How to Make a Coat of Arms in Photoshop

Make your own coat of arms with the Photoshop graphics program.

Coats of arms, or heraldry, date back to the time period of 1135 and 1155 AD in Europe, when a coat of arms was the way a knight's followers recognized him during battle. The largest part of the coat of arms is the shield, usually sporting four divided sections with repeating or differing designs. Although many families claim a specific coat of arms as their own, historians note that no coat of arms is associated with a surname; coats of arms are only associated with a single individual. Claim your own coat of arms by designing one in Photoshop, part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a graphics software package enabling you to create a coat of arms out of photos, designs, images and drawings.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop
• 4 digital images

Instructions

1. Open Photoshop and click "File," then click "New." Name the file "CoatOfArms" and set your desired width and height for the item. Choose "RGB Color" for the "Mode" and click the "White" button under "Contents," then click the "OK" button. Click "View" and then "Fit on Screen," which just gives you more room to work on the coat of arms; it doesn't increase the actual size.

2. Click the "New Layer" icon, which looks like a bent sticky note, on the "Layers" palette on the right side of the screen. A new Layer 1 appears; right-click it and select "Layer Properties." Rename the layer to "CoatOfArmsOutline" and click "OK."

3. Click the "Paintbrush" tool on the "Tools" palette on the left side of the screen. Notice a new toolbar at the top of the screen. Pull down the "Brush" menu and select a solid round brush head, such as #9 or #13. Double-click the top left square in the "Color Picker," which is the two overlapping squares on the "Tools" palette. Select a color for the coat of arms outline, such as black or brown

4. Draw the outline of the coat of arms on the "CoatOfArms" box. Click the "Line" tool on the "Tools" palette. If you don't see a line, look for a rectangle outline, a circle outline or a star shape; right-click that and select the line tool. These tools share the same space. Draw one vertical and one horizontal line, criss-crossing the coat of arms outline to make four even squares.

5. Add four more layers to the "Layers" palette, name them "Coat1" through "Coat4." Click "File," then click "Open" and browse to a photo or design to use for one of the four images of the coat of arms. Double-click the image for it to appear in your workspace. Click "Select," then "Select All" and press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys on your keyboard.

6. Click back to the "CoatOfArms" box, then click once on the "Coat1" layer so it is highlighted. Press the "Ctrl" and "V" keys on your keyboard, which pastes in the image you just opened. The image probably pasted in fairly large, so click the "Edit" menu, then choose "Transform" and "Scale." Grab one of the image corners and shrink it down into the space on the top-left box of the coat of arms.

7. Repeat the steps to open and paste images into the "Coat2" through "Coat4" layers.

8. (Optional) Add a new layer and name it "Name." Click the "Text" tool, which looks like a "T" and notice a new toolbar at the top of the screen. Select a font, size and color, then click your cursor underneath the coat of arms towards the bottom of the box. It turns into a blinking line. Type your family's last name.

9. (Optional) Right-click the "Background" layer in the "Layers" palette and select "Delete Layer." This removes the white background so your coat of arms takes on the rounded shape you created, with a transparent background.

References

• Fleur de Lis Designs: Family Crest and Coat of Arms
• University of Photoshop: What is Photoshop?

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish