Click Here to Watch the "Adding Color" Video Tutorial

To watch the step by step video on adding color to your graphic header just click the link above. The video is 5 minutes long and shows you exactly how to use the color picker to select and apply colors.

Step One: Pick Your Header Color

Step 1.1: The first step is to determine what color(s) you would like to use on your graphic header.

To figure this out it might be a good idea to take a look at 3 of your favorite web pages that use headers and try to come up with your OWN idea of what you want.

It's never a good idea to copy someone's design, but there's nothing wrong with keeping a "swipe file" of headers you like, then creating your own unique design from them by adding one or two elements from each.

Here are some example headers that I pulled out of my swipe file. (Company information has been "whited out" on each).

Step Two: Add The Color Background

Step 2.2: That brings up the COLOR PICKER:

Step 2.3: Choose the color you want by clicking anywhere on the palette (Section 1) until you get the right color.

Step 2.4: Then you can apply a lighter or darker tone to it by moving the slider on the right up or down (Section 2) until you get the right shade.

Step 2.5: When you have the color you want, click the OK button.

Step 2.6:  Now you want to apply the BACKGROUND COLOR to the header so the first thing you do is SELECT THE LAYER in the layer palette that you want to add the color to. Then hold down the ALT key on the keyboard and hit the BACKSPACE key once.

That "fills" the background layer with the foreground color you've selected.

Note: The regular way to add a background color (without using shortcuts like ALT + BACKSPACE) is to pick your foreground color then click on the PAINT BUCKET from the toolbar and then click one time on your background to APPLY the color.

Step 2.7: When you've applied the color using the paint bucket, just click away and take a look at the document.

If you're satisfied with the color, go to the next step.

If you'd like to try another color, go to the menu bar and click on EDIT then choose UNDO then repeat steps 2.2 to 2.6 until you get a color you're happy with.

SHORTCUT - The shortcut for accessing the UNDO function is CTRL + Z. (Hold down the CONTROL KEY and hit the Z on the keyboard once for each step backwards you want to go.

Step 2.7: Now you need to SAVE the document by going to the menu bar and choosing FILE> SAVE AS. Save it as header.psd