But let’s face it, Android’s multiple devices and form factors make it feel like an uphill battle to design for, and its cryptic documentation is hardly a launchpad for designing and producing great apps. Surf the Web for resources on Android design and there’s little there to guide you.

If all this feels discouraging (and maybe the reason you’re not designing apps for Android), you’re not alone. Fortunately, Android is beginning to address the multiple device and screen size issues, and device makers are slowly arriving at standards that will eventually reduce any complexity.

The following article will help designers become familiar with what they need to know to get started with Android and delivering the right assets for development. Topics include:

• Demystifying Android screen densities
• Learning the fundamentals of Android design via design patterns
• Design assets your developer needs
• How to get screen shots
• What Android 3 is about and what’s next on the horizon

Android Smartphones and Display Sizes

When starting any digital design project, it’s a good idea to have an understanding of the hardware first. For iPhone apps, it’s either the iPhone or iPod Touch. For Android, it spans dozens of devices and makers. So, where to begin?

The old baseline for Android smartphone devices was the T-Mobile G1, the first commercially available Android-powered device which has an HVGA screen measuring 320 x 480 pixels.

HVGA stands for Half-size Video Graphics Array and is the display size for many of today’s smartphones (the iPhone 3GS, 3G and 2G use this configuration).

To make things simple, Android divides physical screen sizes (measured as the screen’s diagonal from top left corner to bottom right corner) into four general sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge.

320 x 480 is considered a normal screen size by Android and for xlarge, think tablets . However, the most popular Android smartphones out today have WVGA (Wide VGA) 800+ x 480 displays. So, what’s “normal” has changed. For now, we’ll say that most Android smartphones have large screens.

The variety of display sizes can be challenging for designers trying to create one-size-fits-all screen layouts. I’ve found the best approach is to design one set of layouts for 320 x 533 physical pixels and then introduce custom layouts for the other screen sizes.

What You Need to Know About Screen Densities

But screen sizes are only half the picture! Developers don’t refer to a screen’s resolution but instead, its density. Here’s how Android defines the terms in its Developers Guide:

Resolution
The total number of physical pixels on a screen.

Screen Density
The quantity of pixels within a physical area of the screen; usually referred to as dpi (dots per inch).

Density-independent pixel (dp)
A virtual pixel unit that you should use when defining UI layout, to express layout dimensions or position in a density-independent way. The density-independent pixel is equivalent to one physical pixel on a 160 dpi screen, which is the baseline density assumed by the system for a “medium” density screen. At runtime, the system transparently handles any scaling of the dp units, as necessary, based on the actual density of the screen in use. The conversion of dp units to screen pixels is simple: px = dp * (dpi / 160). For example, on a 240 dpi screen, 1 dp equals 1.5 physical pixels. You should always use dp units when defining your application’s UI, to ensure proper display of your UI on screens with different densities.

It’s a bit confusing, but this is what you need to know: Like screen sizes, Android divides screen densities into four basic densities: ldpi (low), mdpi (medium), hdpi (high), and xhdpi (extra high). This is important because you’ll need to deliver all graphical assets (bitmaps) in sets of different densities. At the very least, you’ll need to deliver mdpi and hdpi sets for any smartphone apps.

What this means is all bitmap graphics need to be scaled up or down from your baseline (320 x 533) screen layouts (note: there is also a method for parsing SVG files that provides a way to scale vector art on different screens sizes and densities without loss of image quality).

The bitmap requirement is similar to preparing graphics for print vs. the Web. If you have any experience with print, you know that a 72 ppi image is going to look very pixelated and blurry scaled up and printed. Instead, you need to rescale the image as a vector image or use a hi-resolution photo and then set the file’s resolution at around 300 ppi in order for it to print without any loss of image quality. Screen density for Android works similar except that we’re not changing the file resolution, only the image size (standard 72 ppi is fine).

Let’s say you have a bitmap icon 100 x 100 pixels taken from one of the screens of your baseline app design. Placing that same 100 x 100 icon on a device with an ldpi screen will make the icon appear big and blurry. Likewise, placing it on a device with an hdpi screen will make it appear too small (due to the device having more dots/inch than the mdpi screen).

To adjust for the different device screen densities we need to follow a 3:4:6:8 scaling ratio between the four density sizes (for the iPhone it’s easy–it’s just a 2:1 ratio between iPhone 4 and 3GS). Using our ratios and some simple math, we create four different versions of our bitmap to hand-off to our developer for production:

• 75 x 75 for low-density screens (0.75x)
• 100 x 100 for medium-density screens (our baseline)
• 150 x 150 for high-density screens (1.5x)
• 200 x 200 for extra high-density screens (2.0x)*

*We’re concerned with only ldpi, mdpi and hdpi for Android smartphone apps

After you’ve produced all your graphics, you might choose to organize your graphics library as follows:

Note: There may be some confusion about what ppi (pixels per inch) you set your deliverables at. Just leave them at the standard 72 ppi and scale the image accordingly.

