Bernskiold Media

In this tutorial we are going to recreate the Photoshop icon, right from inside of Photoshop itself!

Before we start, let’s take a look at the effect that we are going to create.

Create New Document

First, we want to create a new document. I’ve chosen a medium icon size of 128×128 (you could also do: 256×256, 512×512, 64×64. Any multiple of 8 is the key for icons).

Set the Colors

First, we set the foreground color to a light blue (#4c97e9).

Then, set the background color to a darker blue (#23497c).

Fill With Foreground Color

Next, we are going to fill our blank canvas with the light blue color. To do so you can use the keyboard shortcut, Option + Backspace (PC: Alt + Backspace) or you can go into the menus, Edit > Fill.

Select Foreground to Transparent Gradient

Now we are going to set up the gradient. Chose the prebuilt foreground to transparent gradient in the gradient editor and after that, click the X key on your keyboard to flip the foreground and background colors around (so the dark blue is now your foreground).

Apply The Gradient

Drag in from the bottom right, in a diagonal angle. Do the same from the bottom left. Then complete the fading gradient by dragging one from the bottom and straight up.

The Type

I’ve chosen the font Hypatia Sans Pro (from Adobe) as it gives quite the similar look of the "Ps" text in the photoshop icon. I’ve set it to be semibold at 94pt and I’ve also reduced the tracking slightly (-40). The color is set to a dark grey (#2e2e2e).

Duplicate, Color Change and Move

To create the little etched look, duplicate the text layer. On the bottom one, change the color to a light blue of the same shade as the background. Then with your arrow keys on your keyboard, nudge the layer one pixel to the left and one to the bottom (hit the left arrow key once, then the bottom arrow key once). Finally finish off with dropping the opacity until you have just a nice outline.

Adding Inner Shadow

Finally, we are going to add a subtle inner shadow to the text which further enhances the etched look. Go to the top text layer, right-click to get into the Blending Option and go to Inner Shadow. You want to set the distance to 0px and then play around a bit with the size and opacity until you get just a little depth in there.

Final Effect

Here we have the final Photoshop icon replica!