Build Beautiful Buttons in Photoshop, Part II

Making a Glass Button

In this solution, we're going to create an eye-popping glass button that's particularly effective when it's overlaid on photographs and non-solid backgrounds.

Solution

1. Start with a vector button of any shape in a color that blends in with your background. Here, I'm using a pink that I color-picked from the sunset image onto which I'm going to place my button. Set the fill for the button layer to 0%. Open the Layer Style dialog by clicking on the Add a layer style button at the bottom of the Layers palette and selecting Bevel and Emboss... from the menu that appears. Apply the settings used here, which are illustrated in the dialog below:

   

   • Style: Inner Bevel
   • Technique: Chisel Hard
   • Depth: 800% (or larger, depending on the size of your button)
   • Direction: Up
   • Size: 13px (You may need to adjust this later.)
   • Soften: 7px
   • Angle: -65 degrees
   • Altitude: 65 degrees
   • Gloss Contour: Rolling slope-descending (Set this by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the contour shape and choosing the Rolling slope-descending option, as depicted below.)
   • Highlight Mode: White, 75%
   • Shadow Mode: Dark gray, 75%

   Setting Gloss Contour

   Your button should be looking like the one shown below.

   

   After applying a Bevel and Emboss effect



2. In the Layer Style dialog, click on the Contour style under Bevel and Emboss to select it. Click on the thumbnail image of the contour to bring up the Contour editor, shown below.

   



3. Select and move the bottom-left point of the contour until it's positioned just above the first horizontal grid marker. Then, click on the contour line to add another point and drag it to form a curve.

   The image below shows our button after the contour effect has been applied.

   

4. Not bad, huh? Now, select the Satin layer style and apply the settings shown here:

   

   • Blend Mode: Overlay; black
   • Opacity: 30-40%
   • Angle: 126 degrees
   • Distance: 4px (You may need to adjust this later.)
   • Size: 10px (You may need to adjust this later.)
   • Contour: Cone-inverted
5. Select the Drop Shadow layer style. Change the Distance to 4px, the Size to 10px, and the Opacity to 50%, as shown in the example below.

   

   At this stage, our button's looking quite glassy, as can be seen in the image below.

   



6. All we need to do now is add a simple text layer with a slight drop shadow! Your completed button should look like the image below.

   

You can easily copy this layer style to other shape layers. When you do, remember to set the new layer fill to 0%. Experiment with the layer effects to change the look of your button. The images here show variations of my glass button.