Using Android Design Patterns

Clients often ask whether or not they can use the same iPhone app design for Android. If you’re looking for shortcuts, maybe building an app for mobile web browsers using something like WebKit and HTML5 is a better choice. But for producing native Android apps, the answer is “no”. Why? Because Android UI conventions are different from iPhone.

The big difference with Android when compared to iOS devices is the use of the Back Key to navigate to a previously visited screen. The Back Key on Android devices is always present and available to the user apart from the app. It’s either a part of the physical device or digitally fixed to the bottom of the screen independent of any app (like what we see in the recently released Android 3.0 for tablets — more about this later).

The use of a Back Key other than within the app itself, leaves space for other elements at the top of the screen such as a logo, screen title or menu. While this navigational convention differentiates greatly from iOS, there are also other differentiators that Android calls design patterns. According to Android, a design pattern is a “general solution to a recurring problem”. Here are the main Android design patterns that were introduced with Android version 2.0:

Dashboard
This pattern solves the problem of having to navigate to several layers within an app. It provides a launch pad solution for rich apps like Facebook, LinkedIn and Evernote.

Action Bar
The Action Bar is one of Android’s most important design patterns and differentiators. It works very similar to the conventional Web site’s banner with a logo or screen title linking to a ‘home’ page typically placed on the left and common actions  buttons on the right. The Action Bar design is flexible with the ability to include hovering menus and expanding search boxes. It’s generally used as a global feature rather than a contextual one. Here’s an example of the Action Bar used by Twitter:

Search Bar
Allows a simple way to search by category and provide search suggestions.

Quick Actions
This design pattern acts similar to the iOS popover providing the user with additional contextual actions. For example, tapping a photo within an app might trigger a Quick Action bar to appear for sharing the photo.

Companion Widget
Widgets allow an app to publish notifications to the user’s launch screen. Unlike push notifications with iOS that act as temporary modals, Companion Widgets remain on the launch screen (tip: to select a widget for your Android device, simply tap and hold any empty space on one of the launch screens).

Using established design patterns are important for keeping your user experience intuitive and familiar to your Android users. Your users don’t want to have an iPhone experience on their Android device any more than a Mac user wants to have a Microsoft one within their Mac OS environment. So, understanding the design patterns is the first step toward learning to speak Android and designing an optimal experience for Android users. Your developer will also thank you!

Android design deliverables

OK, so I’ve designed my Android app and am ready to make it a reality. What do I need to hand-off to my developer? Here’s a quick list of deliverables:

1. Annotated wireframes of the user experience based on the baseline large screen size of 320 x 533 physical pixels. Include any additional screens for instances where a larger or smaller (320 x 480) screen size requires a modified layout or a landscape version is required.

2. Visual design mockups of key screens for WVGA large size (320 x 533) screens (based on a WVGA 800 x 480 hdpi physical pixel screen size) in addition to any custom layouts needed for other screen sizes.

3. Specifications for spacing, font sizes , colors and indication of any bitmaps.

4. Graphics library with ldpi, mdpi and hdpi versions of all bitmaps as transparent PNG files.

5. Density-specific app icons including the app launch icon as transparent PNG files. Android already provides excellent tips for designers on this topic along with some downloads including graphic PSD templates and other goodies.

How to Take Screen Shots

My product manager just asked for screen shots of the developer’s build. The dev is busy and can’t get them to me until tomorrow. Now what do I do? As of publication of this article, Android has no built-in way to take screen shots (bummer, I know). The only way is to just deal with it and that means pretending to be a developer for a while and downloading some really scary software. Let’s get started!

The following software must be downloaded:

1. All USB drivers for your Android device

2. Android software development kit (SDK)

3. Java SE software development kit (SDK)

Next, on your computer:

1. Extract the USB drivers to a folder on your desktop

2. Extract the Android SDK to a folder on your desktop

3. Install the Java SE SDK

On your Android device:

1. Open Settings (you’ll find it in the apps menu)

2. Tap on Applications

3. Tap on Development

4. Check the box for USB debugging

Now, for the fun part:

1. Connect your Android device to your computer via USB. Windows users: allow Windows to install all drivers. One of the drivers may not be found and will require you to go to the Window’s Device Manager under the Control Panel. There, you can locate the device (having a yellow warning icon next to it) and right-click on it.

