How to Create Product Labels Using Photoshop
When designing your own product labels, you want to make them as appealing as possible, which often means drawing a detailed design by hand to make it exactly the way you want it. Obviously, you can't draw the same design over and over for each and every label. Instead, you can integrate your hand-drawn design into Photoshop, perfect it even further and mass-produce the label without all the extra work.
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Instructions
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Setting Up the Artwork
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1
Draw and color your artwork for the label. Scan the image using 300dpi resolution for best quality. Double-click on your layer in the Palette window and label it. Open the blending options by double-clicking on the space next to the name for the art layer.
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2
Make the background transparent by choosing "blending options." There are three options available--go to the bottom option, which is "Blend if," and a pull-down menu. Make sure that "Gray" is the option in the pull-down menu. Under "This Layer," slide the white triangle all the way to the left until the white in the image is completely gone and a checkerboard background appears.
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3
Create a new layer with the results from Step 2 by holding down the "Ctrl" key and clicking on the new layer icon in the Layer Palette. Select both the new transparent layer and the art layer and press the "Ctrl" and "e" keys to merge the two layers into one.
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4
Save your work in both .PSD (so you can make changes if you need to) and .JPG format when you finish with the layer.
Finishing the Label
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5
Open a new creation by going to File on the tool menu and selecting "New" and "Blank File." In the name box, enter the title for your label. Select "Custom" under the Preset pull-down menu. Enter the dimensions for your label and choose at least 300 pixels per inch for the resolution.
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6
Fill the new layer with your choice of color using the paint bucket tool or digital embellishments.
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7
Open the .JPG format of the artwork file you created in Section 1. Open the "Select" menu on the tool bar and click on "All" (the marching ants should appear around the perimeter of the image). Under the Edit menu, select "Copy."
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8
Switch over to your background image in the Photoshop Photo Bin. Make sure that the "Move Tool" is active, and then, under the Edit menu, select "Paste." The artwork layer should appear on top of the background layer (if it doesn't, go to the Layer menu and select "Arrange" and "Bring to Front"). Change the shape and orientation of the artwork image accordingly.
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9
Add text and anything else you like to complete the label. Save the finished label as both a .PSD (so you can make changes if you need to) and .JPG or .TIFF file. The latter two are what you will use for printing.
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Tips & Warnings
For the best printing quality, save your finished label as a .TIFF file, because these file types retain the many layers of an image better.
