Photoshop CS Tutorial - Editing a digital scrapbook layout to desktop background

Short Description
This tutorial will walk you through the steps of editing a digital scrapbook layout to be a desktop background for your computer. The result will be a background that will give you the feeling that you are in your layout. It is written in Photoshop CS2 but can mostly be translated in any version of Photoshop, including Elements. If you want to float your layout on the desktop, see the Layout to Desktop II tutorial.

Website: www.scrapoutsidethebox.com | Filesize: 474kb
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Content
1. First, you open your layout as a layered document. I always make sure I save mine fully layered so I can edit them anyway I choose to later.
2. Then, decide which elements and text you will be keeping on it for your background. I usually do not keep titles and journaling when I am doing it this way because it seems distracting to me, but you can keep whatever you want and delete the rest.
3-a. (If you have Photoshop CS2 or higher: I do this to preserve image quality as much as I can when I am sizing things down.) Now, I right click on each layer on the layers pallet, one at a time (unless it’s a grouping, then highlight them all holding CTRL and clicking on the blank area of the layer and then right click) and choose “Group into New Smart Object.”
3-b. IMPORTANT: If you can’t convert your layers to Smart Objects, you must at least make sure that each one is actually in layer format. If your bottom most layer is a flattened image, double click on the layer thumbnail to convert it. A dialogue box should appear, just click OK.
4. Now, go to Image>Canvas Size. Change the drop down box choice to “pixels” and type in the dimensions of your background. (Mine is 1280×1024.) After you click “OK” a warning dialogue will appear. Just click “Proceed”. We will take care of the resizing in a second.
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