**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop : *Technique

Photoshop – Creating a Simple Background

By Lynne Stacey – January 10, 2005
Submitted by and © 2005, Lynne Stacey

This tutorial will explain how to create a simple background using Photoshop 7.0.  

Step 1 : Open Photoshop and press File > New .   You will see the following:

Give your simple background a name (I called mine SimpleBackgroundTutorial). I made it 12 inches in width and 12 inches in height, with 300 pixels/inch as my resolution.   I use 300 pixels/inch so when this simple background is printed, the quality will be high.   I also leave my contents set to Transparent.   Press OK .

Step 2 : Select a color by clicking on the Set foreground color square in the Tools Window.

Step 3 : Click inside the Color Picker and press OK once you find the color you want.

Step 4 : Click on the Paint bucket tool and then click inside your “transparent” image.  

The whole image should fill with the color you choose.

Step 5 : I prefer to give my backgrounds texture.   One way is to use the Filter > Texture > Texturizer .  

Note : No need to create a new layer, use this filter on the same layer you painted (should be Layer 1).

Step 6 :   Now play around with the Texture Setting, Scaling, Relief, and Light Direction and press OK .

It may be difficult to see on the screen, but I added texture to my simple background:

Step 7 : Now it's time to save the background.  

You may either save it as a Photoshop file and/or a JPEG file.   I like to save mine as a JPEG because it reduces the file size.   Have fun!