Adobe Photoshop CS is one of the best graphics programs available for creating business related documents and ads. It has a large array of tools that allows you to create almost anything you can imagine. One thing that it is particularly good at creating is posters, thanks in part to the "Layers" panel and the various layer effects.
Instructions
1. Plan your poster before you start working in Photoshop CS. Starting in Photoshop without a plan is a mistake because there are so many options; if you try to wing it you will end up with a mess. Keep your design and message simple. Complex designs with fancy fonts and multiple colors get in the way of communicating with the customer. Look at the signs and logos of major corporations. You'll see that most of them limit the colors to no more than two or three.
2. Load any images you want to use, such as a photo of an item you sell, onto your computer's hard drive. If you plan to place the photo itself on the advertising poster, leave it as it is. But if you want to have only the sale item against your poster background, open the photo in Photoshop and use the polygonal selection tool to draw a selection around the item. Then select "Edit" from the menu and click "Copy."
3. Open Photoshop. Select "File" and click "New." Make the height and width settings match the measurements you need your advertising poster to be. Make the resolution 300 pixels and the background color white. Name the document "Advertising Poster 1" and click "OK."
4. Change the foreground color to a bright primary color (red, if you sell food, blue, for most other things). Select the rectangular selection tool and select the left one-third of the canvas. Choose the paint bucket tool and fill the selection with color. Paste in the image stored on your computer clipboard. Resize it if necessary and move it to the bottom of the colored side. Select the text tool. In the options at the top change the color to a bright, primary color that will show up well against the colored section and the white. Select a large, easy-to-read font.
5. Type in a product description and price above the item and on the right (in larger type) type in a few short, generalized statements about the services you provide and your commitment to excellence. Resist the temptation to add things like bevel and emboss or drop shadows since these only distract from the product message you want to relate.
Tags: bright primary, bright primary color, color bright, color bright primary, primary color, selection tool