2. If necessary, choose to update/install the driver for your device

3. Go to your desktop, open the Android SDK folder and select SDK Setup.exe

4. Allow it to automatically refresh its list of operating system SDKs available and select to install all packages

5. Once finished, exit the application

6. Go back to the opened Android SDK folder on your desktop and open the tools folder

7. Click on the file, ddms to open the Dalvik Debug Monitor

8. Select your device listed in the Name pane

9. In the application’s top menu, open the Device menu and choose Screen capture…. A Device Screen Capture window will open and you should see the launch screen of your Android device.

Navigating:

1. Grab your Android device and navigate to a screen of your liking. Go back to your computer and select Refresh in the Device Screen Capture window and the current screen from your Android device will appear.

2. If you’re on a Mac, you can just do the old shift-command-4 trick to take a screen grab or you can choose to copy it in Windows and paste it into one of the Windows media applications.

About Android Tablets

At CES 2011, companies launched a downpour of Android tablets with an array of screen sizes. However, after a quick review of the most popular Android tablets we can conclude that the most important screen size to focus on in physical pixels is 1280 x 800.

With the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” release, Google provided device makers with an Android UI made for tablets. Gone is the use of a hard Back Key which was replaced by an anchored software-generated navigation and system status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Android 3.0 received an updated visual design and incorporates all the design patterns introduced with Android 2.0. One of the major differences with 3.0 is the Action Bar which has been updated to include tabs, drop-down menus or breadcrumbs. The Action Bar can also change its appearance to show contextual actions when selecting single or multiple elements on a screen.

Another new feature added to the Android framework with 3.0 is a mechanism called Fragments. A Fragment is a self-containing component within a layout that can change size or layout position depending on the screen orientation or size. This further addresses the problem of designing for multiple form factors by providing designers and developers a way to make their screen layout components elastic and stackable depending on what screen restraints the app is working with. Screen components can be stretched, stacked, expanded/collapsed and shown/hidden.

The next Android release scrumptiously dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” promises to bring this functionality to Android smartphones as well, giving designers and developers the option of building an app using a one-size-fits-all strategy. This could be a paradigm shift for designers and developers who will need to learn to think of app design in terms of puzzle pieces that can be either stretched, stacked, expanded or hidden to fit the appropriate form factor. In short, this will allow one Android OS to run anywhere (with infinite possibilities!).

A Word of Advice
Do get your hands on an Android phone and tablet and spend some time downloading apps and exploring their interfaces. In order to design for Android you have to immerse yourself in the environment and know it intimately. This seems obvious, but it’s always surprising to learn even the product manager doesn’t have an Android device.

Online Resources

Here are some links to online resources I found especially useful:

Presentations
Android Design Patterns
Android User Interface Design Tips
Excellence in the Android Experience

Videos
Android UI Design Patterns (Google I/O 2010)
Designing and Implementing Android UIs for Phones and Tablets (Google I/O 2011)

Documents
Comparison of Android Devices

In this step we will create a path with the shape of a speech bubble, we will use the Ellipse tool and the Pen tool.

Start out by selecting the Ellipse tool in the tools menu. Now the options bar for the Ellipse tool should be visible above your work area.
The important settings here is to select paths mode, you can see my settings below.

First of all if you locate your Apache folder (within your AppServ folder, usually installed directly on your C drive) and go into a folder called “conf”, then open the file called “httpd.conf”.

Find:

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Replace:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Removing the ‘#’ (hash) symbol will enable the rewrite module. (Note: Some configurations are already loaded, if so ignore it)

Find:

AccessFileName .htaccess

Replace:

<code>AccessFileName my.htaccess</code>

Changing this from .htaccess to my.htaccess means that your .htaccess files will have to be called “my.htaccess” (However when you upload them to a real web server online then you’ll need to rename them back to .htaccess)

Now restart your Apache server (This can be done by going into the Apache folder, then into the “bin” folder and running the program “ApacheMonitor.exe”, opening it from the system tray and clicking “Restart”) or Restart your pc

now you can use

Permalink

Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: 45 minutes
Number of Steps: 20

This is what you’ll be creating:

Step 01:

Create a 700 by 700px document. In these first steps you’ll have to create several circles of various sizes. To ease your work turn on the Grids (View > Show Grid) and the Snap to Grid (Vierw > Snap to Grid). You’ll need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides&Grids, enter “5″ in the “Gridline every” box and “1″ in the “Subdivisions” box. Also, open the Info pallete for a live preview with the size and position of each shape. Finally, to change your document’s measurement units turn on the Rulers (Ctrl + R). Right click on the Rulers and select pixels.

Step 02:

Select the Ellipse Tool(L) and create a 600 by 370px shape. Continue with the Ellipse Tool(L) and create two new shapes. Follow the dimensions shown inside each shape. I filled them with red and lower the opacity so that you can distinguish them easier. You should also try it so that you can see the grids. If you can’t understand the exact positioning for these shapes you can go to step #5 where you can find a zoomed image.

