dialog box will appear which allows some limited editing of the drop shadow.
5. Once finished, click OK.
Adding shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS4
One of Adobe Photoshop's strengths is its use of layers. Using Photoshop layers, a designer can probably find several ways to manually create different drop shadow effects. One of the easiest, however, is described here:
1. Create a new layer, or work with an object on a transparent Photoshop layer. (Trying to create a drop shadow on the default background layer is probably not advisable).
2. In the layer palette, select Blending Options. This can be done either by double clicking on the layer icon or, by right clicking on the icon and selecting Blending Options. The latter is often best when adding drop shadows to text in Photoshop.
3. A Layer Style dialog box will appear with a number of Styles. However, In this case we are interested in the Drop Shadow options, so we can select that check box.
4. This then allows a number of options for adjusting the structure of the drop shadow, including blending modes, opacity, angles and so on.
5. Once complete, click OK.
Indeed, Adobe's primary image editor is one of the only graphics tools that is used by a vast number of professions (graphic designers, web developers, photographers, pre-press and commercial printers, amongst others) for an almost endless variety of applications.
It is fair to say that few, if any, designers can claim to have mastered all of its techniques. Even the Adobe Photoshop help manual and the various third party teach yourself Photoshop books barely scratch the surface.
One of the most fascinating features about studying Photoshop is that you soon learn that it often provides a variety of different tools and techniques for achieving similar results. Indeed, experimenting with those techniques is often the best way of teaching yourself.
You never know what you are going to learn next about the program and this is one of the reasons why online tutorials can be so helpful. Not only can they offer immediate advice on solving problems, but they can sometimes also offer insights into new methods of creating old effects.
Adding shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS4
TIP : As with many design tips, there often many ways to apply a creative technique. A lot depends on the precise graphics project being attempted and the intended destination of that job.
Which software is best?
Which software is best? All four of the tools are more than capable of adding a drop shadow to design layouts. Deciding which application is best, can depend largely on personal preference, as well as the type of work being carried out.
Drop shadows in Adobe InDesign
Drop shadows in Adobe InDesign CS3 are quick and easy to apply.
1. Firstly, select the text or object. If selecting text, it is important to select the text box, rather than the line of text itself.
2. Right click on the mouse and, from the contextual menu, go to Effects and then Drop Shadow.
3. This will bring up the Effects dialog box which has numerous settings for fine tuning the drop shadow. Depending on whether an object or text has been selected, these settings may offer some different options.
4. To see the effect which each setting will have on the drop shadow, simply click the Preview checkbox.
5. Once finished, click OK.
Making drop shadows in Illustrator CS4
Some designers prefer to manually create custom drop shadows using variations of the gradient tool in Adobe Illustrator. This may be the best approach if you want to create directional shadows, or maintain more complex vector editable shadow effects.
But if that level of precise control is not necessary, there is a simpler one-stop approach to creating drop-shadows in Illustrator CS4.
1. Select the object or text box.
2. Go to the Effect menu.
3. Go to Stylize and then select Drop Shadow.
4. A Drop Shadow dialog box will appear which allows some limited editing of the drop shadow.
5. Once finished, click OK.
Adding shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS4
One of Adobe Photoshop's strengths is its use of layers. Using Photoshop layers, a designer can probably find several ways to manually create different drop shadow effects. One of the easiest, however, is described here:
1. Create a new layer, or work with an object on a transparent Photoshop layer. (Trying to create a drop shadow on the default background layer is probably not advisable).
2. In the layer palette, select Blending Options. This can be done either by double clicking on the layer icon or, by right clicking on the icon and selecting Blending Options. The latter is often best when adding drop shadows to text in Photoshop.
3. A Layer Style dialog box will appear with a number of Styles. However, In this case we are interested in the Drop Shadow options, so we can select that check box.
4. This then allows a number of options for adjusting the structure of the drop shadow, including blending modes, opacity, angles and so on.
5. Once complete, click OK.
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