Subscribe Via RSS

3588 Subscribers

Subscribe Via RSS
Subscribe Via Twitter

Followers

Subscribe Via Twitter
Software Layout #4

July 21st, 2009 in Photoshop Tutorials by Richard Carpenter

Software Layout #4

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars20 Votes, Rating: 4.55
Loading ... Loading ...
About The Author

About The Author: Richard Carpenter

Hi im Richard Carpenter im a freelance web and graphics designer from England. I am also a regular Blogger, Tutorial Writer, and Contributor for HV-Designs. You can follow me on twitter HERE. You may also view my portfolio HERE.

 

Richard Carpenter has written 364 posts.

Hello welcome to tutorial 216 by hv-designs, in this tutorial il show you how to create a sleek looking software layout, currently the 4th software layout in our database.

Setting Up Our Canvas

Open up photoshop and create a new document, the dimensions should be 1200 x 1200 pixels.

Step1

The background can be any color as we’ll be changing it in the next step.

Creating Our Background

Set your forground color to #585858 and your background color to #282425. Select the gradient tool with a radial gradient.

Step2

Once you’ve selected your radial gradient drag out the gradient starting from the top middle part of the canvas dragging down towards the middle of the canvas.

Step3

Creating The Website Title

Using the colors white #ffffff and the color green #d7e400 add your website title and slogan.

Step4

The font i used and settings are located in the screenshot below.

Step5

On the right side of the title add your simple support toll free number.

Step6

The layer styles used for the free toll number are as follows.

Step7

Step8

Step9

The text should now be transformed into something like below..

Step10

Creating The Navigation

Select the rounded rectangle tool with a radius of 10px.

Step11

Drag out a rectangle underneath your website title, fill the rectangle with any color.

Step12

Zoom into one of the bottom corners of the rounded rectangle, select the rectangular marquee tool and create a selection cornering off the bottom corner.

Step13

Fill the selection on the same layer then do the same to the other bottom corner. The end result should be something like this.

Step14

Now add these layer styles to your navigation.

Step15

Step16

Step31

Step18

You should have something like this.

Step19

Adding The Navigation Links

Add your navigation links over the top of your navigation bar using the type tool. Ive opted for a simple arial font for the navigation text.

Step20

Once you’ve added the text add these layer styles.

Step21

Step22

Creating The Software Summary Box

With the rounded rectangle tool on a layer underneath your navigation layer create a big rectangle. The rectangle itself should be the same width of the navigation and the top corners should be hidden underneath the navigation.

Step23

Now you’ve created the rectangle select the gradient tool with a radial gradient. Using the colors #d3df00 and #b4c00a add a radial gradient over your rectangle in the same way we did our background.

Step24

Now add this stroke layer style to complete this step.

Step25

Software Summary Box Content

On the left side of the software summary box add an image of your software or a logo. As i dont have any software to feature ive used a report icon from smashing magazines free icon set.

Step26

Next to the icon add a title with a paragraph.

Step27

To the title add these layer styles.

Step21

Step22

Creating The Try Now Button

Using the rounded rectangle tool still with a radius of 10px, create a small rectangle, Fill the rectangle with any color.

Step28

Now add these layer styles to your button.

Step29

Step30

Step31

Step32

Add your button text then add these layer styles.

Step21

Step22

You should have something like this.

Step33

Creating The Content Area

Using the rounded rectangle tool create a big rectangle underneath the summary box. The box should be the same width.

Step34

Add these layer styles to your big rectangle.

Step35

Step36

Creating The Sidebar

Using the rectangular marquee tool make a selection the same height as the content area and any width.

Step37

Once you’ve made the selection fill the selection with any color then add the same gradient overlay as the content area.

Step35

Now add this drop shadow.

Step38

You should have something like this.

Step39

With the rectangular marquee tool again create a black square which covers the sidebar area. The layer should be underneath the other rectangle layer which contains the drop shadow which makes up the sidebar.

Step40

Set the black rectangles layer opacity to 4%. This just adds a darker shade to the sidebar area.

The Content

Your layout is now ready for its content. Using a combination of headers and paragraphs to build up your content area. Ive included some icons from “wefunction” just to spruce it up abit.

Step41

The Footer

For this design i opted for a simple text footer.

Step42

The Finished Layout

Finished

Be Part Of The Community!

Become part of the hv-designs community.

Subscribe Via RSS or Follow Us On Twitter.

Subscribe Via RSS Follow Us On Twitter

55 Responses to “Software Layout #4”

  1. Psaddict says:

    Look great!

    Added to http://www.psaddict.com

  2. leertaste says:

    Nice work :) Thanks

  3. EC says:

    random question: How big should a background image be?
    i want it repeat-x so i made it 5px wide and 1200px high but i dont know what the biggest screen resolution is… so it might look wierd for some :S

  4. khaled ali says:

    good Tut , thanks

  5. @EC:

    you only need the height to be a high as what ever effect is on there, you then just set the background color to what ever color is on the bottom of the image

  6. EC says:

    omg…how stupid aint i? thanks for the answer

  7. bav says:

    Cool tut. Will you be doing a CSS sitebuild?

  8. DavidO says:

    hi can i ask how do you get the layout to the top of the page so it will be in line with the background

  9. akkis says:

    Thank you for this tut :) This is cute!

  10. Jason says:

    will there be a sitebuild?

  11. spooxas says:

    Thanks for the good tutorial. :)

  12. Wow, that’s brilliant, I might even buy this one!

  13. sunjester says:

    another non scalable mockyp

  14. tomer says:

    WOW! this is an amazing design! (and also an awsome tut =])
    keep doing a great job man! you are a pro!

  15. bill says:

    how would i up load the design so the menu could be used on the web.
    How do i convert to html?

  16. Sebastian says:

    @ Sunjester:
    It’s obviously just a home page. The other pages can be easily taken from this design to work with a scalable layout.

  17. tommo says:

    obviously sunjester is a tit and knows nothing about creating websites

  18. Bronwyn says:

    This is a brilliant tutorial… really well done! Im most impressed!!

  19. Liviu says:

    Nice design. I personally would’ve prefered it with a sky-blue instead of green.
    Thanks for sharing.

  20. Ribbon says:

    Kool Tut. Why don’t you do a CSS sitebuild for this tut ?,Can U help me by send css sitebuild tut for me? Thanks so much.

  21. Ribbon says:

    Tut is so wonderful,You can write a Sitebuild Css for it. Or Send Its guide for to ribbonduy@gmail.com

  22. I’ve been following the Software Layout #4 tutorial and it’s fantastic. After completing the tutorial I purchased the psd to compare my results with the ‘master’ copy.

    It looks pretty close but I’ve noticed that there is an additional layer for the Try It Now button which is not explained in the tutorial and it produces a really nice reflection effect.

    Would it be possible to add how this is achieved to the tutorial ?

    Thanks once again.

    John

  23. Keith says:

    Wow… nicely explained! Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

    I even managed to do it using Photoshop CS1 :)

    Thanks again

    Keith

  24. Ryan says:

    Wow, this is awesome! It looks SO professional! And the cool thing about making it yourself is that you can easily change anything with no effort. Thank you SO much for this!

  25. WoW :) Awesome tutorials. Thanks for sharing this nice post.

  26. Evan-XG says:

    Hi there . a web developper need some freebies to get started in design
    http://digg.com/design/Software_Layout_4

  27. sully says:

    What?

    THATS THE EASY PART !!!, we all know how to design a site in PS
    we got trouble from PSD to HTML

  28. mozzartut says:

    great tutorial:D

  29. sonia says:

    best tutorial

Leave a Reply