Step 03:

Reselect the Ellipse Tool(L) and create four new circles as shown in the following images. Follow the dimensions shown inside each shape. Duplicate the shape shown in image #3 (Ctrl+C > Ctrl+V). Name this copy “vvv” move it in the bottom of the Layers panel and make it invisible (you’ll neeed it later).

Step 04:

Once again, with the Ellipse Tool, create four new circles. Follow the dimensions shown inside each shape.

Step 05:

Let’s have another look at all the shapes created so far. You can take a closer look at the grids to understand the exact positioning for each shape.

Step 06:

Select the shapes created in step #1 and click on the Divide button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the two shapes shown in image #2 (delete the rest) and name them “1″ and “2″.

Step 07:

Select the shapes created in step #2 and click on the Divide button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the two shapes shown in image #2 (delete the rest) and name them “3″, “4″ and “5″. Select shape “3″ select the top anchor point (with the Direct Selection Tool) and move it a few pixels down. Also, move the handles inwards.

Step 08:

Select the shapes created in step #4 and click on the Divide button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the four shapes shown in image #2 (delete the rest) and name them “6″, “7″, “8″ and “9″.

Step 09:

Once again, let’s have a closer look at the shapes created so far.

Step 10:

Select “1″, “3″ and “7″ and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Name the resulting shape “Front”, move it in the top of the Layers pallete and fill it with R=241 G=241 B=243. Now, reselect this shape, go to the Appearance panel, add five new fills (from the flyout menu) and use the gradients shown below.

Step 11:

Select shape “2″ rename it “Back”, move it below “Front” and fill it with R=210 G=216 B=219. Next, add four new fills (from the flyout menu of the Appearance pallete) and use the gradients shown below.

Step 12:

First, create a copy of “Front”. Next, select “4″, “5″, “6″, “8″ and “9″ and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting shape along with the copy of “Front” and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Name these new shapes from “1″ to “6″ (as shown in image #3).

Step 13:

Fill “1″ and “2″ with the following gradients.

Step 14:

Next, you need to slice “5″ and “6″ in four relatively equal shapes. Select the Pen Tool(P) and create two vertical paths (like the red ones shown in image #1). Select these new paths along with “5″ and “6″ and click on the Divide button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the resulting group and ungroup it (Ctrl + Shift + G). Fill the top shapes with the gradients shown below images #2 and #3. Next, select the other two shapes and group them. Select this group, add a new fill (from the flyout menu of the Appearance pallete) and use the gradient shown below image #4.

Step 15:

Reselect the Pen Tool(P) and create three new paths (like the red ones shown in image #1). Select these paths along with “3″ and “4″ and click on the Divide button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shapes with the gradients shown in the following images.

Step 16:

Select “Back” and hit Shift + Ctrl + [ (to move it in the bottom of the Layers panel). Create a copy of this shape then select the Ellipse Tool(L) and create a circle like the one shown in image #1. Select this new shape along with the copy of “Back” and click on the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=83 G=91 B=99 lower its opacity to 60% then move it above “Back”.

Step 17:

Create two copies of “Back”. Select the top one and move it a few pixels up. Next, reselect these copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the shape shown in image #2, fill it with white and move it in the top of the Layers panel.

Step 18:

Create two copies of “1″. Select the top one and move it a few pixels up down. Next reselect these copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the shape shown in image #2, fill it white and move it in the top of the Layers panel. Create two copies of “2″. Select the bottom one and move it a few pixels down. Next reselect these copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Keep only the shape shown in image #4, fill it white then move it in the top of the Layers panel.

Step 19:

Turn back on the visibility of “vvv” and duplicate it. Select this copy and move it a few pixels down. Next, select both shapes and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with white and move it in the top of the Layers panel.

Step 20:

Duplicate all the shapes created so far. Select these copies and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Name the resulting shape “Shadow” and move it in the bottom of the Layers panel. Fill it with white and add a 1px aligned to outsite stroke (R=140 G=150 B=157). Select the fill of this shapes and add the Drop Shadow effect shown below image #1. If you want to enlighten this logo, create a copy of “Shadow” and move it in the top of the Layer panel. Fill it with R=41 G=171 B=226, change its blending mode to Overlay and lower its opacity to 5% (do not forget to erase the drop shadow effect of this copy). Finally, for the background, pick the Rectangle Tool(M) create a 700×700px shape and fill it with the gradient shown above image #4.

Final:

Now your logo is done. Here is how it should look like:

Taken from vforvectors

Final Product What You’ll Be Creating

Step 1

To keep everything aligned we’re going to use 960s Grid System (Get it from here) once downloaded open up the file “960_grid_24_col.psd”.

We’ll start by creating layer from background, right-click on the layer “Background”, then choose Layer From Background. and call it “bg”.

