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Why Facebook is in Blue Color?

When you open Facebook, the first thing that you notice is the blue color it uses. Ever wondered why is Facebook so blue in color and not changing its color scheme?

Ever since they started as 'thefacebook', Facebook has stayed with the blue color. Although major changes have been made in the Facebook theme since then, the major unchanged thing has been the blue color.


Facebook from its early days when it was known as thefacebook

An exciting fact: In its earlier days, thefacebook.com required you to have an .edu email id to join.

Everywhere from its login page to Facebook groups, you find only blue.

Facebook Login Page. All Blue!

The reason for this is that Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook is red-green color-blind and blue is the richest colour for him which he confirmed in an online interview with Leo Laporte.

Another important commercial factor for using blue color is the fact that most colors tend to distract the viewers. Blue on the other hand acts as a transparent background to the main content as visible to the human brain due to which most popular websites tend to use the blue color. It can easily be called a webmaster's favorite color. Blue color is also sometimes referred to as 'Nirvana' for the brain.

All these factors make blue a prominent color on Facebook.

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Layer Styles in Photoshop

Effects can be added to individual layers in Photoshop that automatically change as a layer is modified. The combination of effects on any given layer is called its Layer Style. We’ll teach you how to use and make your own layer styles in this tutorial.

What are Layer Styles?

Note: If you’re trying to find out how to install layer styles, please see our tutorial on Installing Layer Styles in Photoshop.
Layer styles are special effects that can be quickly and easily applied to individual layers in Photoshop to drastically change the appearance of something in very little time. They can be preset, customized, or even saved and used for later.
One of the useful properties of Layer Styles are there relationship to the layer contents. Since the style is actually a separate entity that is just linked to the layer, it will continually update itself as a layers contents are edited or moved. Furthermore, the effects can easily be adjusted after applying them, making them non-destructive in nature.

Demonstration of layers with and without Layer Styles applied

Some shapes and text with and without layer styles applied.

Using Layer Style Presets

Photoshop comes packed with a good number of Layer Style Presets, all which are accessible through the Styles Palette (Window > Styles). To apply a Layer Style, select the Layer you’d like to work with in your document from the Layers Palette, and then select the Layer Style which you would like to apply.

Example of a Preset being applied to a layer

A Text Layer Before and After a Layer Style Preset is applied to it.

After applying a Layer Style, the effects in the layer can be seen, adjusted, disabled or reenabled from the Layers Palette. Layers with effects applied to them will have a small round icon with an ‘f‘ in it. To expand or collapse the effects applied to a layer, click the arrow to the right of this icon.
When a layers effects have been expanded, you can quickly disable specific effects within the layer style by clicking the eye icon next to the effect. Just like a layer, these effects can become visible again by clicking the blank area (where the eye would reside) when an effect is disabled.

Making Quick Changes

You can make quick changes to a layers style by double clicking the ‘f‘ icon to pull up the Layer Style Options. From here, you can completely customize your layers style.

Creating your own Effects and Styles

To add your own layer effects, and create your own styles, go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options, or Right Click your Layer, and select Blending Options. This will bring up the Layer Style Options.

A. Style Presets – List of the Style Presets. B. Effects – The various effects that can be used in a layer style. It’s important to note that by clicking on the name of any of the effects will enable that effect, and display the options for the individual effect.
C. Options / Settings – When the name for an effect is checked, it’s options will be shown here. When Blending Options is selected, settings such as Opacity, Fill, and other advanced options will be displayed.
D. Layer Style Preview – A preview of the Layer Style.

Effects (B) can be enabled by checking them, and likewise, disabled by unchecking them. To edit an effect, you need to click the name (rather than checkbox). The effects settings will be displayed in the Options area (C), where they can be easily adjusted. To apply a set of effects and options, simply press OK.

