Dear Friend,

Hello & welcome back to Firewire, your friendly guide to the exciting world of web-design & web-solutions!

Previous issue on Designing Top Panel in Photoshop got a tremendous response. It was well received by newsletter subscribers & we got maximum numbers of feedback, & based on subscribers' feedback we are pleased to cover Designing Top Panel in Photoshop once again with curves in design & new effects.

Click here to download the source (.psd) file.

1. Create new file with Dimensions 779 px. X 244 px. Resolution 72 px. and Mode RGB Color

2. Save the file as "Toppanel.psd"

3. To create a bottom patch, Insert New Layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and name the layer as "Grey Bottom Patch"

4. Choose Windows > Show Tools > Click Rectangular Marquee Tool

5. Set style "Fixed Size" in the option bar with Width 779 px, Height 31px and create a Rectangular selection with a little distance above the bottom base as shown in the below image.

6. Set Foreground color to Hex value #F2F7F8

7. Click on Edit > Fill

Use: Foreground Color, Blending Mode: Normal & Opacity 100% > Click OK

8. Insert a new layer for Bottom Patch border and name it as "Bottom Patch Border"

9. Choose Edit > Stroke

10. Specify Stroke as, Width 1px, Color value as #BED3D5, Location Outside, Mode Normal, Opacity 100% > Click OK

11. Insert New Layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) for Yellow Patch and name it as "Yellow Patch"

12. Set Horizontal & Vertical guidelines as shown below.

13. Horizontal guide at: 238px and Vertical guide at: 537px

14. Select Window > Show Options & Choose Elliptical Marquee Tool

15. Set style "Fixed Size" in Option bar Width 563 px & Height 331px, Click on the file and place the oval circle in form of a semi circle as shown in the image.

16. Set Foreground color to #FDD91B and fill the selection with the yellow color.

17. Set 2 Vertical guidelines as shown in the image.

18. First vertical guideline at: 38px and second vertical guideline at: 472

19. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

20. Set style "Fixed Size" in Option bar width 435px & height 244 px. Click on the new file and place the rectangular selection exactly matching the vertical guides.

21. Choose Select > Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I) and delete the selected part.

22. Create New file. Select File > New (Ctrl+N) and name it as "Pattern"

23. Set Dimensions 10 px. X 10 px., Resolution: 72, Mode: RGB Color, Contents as Transparent.

24. Set Foreground color to #D7D7D7

25. Zoom the file upto 1600%. Select the Pencil Tool (B) and draw a line of 1 pixel. Leave space of 2 pixels and create another line of 1 pixel. Repeat this steps as shown in the below image.