Step 2

As we’ll use guides so much, we need to view our Rulers. In order to do that go to View > Rulers.

Step 3

We need to set lower borders for the header area, therefore we’ll drag a new horizontal guide after 100px. go to View > New Guide, Position: 100.

Step 4

Let’s create our header. we’ll start by creating a selection of 1020×100px. then click Shift+Backspace to fill it (with any color just for now).

Give it a Gradient Overlay according to the following image:

Now call this layer: “header_bg”.

Step 5

Write your Web site title with these settings:

• Font Family: Rockwell (get it from here)
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: Won’t matter, cause we’re gonna give it a Gradient Overlay

Now add a Gradient Overlay to your text with the following settings:

To align your Web site title with the header background; Select your title layer and “header_bg” layer then click on Align vertical centers.

Step 6

Write your navigation text with these settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 20px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #ffffff

Create a rounded rectangle which will represent a hovered link. it should be about 65×35px size – 5px radius, (fill it with any color for now).

Give it a Stroke and Gradient Overlay according to the following image:

Before we move to the next step, just make sure to keep your layers well-organized, Here’s how mine looks!

Step 7

It’s time to create the featured designs area. we’ll start by setting our lower borders by adding a new horizontal guide after 430px.

Create a selection of 1020×430px as a background for the featured designs area. and fill it with any color.

Then give it a Gradient Overlay with the following settings:

Now let’s create the glaze effect! create a selection of 1020×120px, fill it with any color.

And then add a Gradient Overlay. use the image below for reference.

Now reduce this layer opacity to 40%

Step 8

Let’s add some touches! with the Single Row Marquee Tool create a 1px selection and align it like the following:

Set your foreground color to #acd86e then click on Shift+Backspace to fill it; make sure to use foreground color as a filling option.

I guarantee you’ll have perfect pixel details

We’re done creating the background elements. so make sure to give them ideal names, organize them, and group them together.

Step 9

Let us be more accurate! drag two new guides according to the following image

Write some welcoming words with these settings:

• Font Family: Rockwell
• Font size: 40px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Sharp
• Color: #f4f4f4

I personally have written: “Here’s our brand new work. Oops Welcome!” but we need to emphasize the word “Welcome!” in somehow. so basically we’ll give it a Gradient Overlay. follow up with the image

Now drag two new horizontal guides according to the following image

Before we say goodbye to this step, just make sure to organize your text layers.

Step 10

Start by creating a selection of 250×150px (fill it with any color), this will be our image holder.

Call this layer “pic_holder” and try aligning it like the image above.

And give it a Stroke

Let’s add an image of a featured design, to do so go to File > Place and select an image. call its layer “pic”, and make sure to put it right above the layer “pic_holder”.

Right-click on “pic” layer and choose Create Clipping Mask.

Step 11

To create our shadow, we’ll start by duplicating the two layers “pic” and “pic_holder”.

While having the two duplicated layers selected, go to Edit > Free Transform, and adjust the height to: -100.0%

While we’re still selecting the two duplicated layers right-click on them and choose Convert to Smart Object; call this layer “shadow”. and make sure to place it at the bottom.

Select “shadow” layer then click on Add layer mask (at the bottom of the layers panel)

Choose the Gradient Tool (G) and with a black, white linear gradient drag from down to top.

You should have something like this!

Step 12

We need to add a description to our image. so we’ll create a selection of 240×25px, and fill it with this color value: #1a1919, This will work as the description background.

Write some description with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #82aa48

Make sure to keep your document tidy!

Step 13

Make another copy of the featured design image and align it to the right.

We’ll make the center image a bit bigger, so make a selection of 340×200px, align it like the following, and fill it with any color.

We’ll also give it a Stroke. use the following image for reference

And here’s what we’ve got!

Make sure to organize your layers and to group them. I personally have created three separate groups. here’s how they look

Step 14

Let’s create our sliding button! we’ll start by creating an Ellipse of 50×50px using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), and filling it with any color.

Now give it some layer styles according to the following image

With the Custom Shape Tool (U) create an arrow and give it the following layer styles

You should have something like this

Don’t forget to align your button according to the following image

Make another copy of the arrow and align it to the right

Step 15

Let’s work on the content area. start by creating a selection of 1020×815px

Click Shift+Backspace to fill your selection with this color: #e8e8e8

With the Single Row Marquee Tool (M) create a 1px selection, place it like the following image, and fill it with white (#ffffff).

Now you’re having perfect pixel details!

Step 16

We need to set upper borders to our content area. therefore we’re going to drag a new horizontal guide after 50px.

Download this Icon set: Basic Set – Pixel Mixer and place of them like the following.

Drag a new horizontal guide at the bottom of the icon, leave 20px then drag a new one.