Layer Effects

Styles can be built with the following effects:

Drop Shadow – Creates a shadow behind the layers contents.
Inner Shadow – Creates a shadow on top of the layers contents.
Outer Glow - Creates a glow behind the layers contents. Cannot be distanced like the drop shadow.
Inner Glow – Creates a glow on top of the layers contents. Again, cannot be distanced like the inner shadow.
Bevel and Emboss - Used to create unique highlight and shadow effects on a layers contents.
Satin - Gives the layer contents a satin-like, glossy appearance.
Color Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a solid color.
Gradient Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a gradient.
Pattern Overlay - Fills the layer contents with a pattern.
Stroke - Creates an outline on layer contents using a solid color, gradient, or pattern.

Give it a Try!

Let’s try it out to make sure we’ve got a clear understanding of all this. We’re going to test our abilities by creating a basic layer style for some text. Go ahead and create a new document in Photoshop, and use the Type Tool to add some large, black text Right Click the text layer, and Select Blending Options.
First we’re going to add a Drop Shadow. Check the Drow Shadow Effect, and click on it to bring up it’s options. Set things up as shown in the diagram below:
Add a Drop Shadow

As you’re making adjustments, you should be able to see changes being made in your actual document. Keeping an eye on your document while adding effects will allow you to better determine how to adjust settings.
You should be familiar with most of these sliders and types of settings from our Palettes Tutorial you may have read. The Angle setting may be a new one to you, but it’s very simple to work. You can either enter in a numeric value, or adjust the angle with your mouse by clicking on the wheel. Doing so will change the angle of your shadow.
Now let’s add a Bevel and Emboss. We’re going to create a bevel that is subtle, so that it doesn’t draw too much attention, but at the same time pops our text a bit. Again, mimic the settings shown in the diagram shown below.
Add a Bevel to your Text

Nothing really new here. You may want to experiment as I suggested earlier to have a better understanding of the different settings here, but most of them are pretty self-explanatory.
Now let’s add a Gradient Overlay.
Add a Gradient

By default, the Gradient Overlay will probably use a Foreground to Background gradient, which is not exactly what we are looking for (unless we’ve setup the Foreground and Background Colors in Photoshop specifically for this step). That’s OK though, because we can easily adjust the gradient from here.
$Photoshop\'s Gradient Editor$
Click on the gradient shown in the Gradient Picker (Black fading to White in the above diagram). This will bring up the Gradient Editor. From the Gradient Editor, you may choose a gradient preset, or create a new custom gradient of your own. Towards the bottom of the editor is the current gradient, with Opacity Stops (Determine how opaque the gradient is at a specific point) and Color Stops (Determine what colors are used in the Gradient). We can add, delete, and modify stops by clicking anywhere above or below the gradient, or by clicking on the stops themselves.
We only want to modify the current color stops. Double Click the first color stop, and apply the color #50a2e7, and then apply the color #75cefc to the right most stop. Click OK to Apply the Gradient.
Click OK to apply the layer style you’ve created.

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Install Layer Styles in Photoshop

There are also plenty of sites out there that also offer Photoshop Layer Styles. I wouldn’t consider them nearly as important as Custom Shapes or Brushes (since they are usually replicated with ease), but they can be nice for speeding up workflow and making your life easier.
Make a note of where you save your files. We’ll need to find them in the next part.

How To Install

From Photoshop, find your Styles Palette, and select it. If it’s not visible, go to Window > Styles.
At the top right of the palette, there is an arrow pointing to the right. Click on this arrow to bring up a menu. From this menu, select Load Styles.
Now, simply browse to wherever you saved your styles, and load them. You’ll see them populate the Styles Palette, and can then apply them as you would any other Style preset.
That’s it!

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Photoshop For Beginners: The Power of Layers

This is the third of a series of tutorials thought for Photoshop beginners. I’ll explain in depth those features that can result difficult to understand for a newbie. In the previous two articles I’ve explained how the pen tool works and some useful extracting techniques.
Today I want to go one step backwards, and deal with Photoshop power core: layers. It’s like to ask: how does Photoshop work? The answer is: with layers. Once understood this concept, everything in Photoshop will be more clear. As always, after a brief introduction, I’ll drive you through a series of micro-tutorials to understand better this matter. Let’s start!

