Photoshop Resources

When it comes to image editing software, there's good reason that Photshop is probably the most known and the most used. PC Mag calls it "the world's most powerful image editing software," and it's our top recommendation here at DigitalScrapbook.com for sure.

photoshop kit painted edge overlays
photoshop resources passport stamps

We know there are many people both in and out of the digital scrapbooking community that use Photoshop and who find our Photoshop resources handy. So we wanted to make it easy to find what you're looking for - to be able to get in and out and back to your work with graphics and images.

For those of you that are newer to Photoshop, we're going to give a quick breakdown on the different categories you'll find in the menu above.

Learn All About How to Use Photoshop

One of the values that DigitalScrapbook.com was built on was fostering creativity. You don't need technical skills to be creative, but knowledge and skill increase the freedom of the artist to create whatever they envision in their imagination. So we love to help educate and create space for creatives to get better at what they do.

And so we have set about creating a host of various tutorials for Photoshop. We have tutorials for the whole spectrum of designers, from complete Photoshop beginners, to advanced. And one of the things that sets our tutorials apart from others is that we don't waste time with chit chat of any kind - they're straight to the point so you can get back to doing what you love!

To get a taste of the things you can learn on the site, you can take a look at this great tutorial using the Photoshop clipping mask, or view the one below that will teach you how to easily recolor in Photoshop:

What are Photoshop Brushes (ABR)?

stitching brushes by sheila
stamp kit with brushes
doodles with brushes
grunge paint brushes

The brush tool in Photoshop is an important one for most Photoshop users. It's simple, yet versatile in what it can do. While it's just called a brush, the brush tool isn't simply for duplicating the effects of a physical brush, digitally, but it can also be used to add lighting, texturing, or even patterning to your images.

Files with an .abr extension are Photoshop brushes. They do need to be added or "installed" to Photoshop to be able to use them, but no fear, we have an easy tutorial, Add Brushes (.Abr Files) To Photoshop, that will help you with that.

There's a lot you can do with brushes, so try them out if you haven't and have some fun playing around!

What are Photoshop Styles (ASL)?

Photoshop styles, sometimes called layered styles, are phenomenally useful and an important tool in any designer's toolbox. They save a lot of time and allow you to quickly customize many different parts of your image. It's possible to create your own custom styles, or you can use ones created by other designers (unless you're really wanting to deep-dive into personal customization and Photoshop skills, that's what most of us tend to do).

Photoshop styles have an .asl extension. Like with .abr files, you'll need to load .asl files into Photoshop, and we have a quick walkthrough right here to help you do that.

photoshop style felt
chipboard photoshop styles by sheila

Photoshop styles can quickly add dimension to a flat shape. For digital scrapbooking, a layer style that adds a paper texture is an easy way to quickly achieve that real scrapbooking look. Shadow layer styles are another way to quickly add dimension in your scrapbooking layout. If you're designing your own elements, the layer styles we offer at DigitalScrapbook.com are a quick way to add texture and dimension with very little work. Marisa loves to use one of our many cork, wood, or plastic layer styles to quickly add interest to an element.

What are Photoshop Actions (ATN)?

Most of these Photoshop tools are all about efficiency and helping designers or image-editors to not need to do things every time from the bottom up (or even remove the need for us to know how to do something from the bottom up). Photoshop actions, or .atn files are no exception to that. Like with the tools already mentioned on this list, you guessed it, you can create your own or load ones created by others.

felt and stitch photoshop actions
plaid maker photoshop action
puffy fabric photoshop action
watercolor and actions photoshop action

Essentially an action is a series of tasks applied to a file. If you find yourself doing something over and over again, to many of the images you're working with, then that's where you want an action. They're great for bulk editing in particular.

Marisa's favorite action is this plaid making tool.

And this recolor tool.

Another great thing to do is make an action for any task you repeat frequently. We have a tutorial for that here.

What are Custom Shapes (CSH)?

The standard shapes in Photoshop are familiar to most of us - rectangles, ellipses, etc. But not everyone realizes that you can also make custom shapes in Photoshop for later use.

united states custom shapes
talk bubble photoshop custom shapes

You can use the basic shapes to create your new custom ones, but obviously there's going to be a lot of limitations with that method. Using the pen tool will be the way to go if you want flexibility. If you've got a lot of technical skill, you can draw whatever you want. But for most of us, the way to go is likely going to be using the pen tool to trace off an image to get the shapes we want.

At DigitalScrapbook.com we don't currently have any tutorials on how to create custom shapes. But you can find one at Photoshop Essentials, or watch the one from YouTube below:

What are Photoshop Patterns (PAT)?

Patterns are probably mostly self-explanatory. Like most of the things in this list, they're for helping you save time, and you can use preset patterns or create your own, and they can be applied to pretty much any item. If you're a digital scrapbook designer, then digital scrapbooking papers are a no-brainer place that you'd likely want to use them.

If you're wanting to learn how to make a simple pattern, then Marisa can help you with that.

Here are a couple of examples of Photoshop patterns:

photoshop style chalkboard
glitter styles kit for photoshop by violet

What are Vector Images?

Most people, at least when they start out, typically work with graphics that are called raster images (jpg, png, and psd, are all raster). Raster graphics are made up of a grid of pixels. Vector images, on the other hand, are made up of lines. Without getting too technical, this basically means that vector images scale super well, and won't get pixelated when you blow them up.

Just a couple of advantages of vector graphics besides being scalable: they're lightweight, have infinite resolution, and are easily manipulated. Examples of vector image formats are svg, eps, and ai. For those who like hybrid projects, these can be great for cutting machines.

Here are just a few examples from our collection of vector images:

stars pattern on digital paper
black typewriter template vector
vector image doily template
stamp with various writing

Generous License

For those of you who work with graphics and images for a living, we have good news for you: all our Photoshop resources are under the same licenses as the rest of what we have on the site.

Generosity is one of our greatest guiding values at DigitalScrapbook.com, and that played a huge role in how we wrote our commercial use license. You can read more about it here. We made it as open and generous as possible, thinking about you, our fellow creators. Enjoy working with the resources you get from us, without fear of wondering whether or not you're complying to all the ins and outs of an overly complicated license.

Create and sell with peace of mind.