Now write some heading with these settings:

• Font Family: Rockwell
• Font size: 29px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Sharp
• Color: #81aa48

Drag yet another two guides according to the following image

Write some text with these settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #2f3235

Drag more three guides according to the following image

Step 17

It’s time to create our “read more” button. With the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) create a rectangle of 100×30px and 5px radius. and fill it with any color just for now.

Give this rectangle some layer styles. use the image below for reference.

With the Ellipse Tool (U) create an ellipse of 15×15px and fill it with this color value: #4d4d4d.

To align it correctly select its layer and the rectangle’s layer then click Align vertical centers while having both layers selected.

Type “+”, fill it with white (#ffffff) and place it like this

Write the word “read more” with the following character settings:

• Font Family: Tahoma (get it from here)
• Font size: 12px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #ffffff

Give it a drop shadow. use the image below for reference

Step 18

To create a vertical separating line, With the Line Tool (U) create two vertical lines next to each. and fill them with these values: #ffffff – #b3b3b3.

Align your line like the following image

Don’t forget to organize your layers. take a look at mine!

Step 19

Make three copies of what we’ve created in the previous two steps. and have something like this!

Step 20

Let’s create our separator.

Drag a new horizontal guide after 50px

With the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) create a selection like the one below.

Set your foreground color to black (#000000) then click Shift+Backspace to fill your selection. call this layer “separator_bg”.

To make it looks blurry, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur – radius: 3px.

While selecting “separator_bg” layer selected, create a selection like the one below then hit delete.

Click on Add layer mask icon. and set your gradient editor to black, white, black.

With the Gradient Tool (G) drag with a linear gradient according to the following image.

Reduce the layer Opacity to 50%

With the Line Tool (U) create two horizontal lines on top of each other and place them right above the separator.

Fill them with #b3b3b3 – #ffffff and add the same layer mask to them.

Step 21

We’ll start working on our lower content area, by dragging a new guide after 50px.

Add a title with these character settings:

• Font Family: Rockwell
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #81aa48

Drag two new horizontal guides according to the following image.

Write some text with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 14px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #505150

Drag a new guide after 160px as a lower border for the content area.

Step 22

Write another title and text using the same character settings we’ve used in the previous step.

Type a quotation mark on your keyboard, with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 200px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #505150

And reduce its layer’s Opacity to 50%

Write a word of wise or quote of yours with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 14px
• Font weight: Italic
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #81aa48

Step 23

In order to create a vertical separating line, create two vertical lines next to each other, and fill them with these values: #ffffff – #b3b3b3.

Make sure to keep your layer organized, Here’s how I organized them.

Step 24

Write yet another title like the ones on the left (Try writing something that represents the team, for example I’ve written “Our Team”).

Using the Rectangle Tool (U) create a 90×90px rectangle, and fill it with any color. call this layer “photo1_holder”

This will work as a holder for a photo of a team member. Now give it a Stroke. Use the image below for reference.

Place a photo of a member and call its layer “photo1″. Make sure that the layer “photo1″ is right above “photo1_holder” layer. then right-click on “photo1″ layer and choose Create clipping mask. You should come up with something like below!

Step 25

Write some text about the member, using these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 14px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #7ba344

We’ll create the social media icons ourselves! let’s start with Twitter, Type “t” letter with these character settings:

• Font Family: Pico-Black (get it from here)
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #2fcfff

Then Give it a Stroke according to the following image.

Let’s create the LinkedIn one! Type “in” word with these character settings:

• Font Family: Myriad Pro (get it from here)
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #0081ac

Facebook!? Type “f” letter with these character settings:

• Font Family: Klavika (get it from here)
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #395796

Step 26

Create another copy of the member photo. while selecting the photo layer, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White.

Make sure to check “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask”

Type the same text, social media letters we’ve written before using the same character settings, but give them all this color value: #505150.

So obviously the member will look gray when it’s not hovered!

Make two copies and align them this way

To make sure they’re well-aligned, make four separate groups each one of them contains a member’s content, and click on Distribute left edges in the control bar while having the four groups selected.

I’ve organized my layers, you?

Step 27

Before we start working on the social media links area, we need to set some borders, that’s why we’ll drag two new guides according to the following image!

Create a selection of about 940×70px and align it like the image below.

Fill it with any color, and then give it a Gradient Overlay. use the image below for reference.

Create a rectangle of 70×45px. use the image below to align it and to give it some layer styles. call this layer “tw_bg”

Hide the layer “tw_bg” to work freely.

Create another rectangle of 10×43px, and go to Edit > Transform Path > Skew. adjust these options in the control bar:

• X: 40px
• Y: 1253px
• V: -39

Call this layer “effect” and make “tw_bg” layer visible again.

Copy layer style from “tw_bg” layer and paste it into the layer “effect”.

