Glossy Highlight Button

1. Open a new document in Photoshop.

2. Create a new layer and call it "Button".

3. Using the Eliptical Marquee selection tool, make a circular selection (hold down the SHIFT key as you drag your circular selection to make it perfectly circular).

4. Select the gradient tool, make sure that the Circular Gradient option is chosen. Then fill the circle selection with the gradient colors of your choice. Be sure the colors of the circular gradient go from dark outside to light inside.

5. Create a new layer, call it "Highlight".

6. With the "Highlight" layer active, select the Polygonal Lasso tool. Begin drawing a selection around the top portion of the circle. As

7. Go to Select > Modify > Smooth. Depending on how jagged your polygonal selection was, enter a value into the Smooth pop-up box, then click OK. You sould now have a smooth selection overlapping the colored circle.

8. Use the Paint Bucket tool and fill that selection in with white color.

9. Change the Opacity settings of the "Highlight" layer to 50%.

10. Right click the "Button" layer, then select "Blending Properties".

12. Click the checkbox next to "Stroke". Change the stroke color to a dark color that is the same as the color of your gradient. Once the stroke is the way you want it, click OK to close out of "Blending Properties".

13. Next, select the Text Tool and type anything over the button.

14. Right click the new "Text" layer and select "Blending Properties".

15. Click the checkbox next to "Inner Shadow" to give the letters an inner shadow on the button. Make sure the direction of the inner shadow is facing the same direction as the highlight.

16. Congratulations, you're done!