Step One - Background Colour:
Step one is usually your background colour. Feel free to fill the layer entitled "Background" with whatever colour/gradient you choose. For our example, I filled it yellow.
Step Two - Background Image:
If you're going to have background image, just paste it into the template. It will automatically be named "Layer 1". If your background image is going to be a photo (of yourself, your character, logo, etc.) make sure all the important stuff is within the red circle entitled "Button Face". Anything outside the red circle is in what's called the "Bleed Area" and will wrap around the edge of the button. In our example here, it's just a pattern so I've let it fall into the bleed area.
Step Three - Text:
Not much to say about text, except that it should stay within the green circle marked "Text Safe". Anything outside the green circle is going to be very close to the edge of the button and could become unreadable. I would say that less text (with a larger font size) would always be best for readability. 1" isn't a very large space, afterall! You can add effects like a stroke or dropshadow (seen below) by right click on the layer of text in the layers palette (on the right) and selecting "Blending Options".
Step Four - URL (Part One):
Type out your URL on the red circle. I usually recommend the font Arial set at size 4 (set to strong). Make sure it's lined up centered on the bottom of the red circle.
Step Five - URL (Part Two):
Click on the Warp Text tool (circled in red in the upper right-hand corner), and choose Arc from the drop-down menu. Adjust the slider until you've found an arc that matched fairly close to the red circle. It's usually around -30 to -60, depending on the length of the URL. Don't worry about text distortion, we'll fix that in the next step.
Step Five - URL (Part Three):
Open up the Characters window. (Click on "Windows" in the upper right section of the menus, and then click "Character".) In the lower right hand section of the Characters window (just above the colour picker) there's an option to stretch or squash the text. Adjust the percentage of squash, depending on the length of your URL, until it looks normal again. In our example below, it's set to 90%. If your text has moved at all, make sure to move it so that it lines back up centered on the red line. (If you used a larger font size, be sure that the text does not go outside the purple circle or else it will not be shown on the button at all. Outside the purple circle wraps around the back of the button and will not be seen at all.)
Step Six - Saving:
Turn off the Text Safe Area, Button Face, and URL Safe Area layers in the layer palette. You can do this by clicking on the little eye icons next to the layers in the layer palette. Then save the file, and it's ready to send to us!
What the button will look like Pressed:
If you followed this handy tutorial, your button should look something like this when pressed!
The End.
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