Write “t” letter with these character settings:

• Font Family: Pico-Black
• Font size: 35px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: Won’t matter cause we’re gonna add a Gradient Overlay

Also give it some layer styles according to the following image.

Step 28

Repeat step 20 to create another separator or even copy it. then place it this way:

We need to cut the right part of the rectangle, eh!? to do that select “tw_bg” layer and click on Add layer mask.

Make a selection over the right part (that we need to cut) of the rectangle, set your foreground color to black (#000000) then click Shift+Backspace to fill it.

Step 29

Write some text – which is actually should be a Tweet – with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #222222

To align the text well, while having the text layer and the green bar layer selected, click on Align vertical centers.

Step 30

Repeat step 27 to create something like in the image below. Also create a rectangle, fill it with #334814 and reduce its layer Opacity to 40%.

Give the big rectangle some layer styles according to the following image

Now fill the skewed rectangle with a darker color of this value: #2a6788

Write “t” letter with these character settings:

• Font Family: Pico-Black
• Font size: 35px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: #2fcfff

And give it a Stroke. use the image below for reference

Make sure to organize your layers and group them together.

Step 31

Make another copy of the Twitter icon, change the Color Overlay (for the big rectangle) to: #0080ab, and fill the skewed rectangle with this color value: #00526d.

Write the word “in” with these character settings:

• Font Family: Myriad Pro
• Font size: 35px
• Font weight: Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: white (#ffffff)

Create a third copy of the Twitter or LinkedIn icon, change the Color Overlay (for the big rectangle) to: #395796, and fill the skewed rectangle with this color value: #263e6f.

Write “f” letter with these character settings:

• Font Family: Klavika
• Font size: 35px
• Font weight: Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: white (#ffffff)

Make a last copy, change the Color Overlay (for the big rectangle) to: #e8e8e8, and fill the skewed rectangle with this color value: #cdcdcd.

Write the word “fr” with these character settings:

• Font Family: Frutiger Black (get it from here
• Font size: 35px
• Font weight: Bold
• Anti-aliasing setting: Smooth
• Color: f: #0079d2 – r: #ff3093

Put each of the icons in a separate group, and while selection the four of them click on Distribute left edges .

Step 32

Keep it goin’! only the footer left. Create a selection of 1020×460px and fill it with any color for now.

Apply a Gradient Overlay to it. use the image below for reference.

You should have a nice shadow!

with the Single Row Marquee Tool (M) create a 1px selection and fill it with white (#ffffff).

Step 33

Drag two new horizontal guides according to the following image.

Write a title with these character settings:

• Font Family: Rockwell
• Font size: 30px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: Sharp
• Color: #7ea547

Write a sub-title with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #d3d3d3

Using the Line Tool (U) create two horizontal lines on top of each other, and fill them with these color values: #151515 – #2f2f2f.

Align it this way.

Step 34

Drag two new horizontal guides according to the following image.

With the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) create two rectangles of 210×25px – 5px radius, fill them with: #141313 and give them an Inner Shadow.

Write some text inside the two rectangles with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: #7ea547

Create another rectangle like the ones above, but this time its height will be: 110px. Also write some text inside it with the same character settings above.

Make a copy of the button we’ve created in step 17. and align it like the following image

Step 35

Write another title like the one on the left.

Write some text. use the image below for reference.

Make two copies of what you’ve done.

Step 36

Fill the right part with a third title and some text.

Now your footer should look like this.

Step 37

We’re almost there! drag a new horizontal guide after 50px.

Create two horizontal lines on top of each other, and fill them with these color values: #181818 – #2f2f2f.

Write some copyright text with these character settings:

• Font Family: Arial
• Font size: 15px
• Font weight: Regular
• Anti-aliasing setting: None
• Color: white (#ffffff) – #82aa48

With the same character settings write a sub-navigation.

Make sure to organize your layers and group them together. Here’s how mine looks!

Download the cheat sheets for free!

The CSS 2.1 Help Sheet covers Syntax, Font, Text, Margins, Padding, Border, Position, Background, List, Media Types and Keywords. The CSS 3 Help Sheet contains code snippets for Rounded Corners, Box Shadow, Multiple Columns, Text Shadow, RGBa, Font Face (actually, not the CSS3 property, but still include for the sake of usefulness), Box Sizing, Box Resize, Outline and Gradients.

• CSS 2.1 Sheet (large preview)
• CSS 3 Sheet (large preview)
• download the CSS 2.1 Sheet (PDF) (0.2 Mb)
• download the CSS 3 Sheet (PDF) (updated, 0.2 Mb)
• release post on the designers’ page

Final Product What You’ll Be Creating

Today we will learn a number of techniques to help you add drama to a photo manipulation. We will to do this by learning how to combine two pictures to create a picturesque background, how to draw long hair manually using Photoshop brushes, as well as how to add some adjustment layers to add dramatic effects to the final image. Let’s get started!

