Creating a link button

Here I will show you how I make a very basic link button :)

1. Start with a new image (file-->new) with a width of 88px, a height of 31px and a transparent background.
2. Open up an image that you have previously made (file-->open), it might be a test graphic or a photo, press ctrl+a to select the entire canvas and press ctrl+c to copy it (if you haven't got an image handy, use one of my tutorials to make something first, then use that).
3. Go back to the blank 88x31 image and press ctrl+v to paste the image into it. Get the move tool by pressing V on your keyboard and drag the image around until you get a bit showing that you like. You should have something like mine below.


4. Once you have done that, get out the pencil tool by pressing B on your keyboard. Press D on your keyboard to set the colours to default. Press ctrland the + button on the keypad on the right-hand side of your keyboard 5 times to zoom in to 600%. With the pencil tool, select a 1 pixel brush (shown below) and draw a 1 pixel outline on the edge of the picture (to get straight lines, hold down shift and then click and drag). Zoom out by holding ctrl and pressing the - button on the keypad on the right-hand side of your keypad 5 times and you should be at 100%.


You should have somethign like mine below.


5. Zoom back in again to 600% and get the rectangular marquee tool by pressing M on your keyboard. Select one pixel on the corner of your image by clicking and dragging over it, then press ctrl+D to deselect. Repeat for the other 3 corners. This gives the corners a nice rounded effect. If yours looks like mine below, you are doing great!


6. Create a new layer by clicking the new layer button on the layers palette (shown below).


7. Get the horizontal type tool by pressing T on your keyboard and click ont he spot on the image that you want your text. Type in whatever you want, adjust the settings and get what you want! I came up with this:


Remember this: For this picture to have the little rounded edges, you must save the file as a .gif image (ctrl+shift+S and set the format to .gif) and in the pop-up box that comes up, you must check the transparency option.