Photoshop tutorials - Definition and Overview

Photoshop tutorials are one of the most searched topic in computer graphics (very much the same can be said about Flash tutorials).

Artists and designers are very fond of demonstrating how creative they are by writing Photoshop tutorials and show them to the world. That means not only hard work, but also a bit of organization since a successful tutorial should be written using some easy to follow steps.

Anatomy of a tutorial

A successful tutorial should start with a short but descriptive title. Since tutorials are often presented in listings, a good title will attract the visitor’s attention.

A good description of about two lines should be enough to encourage the visitor to click the link. Use descriptive language. Show what the tutorial is about. Perhaps your tutorial listing is surrounded by other tutorials made by other artists and yours is the one to has to stand out.

Once inside the tutorial you must repeat the title and show a short description of what will be done and how it will be done. If there is a downloadable file associated to the tuotrial, it should be noted at this point.

Now it is time to choose a layout. You can work with two columns, placing only images in one column and the text in another. Writing the tutorial in a step by step way is a must. That is the key of the success. Of course, carefully choosing the topic is mandatory.

Another page layout, and easier to build, is to write the text and to place each image below the referencing text.

At the end of the tutorial there must be an image with the final result. Perhaps you can show it at the beginning also to keep the attention of the visitor. Use medium or large sized images, at this point visitors don’t care much about downloading speeds, since this is the destination page, they are willing to wait a bit more than usual.

Tutorials categories

Once you have a fair amount of tutorials, listing them altogether is a big no-no. Tutorials should be categorized to make it easier for the user to find what he was looking for. Most common categories are: Special effects, Text effects, Texture creation, Interface design and Photo retouching. Many others cateogries can be created with equal success, such as: Tools and commands, scanning tips, quick tips, illustration tutorials and many more.

This article was taken from The Photoshop Roadmap (http://www.photoshoproadmap.com) with written permission.

External links

• Photoshop Tutorials directory (http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-tutorials)
• Additional Photoshop Tutorials (http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1)