**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop : *Element

The object of this tutorial is to show you how to make your own staples using PSCS2. These steps should also work in previous versions of Photoshop.

Tools

Brush Tool

Layer Styles Palette

Start with a new image; I used 2” by 2” at 300 DPI.

Choose the brush tool and a foreground color of a light tan or gray color. I used a square brush at 24 pixels. Hold the shift key down as you draw to make the line straight. Using the rulers as your guide, make the line approximately ˝ inch which is close to the size of a metal staple.

For the rest of the tutorial we will use the Layer Styles Palette to make our line look like a staple. Click on the layer styles icon on the bottom of the layers palette and choose Bevel & Emboss from the popup.

All of the settings mentioned in this tutorial can be easily adjusted so the staple looks like you want, and are not to be considered the only way to make a staple.

Bevel & Emboss is going to give the depth needed to make it look like a staple. On the screenshot, I made the following changes to the default.

Style was left at Inner Bevel, but the technique was changed to Chisel Hard, the Depth amount was left at 100%, but this can easily be adjusted to your liking. If you have the Layer Style window so it is not covering the image, you should be able to see the adjustments as you move the slider.

The Size was also changed to 9 from the default setting of 5. It can be adjusted lower and give a flatter look.  For this particular image, you won’t see much change in the image if you make it larger than about 10.

Other styles can be added at this time. If you want to make a staple that matches a color scheme of a layout, a Color Overlay or Gradient Overlay can be added. In the above screenshot, you can see a drop shadow was also added.

Just play with the styles until you get a look you are happy with for your staple. Here is a screenshot of some I made by adjusting the styles.

You can make the staple directly in your layout, but I find it easier to work on a smaller image with the view at 100% so that I can see the changes to the staple when I am working with the Layer Style palette. After you are finished making your staple, drag it over to your layout image, or save it for future use in a “library” folder.