First you have to write down your signature or the text that you want to “digitize” in a white sheet, you can use any color.
There are different ways to get the image in your computer: with a scanner (the best), digital camera or cellphone camera (the worst).
If you use a scanner, scan it at 300 dpi (recommended).
Now open the image in Photoshop, if you took a picture of it you need to Autolevel it by pressing Shift + Control + L.
Scan (worst case at 150 dpi):
Cellphone photo (worst case at 640×480):
Now go to Filter > Artistic > Cutout and use these settings:
Number of leves: 8
Edge Simplicity: 0
Edge Fidelity: 3
And you will get something like this:
Scan (worst case at 150 dpi):
Cellphone photo (worst case at 640×480):
If you used the scanner you can only erase the white background and the inner part of your lettes with the Magic Wand (W) and you are done but remember to set a Color Overlay in the Blending Options so you change it to your favorite one.
If you took a photo you will have to work a little more, go to Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer, check the Monochrome box and use these settings:
Red: 98%
Green: 60%
Blue: 116%
Constant: -88%
Then you should get something like this:
Cellphone photo (worst case at 640×480):
Remember that for the best output you should use a scanner and 300 dpi.
How to write a popular Photoshop tutorial
Let me start this tutorial by saying: “Unique tutorials are popular”…I bet you were not surprised, but do you know what is “unique” in the Photoshop world? The answer is: rare, trendy and usable.
Let me explain:
- Rare: something that looks impressive but with no real usage as for a website. People will want to make the tutorial just to show it off and say: “Hey I did this in Photoshop!”. These “rare” types are, as the name says, rare to see because people don’t experiment with Photoshop as much as in the old days. Since few people make them they easily become popular.
- Trendy: something that everyone is a fan of or that you hear about it anywhere, like a movie, a game, etc. This type of tutorials you see it now and then, they come out when people dare to recreate what they’ve seen. Again, since few people make them they easily become popular.
- Usable: tutorials about something that every Photoshop user will want to create because they need it or will need it, like a forum signature, a website template, a logo, etc. You can find this type of tutorials everyday but nothing new, just improved and consequently they do not become so popular. Only the first 5-10 tutorials about a new thing will become popular.
Now that I’ve explained you the type of tutorials that become popular, let me take you through some things on how a popular tutorial should be:
- First of its kind: be the person to write the first tutorial about something that could be functional or non-functional, like a movie logo tutorial or an aurora borealis tutorial. It doesn’t matter what it is about, just be sure that is the first out there.
- Well explained: it doesn’t matter if you think your tutorial is for advanced Photoshop users, always write them as if you were talking to a first-time Photoshop user. This will get you some more hundreds of visitors and a couple of faithful people that will stick around at your site or forum, because they feel that they can learn anything if you explain it.
- Be creative: try to create a tutorial that when people look at the final result they will ask: “How did you do that?! Show me how!”. Before you publish a tutorial show the final result to people that have your same or a superior level of Photoshop knowledge and ask them how you could improve it, this will help you to elevate the tutorial quality.
You now know which kind of tutorials become popular and how to write them, it’s up to you what are you going to write a tutorial about…my advice is: be curious on how things can be done in Photoshop and if you fail while trying to get the same result, try it a couple of more times because I am sure you will get a similar result or something else that will make a great tutorial to write about.