Resources

• Sky from ekoh-stock
• Field from night-fate-stock
• Girl from iardacil-stock
• Floral Brushes from fatezoom
• Hair Brush Set from falln-stock
• Hair Brushes from para-vine
• Butterfly from shoofly-stock

Step 1

Create a new file, size 1600 px wide and 2122 px high at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Paste field to new file.

Step 2

Add layer mask. Activate gradient tool. Draw linear gradient from black to white.

Step 3

Zoom in until you can see all the details. Paint unneeded background with black to remove it.

Step 4

Paste sky underneath field layer. The colors will not match the field so we will have to fix it. From the adjustments panel click Color Balance with setting shown below.

Step 5

Download the girl picture. Create new path and with pen tool draw path around her. Avoid selecting her hair. We’ll just recreate it in a few steps.

Step 6

Hit Cmd+Enter to convert path into a selection. Copy the girl and paste it into the new background. Press Cmd+T for transformation and while holding shift drag its corner until she is the appropriate size.

Step 7

Before we proceed with this tutorial, we will need to fix some small details. She has transparent sleeve and it has to reveal some background behind her. To do this, add layer mask, select soft brush with low opacity (10-20%), then paint it with black.

Step 8

Activate field layer. Select some field behind her. Hit Cmd+J to duplicate it to a new layer. Then hit Cmd+shift+] to move it to the top layer.

Step 9

Add a layer mask to the new field. For masking grass, Photoshop has a very useful brush in its default set, named Dune Grass. So, right click and select it. Remove the check mark in front of Color Dynamics.

Next, make sure your foreground color is set to black and layer mask is selected. Start painting until the girl looks like standing in the middle of the field.

Step 10

To strengthen the illusion that the girl is standing inside the field, it’s a good idea to have something in front of her. Change our brush to standard round brush, paint some flowers with white to reveal it.

Step 11

Now let’s draw her hair. But before doing that, make sure the layer mask is active. Paint her hair with black using a soft, low opacity brush until it is transparent.

Step 12

Load the hair brush set. This set consisted of some long premade hairs. Using the brush tool, Cmd+click her hair to sample its color. Open brush panel (F5), click and drag the inside preview box to rotate brush tip. Once you’ve found perfect size and position click to draw an instant long hair. To get a natural color, be sure to sample various color from the hair.

Repeat this step until you have enough hair.

Step 13

After step 12 you may find that the result isn’t entirely realistic. If you look closely you may find that there are repeating objects in her hair. This is a common problem when using premade brushes. The best way to avoid this is by drawing some hairs manually.

Grab the hair brushes set from here. Lower your brush opacity to 15-25%. If you use a tablet, then that’s a good thing. You can activate its Pen Pressure from the Brush Panels.

Manual painting is not easy. It may help to work with a lot of layers. That way you can always delete layers that you don’t like. Below are the steps I took while creating the hair.

Step 14

Now, we need to add some lighting to the girl. To do this we’ll use non-destructive dodging and burning. Hold cmd and click New Layer icon. Choose Use Previous, Mode: Overlay, and Fill with.

Activate burn tool, set opacity to 20% and start painting to make her darker. Do the same with the dodge tool for opposite effects. Remember, if you hold alt while dodge tool selected, then you’ll have burn tool. Same thing happen to burn tool.

Step 15

Now, I’ll add dark border around the image. Hit ctrl+A to select all. Click Edit > Stroke. Use very large width and click OK. Soften the border using Gaussian Blur with a very big radius.

Step 16

Hit ctrl+T. Hold ctrl and drag its corner until you find nice lighting.

Step 17

To add fake light draw a poligonal selection and fill it with white. Add very big Gaussian Blur and lower down layer’s opacity to 30%.

Step 18

Draw the girl’s shadow on the field.

Step 19

Grab the butterfly set. The butterflies are already in a transparent png file, so you just need to select it and drag it to the image. Resize it to match its proportion. Don’t forget to add shadows for a realistic look.

Step 20

Load the floral brushes. Try to experiment with the brush shape. Combine them to get a unique shape like I did here, then add some text in the English font found from dafont.

Step 21

For final adjustment, select the sky layer and use Brightness/Contrast to raise its Lightness. I also added an adjustment layer Photo Filter with a warming filter on top of the image.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and learned something new. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.

original sources :http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/create-a-beautiful-and-dramatic-scene-with-photo-manipulations-basix/

5 SHQ JPEG | up to ~ 5000 x 4000 | 300 dpi | 15.4 Mb RAR

http://rapidshare.com/files/384442505/Stoc…___3D_Robot.rar

http://letitbit.net/download/3661.33a353ce…_Robot.rar.html