How to Create User Bars (Part 1)
Creating the horizontal line pattern...

Simply put; follow this tutorial and you will have a starter background to begin creating your own "custom" user bars. It will look like the one below but of course yours will be 100% custmizable.



Step 1:
Create a new image: Select File-> New and set the dimensions to 3 pixels in height and 3 in width on a transparent background. In other words, make your settings like the image below.

NOTE: Yes you width and height may be different but the end result of this guide will reflect these settings.



Step 2:
Press D and select the pencil tool. Click on the arrow that's pointing down beside 'Brush' in the options bar. Now adjust the size of the pencil by setting the master diameter to 1px and make sure the Mode is set to normal.



Step 3:

Zoom in as much as possible. Do this by holding down "Ctrl" and repeatedly pressing the +/= key on your keyboard. With your pencil tool, draw a diagonal line that goes from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. Your created image should look like the one below.



Step 4:
Go to Edit-> Define pattern from the top menu and in the text box that pops up, type "lines" (w/o quotes) for the name, then click ok.



Step 5:
Open up the image you would like to incorporate with the "lines" create a new layer by going to Layer->New->Layer and select the paint bucket tool.

Step 6:
From the drop down menu beside 'Fill:' in the options menu , select pattern and make sure the mode is set to normal.



Click on the arrow beside 'Pattern:' and select the diagonal line pattern. Lastly, click anywhere on your design, with paint bucket selected, left click, and the lines will be applied to the layer.

White background, black lines...below is your final image ready for editing.



Fully edited, the lines you've just created can give this kind of look to a user bar.



My advice is, keep this default image as a .psd file. That way whenever you want to create a user bar you can edit this one how you want it and then save as an image.

What is a .psd file??

• Photoshop Document, the default file extension of the proprietary file format of Adobe Photoshop. It allows for Adobe Photoshop formatting (Layers, DropShadows, etc) and is compatible with a variety of Adobe software such as InDesign.

In this case, the lines you created will be able to be edited in the future as long as you have the .psd file. If not, you will have to repeat the steps of this guide.

How can you save a file as a .psd??

• EASY. With the project you want to save open in Photoshop; Select File> Save As. Save the project with the name of your choice on your computer. That project will be able to be edited fully in the future.

See Other Related Tutorials:
How to Create User Bars (Part II)
How to Create User Bars (Part III)