Grasp the chance to enhance your site with the best fitting layout, including elements like buttons, headers and logos.  Home Photoshop Web Layout How to Make a Folder Icon

How to Make a Folder Icon

Author: Nico Harather More by this author

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a nice folder for your desktop or a website.

1. First of all create a new document which is 128 x 128 pixels large and has a transparent background.

2. Make a new layer, choose the Pen Tool and draw a shape wich is similar to this one:

image 1

3. Now use the following settings:

Gradient Overlay
#FFd27A -> #FFB912

Stroke
Size: 1px
Position: Outside
Color: #C07C33

Inner Glow
Blend Mode: Normal
Color: #FFFFFF
Choke: 100%
Size: 1px

After that it should look something like this:

image 2

4. Then you duplicate the layer with the shape. Now you have to perspectively distort the new layer as shown on the picture:

image 3

And now scale it down a little bit, so that it looks like an 3d opened folder:

image 4

The result of step 4:

image 5

5. In this step we're going to add a piece of paper. So make a new layer and draw a shape like the one on the picture:

image 6

6. Now go to the layers palette and use the following settings:

Gradient Overlay:
Opacity: 10%
#000000 -> #FFFFFF
Angle: 50°

Stroke
Size: 1px
Position: Outside
Color: #D6D6D6

It should now look similar to this one:

image 7

7. Next you turn the piece of paper to the left a little bit and put this layer under the layer with the 3D folder thing from step 4.

image 8

8. That looks quite nice, but the thing wich makes it look like a really cool icon, is to set the opacity of the 3D folder part to about 50-60%.

image 9

That's it. You can add some details and use it for a website or make an .ico file and use it for your desktop.

Thats what I came up with in the end:

How to Make a Folder Icon Tutorial: Final Result

Two other things wich I made with exactly the same folder parts:

image 11

image 12

I hope you liked my first tutorial, and I'm looking forward to make another one soon!

Have fun!



Author's URL: Nico Harather
Thank you for voting.
Rate this Materials:
Bad 
1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
print this page subscribe to newsletter subscribe to rss

Advance your current skills or acquire new skills in Photoshop by creating projects using our step-by-step tutorials. More Tutorials: Most Popular Materials | Fresh Materials | TutorialKit New Photoshop Tutorials

Add comments to "How to Make a Folder Icon"

Only registered users can write comment

Reader's comments
comments nightwind9 January 16, 2008 says:
How to Make a Folder Icon
thank u
i have learn somerthing from the tutorial
comments joel.witherspoon July 26, 2007 says:
How to Make a Folder Icon
Great tutorial! At the expense of being an ass, you may want to remove the folder tab on the duplicated layer. It doesn't make sense to have a folder with two tabs.
comments LaLindsey July 14, 2007 says:
How to Make a Folder Icon
I just wanted to drop a note and thank you for the tutorial (saw it on digg) and say that's a really sweet looking icon!
comments WebGyver July 14, 2007 says:
AWESOME: How to Make a Folder Icon
That may have been very simple and straightforward, but I absolutely loved it.

Great tips. I especially liked the whole bit about making the outer folder pane somewhat transparent. Excellent!

Keep up the good work, and let me know when you have another tutorial posted.
comments Kkropka June 18, 2007 says:
How to Make a Folder Icon
Very good, simple thing but useful thing :)