Photoshop Friday #16 : Rounded Corners!

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Photoshop Friday!

 Here’s today’s inspiration layout:

Click for Larger

Here are the supplies I used:

Kraft paper: Jen Wilson’s Being Kit; Overlay (cut from patterned paper) and stripe: Spring Dreams Paper Pack by Tia Bennett (I don’t know if this is available right now? Tia sells at TwoPeas); Arrow frame: Moments kit by Jackie Eckles; Font: Danette and Dannette Outline, Fonthead designs; Date stamp: Old Stamps Kit by Rhonna Farrer; Frame: Snap Frame set by Katie Pertiet 

And just like I promised (okay, it was two weeks ago.. but I DID promise), today’s PS Friday is all about rounded corners!

Yay!

Rounded corners are one of my favorite looks in paper scrapping. I never met a rounded corner I didn’t love, and I like incorporating them occassionally into my digital pages as well. :)

Rounding corners is simple if you have two things:

1. An eraser tool in Photoshop
2. A corner rounder brush

Number one, you are going to have to take care of. Just hit “e” for eraser and away you go (but remember that hidden inside the eraser tool are also the Magic Eraser and Background Eraser tools, which don’t allow you to select a brush - if you have one of these selected, just keep hitting “e” to cycle through the eraser tools until the brush selector dropdown list activates at in the options bar at the top of your screen.)

Number two, we’ll take care of today. :)  

I’ve created a corner rounder brush set that will help you erase all 4 corners of a square or rectangle image.

You can download it here (just click on the image). It contains .png files and an .abr set:

 

Now for a  quick tutorial.

Corner Rounder Tutorial 

1. Download the brush set by clicking on the image above. (If you don’t have a designated download spot, choose your desktop. It makes things easy to find.)

2. Unzip the file by double-clicking on the icon. Extract the files (again, to the desktop if you haven’t got a system set up)

3. In Photoshop Elements,  you can load brushes using either the Brush tool or the Eraser tool. They both work the same way. Select the tool, then drop down the brush selector in the Options bar at the top of the screen. Inside there, you will see a little button with an arrow. Click that, and choose Load Brushes from the flyout menu.

Here’s a screen shot:

Load Brushes - Click for Larger 4. Navigate to the place where you unzipped your brush set, select it, and click OK.

5. Now you can select your Eraser tool (“e”), and choose the appropriate rounder brush for the corner you want to round.

6. Make sure you have the correct layer targeted in the layers palette, and line up the straight edges of the brush against the sides of the object you want to round.

7. Click once to erase the corner.

 Now you simply repeat this process, choosing the appropriate brush from the brush selector and erasing the corners one by one.

Photoshop CS2 Coolness 

Now what if you’re  running a full version of Photoshop that comes with paths? You’re in luck! There’s an easier way to round all four corners of a rectangular object.

Let’s assume that you’ve got your rectangle already drawn.

1. Choose the Rounded Rectangle tool (it’s usually hiding behind the Rectangle tool just above the eyedropper).

2. Make sure that “Paths” is selected in the Options bar at the top of your screen (it’s the second button in from the left)

3. Draw a rectangular path just INSIDE of where you’d like to cut. You can adjust the radius of the rectangle (how round the corners are) by editing the numbers in the Options bar at the top of the screen).

4. When you are happy with the shape you’ll end up with, open the Paths palette (Window > Paths), and choose the “Convert Path to Selection” button at the bottom of the palette.

5. Choose Select > Inverse.

6. Make sure you have your rectangle shape targeted in the Layers palette.

7. Hit delete.

This seems like a lot of steps. But it’s actually easier than rounding all four corners individually with an eraser, AND you get full control over how round your corners end up. If you’re running CS or CS2 and have a question about the way this works, let me know and I’ll put up some screen shots.

I’d love to see the rounded-corner coolness you make with this! Link me up in the comments so I can go peek. 

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy Photoshop Friday!

Comments

[Michelle]

Jessica, thanks so much for the brush set! Can you tell me the name of the font you used and where I can find the other elements in the layout? It's so cute! Thanks!

[Rikki]

Thanks for the brushes, Jessica. I usually use the paths method, but the brushes will come in handy when I only want to round one or two corners instead of all 4. Or is there an easy path solution for that as well? So far I created the path,and after turning it into a selection, subtracted the part with the corners I wanted to keep rectangular.
Rikki

[Colette]

Thanks for these! I was wondering the other day how I could round corners - very timely!!

[lauren]

thanks so much for the brushes!

[Carol]

Another beautiful LO! I remember seeing her brush Tractor Water's teeth too. So fun! I love that girl and all her sweet ways. Miss you All!

PS: I bought Creating Keepsake's November and December issues. WOW!! Chuck full of Jessica Sprague's creative genius! I love standing at the counter at Artsy Tartsy saying " and that's her blocks, and that's my granddaughter and there's my grandson and my son, there's Jessica, this one is hers too, and, and," -- well you get the picture. :)
Luv U!

[Megan]

Hi Jessica-
Cool corners...easy peasy! Wondering if you could email me...I have a quick question, and don't need to clutter up your comments...:) Have a great day!

[Janet O]

A free corner rounder brush? Now i KNOW I love you...

[Janet O]

Wah. "file not compatible with this version of Photoshop." Double Wah. :(

[Megan]

My rounded corners project is on my blog:http://ohshootohscrap.blogspot.com/ What fun! 2 seconds, and done, and a big visual difference. A nice touch!

[Sarah Jones]

thanks Jessica...I'm finally working with CS2...need some design help, but the technology is fabulous!

http://georgeeliotclub.typepad.com/sarahbjones/2006/10/i_can_round_cor.html