**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop : *Element

The object of this tutorial is to make a grosgrain ribbon in Photoshop CS2. Most of these steps will work in previous versions, but known differences will be noted.

This tutorial uses:

Shapes Tool

Filter Gallery

Layer Styles Palette

Start with a new image: 3 inches wide, 12 inches high, 300DPI. This size allows you to make the ribbon at a width of your choosing. You may also do the following steps directly in your layout, on a separate layer.

Using the rectangle tool, with the “fill pixels” option, draw a tall rectangle on your image. (We are going to apply a filter in the following steps, and since a shape layer cannot have a filter applied, we use the “fill pixels” choice.) The rectangle I created was approximately ½ inch by 12, and I chose two colors that are light and dark in the same hue.

Your image should be vertical.  

Next we are going to apply the halftone filter, which is located here:

Filter>Sketch>Halftone Pattern. This will open up the Filter Gallery, which was new in Photoshop CS. (The filter is still available in earlier versions but will not open the Filter Gallery.)

When the Filter Gallery is open you will make the adjustments to give your image the lines of the grosgrain ribbon. The following image shows the setting used for the tutorial, but you can adjust them to your liking. The contrast will make the lines more defined when the slider is to the right, and blurry when to the left. You will be able to see your image change on the left as you adjust the settings.

In order for our ribbon to look a little more realistic, we are also going to add a little bit of texture while we are in the Filter Gallery. (**Note: for older Photoshop versions, you will just add the following steps separately using the Filter>Texture>Texturizer choice after you’ve applied the halftone.)

On the very bottom of the right column are two icons. One icon is to add another filter, and the trash can icon to delete a filter. Click on the left icon to add another filter.

This will duplicate the halftone, so you then use the middle column to browse to the texture folder and click on texturizer. The following screenshot shows the settings used for the tutorial for adding texture. When you have made your choices for your settings, click OK to apply the filters and return to the normal work area.

The last step will be to add a little style to the ribbon using the styles palette, which will make the ribbon look more realistic. Let’s start with some Bevel & Emboss. On the below screenshot you can see the settings I used. The size has been lowered to 2 and the depth to 31%. This gives just a bit of dimension without making it look too blocky. The Highlight color was changed from white to the lighter of the two colors we started with, and the style type was changed to Emboss. Some additional texture was added under the Bevel & Emboss and the insert shows those settings. The pattern is one from the default patterns in CS2, Textures2, called Weave 5, but you can use any pattern you like.

Next a Gradient Overlay was applied with the gradient used being the default foreground/background so it uses the same colors we started with. The style was changed to Reflected. No other changes from default were made.

Lastly, a stroke was added. The lighter color was used, with the size changed to 16 and the position changed to Inside.

Here are the samples made from this tutorial. The left ribbon is without the texture step in the Bevel & Emboss settings in the layer styles palette, and the right ribbon is with pattern texture added. It is very subtle but does add a little realism.

Experiment with the settings to get a variety of ribbons. Enjoy making ribbons and if you have any questions regarding this tutorial, please post them in the Photoshop section of the forum.