How Photoshop works:

A graphics designer who understands layers mechanism in Photoshop is like a soccer player who understand the offside rule. It’s the key. What are layers and why are them so useful? You have to think in this way: every composition realized in Photoshop is the result of several layers combined together. So a layer can be defined as the fundamental Photoshop unit.
This example will show you the meaning of what I’m saying. Let’s create a new document in Photoshop (File>New):

In the bottom right you should have the layers window. In case you don’t see it, go to Window>Layers:

Here you can visualize, select and modify all the layers that compose your final result. As you may have noticed, in this moment we have a single white filled layer. Create a new layer by pressing the appropriate button at the bottom of the layers window. Now you can see a new layer, but nothing has changed in your canvas. This is because Photoshop automatically create blank layers.

Set the foreground color to black by clicking on the foreground color thumbnail to open the color picker and selecting black (#000000).

Now grab the Paint bucket tool (G) and click on the canvas to fill it with black. Let’s analyse the layers window: the blank layer is now black. This is because what we do on the canvas affects only the layer which is selected. We have 2 layers, one black and one white. Since the black one is above, it’s displayed while the white one is hidden (layer hierarchy).

Switch the foreground color to yellow (#f9d904) and use the horizontal type tool (T) to write something. Note that Photoshop has automatically created a new type layer:

The background layer is locked (note the padlock on the right of the layer thumbnail). This means it can’t be modified. To unlock the background layer double click on it an hit OK in the window that appears:

Every time you want to prevent a layer from casual adjustments you can lock it by selecting it from the layers window and pressing the lock button.

You can give a title to each layer. This is a good practice in particular when you work with complex compositions. Simply double-click on the layer title in the layers window to re-name it.

Select the bottom layer (the white one), set the foreground color to orange (#eb6e08), grab the paint bucket tool and click to fill. Apparently nothing has changed but the bottom layer is now filled with orange, as you can notice from the layers window.

Select the black layer. Grab the eraser tool (E) and select a round 300px brush:

Click once in the center of the canvas. What happens? Once erased the center of the black layer, a part of the orange one appears.

This is due to layers hierarchy:

In the layers window move the text layer below the black one:

As you may have imagined, a part of the text is covered, while the area below the spot is preserved (layers hierarchy). Right-click on the layers thumbnail and select Blending options. Here we can add some adjustments to the layer. Select “drop shadow” with the following settings (screenshot). In this way we can add depth to the image:

You can add a soft shadow to the text too. In this way you can feel more the sensation to work with 3 different levels one on the top of the other.

Why are layers so useful?

In this mini-exercise I want to show you the usefulness that derives from a correct use of layers. Create a new document in Photoshop and unlock the background layer as we did in the previous tutorial. Grab the brush tool and paint over the canvas:

What does happen if you want to move the brush effect? You’re obliged to move the entire image (brush+white background):

Let’s go back. Instead of painting directly on the white canvas, create a new layer and paint over it:

Seemingly the result doesn’t change. But this time if we try to move only the brush effect…ta daaaaaaa! We can! Because we affect only the layer that contains brushes. So this is the essence of the speech: layers can give you full control on your works. In particular if properly used they allow you to modify any detail of the composition at any moment (full control!). And this is fundamental when you are working on projects composed by 100-200 layers. Always try to create a new layer for every important modification.

The key is organization

As I’ve previously written, titling each layer is a good practice to don’t get lost among your layers. When the amount of layers grow up consistently, you can set them up into groups. To create a group, select the layers from the layers window and go to Layer>Group layers (or press ctrl+G). Organization is not only a good practice, but something important when you’re dealing with complex projects. For example, tale a look at how I organized the layers of WeGraphics theme layout. Every group contains 10+layers. Do you imagine how the layers windows would look like if I hadn’t use groups???

Hope you’ve understood something useful about how Photoshop works. I’ll work soon on other topic (blending options, masks…) for beginners, so if you have any suggestion, don’t hesitate to use the comments ;-)