embedded/embossed line on white background

[Darby Edelen]

You can create one of these that will work on any color background, including white.

I’m not sure what level you’re at, so I’m going to try and go step by step. Let me know if you have any questions.

The way I would approach this is by creating a line on a shape layer using the shape tool (‘u’ is the shortcut for this tool).

Once you have the tool selected, make sure you’re in the ‘shape layers’ mode (the button farthest left on the toolbar).

Then select the line tool (the second farthest right in the 2nd section to the right on the shape toolbar) the weight of the line can then be set, this will be the width of your separator.

Now draw your line as long as you need it. Right click the shape layer that is created and go to “Blending Options…” Now go down and enable the “Bevel & Emboss” section. In this section you’ll set up the shading of the line. My suggestion to start would be:

Style – Inner Bevel
Technique – Smooth
Depth – 100%
Direction – Down
Size – (depends on the size of your line, pick something close to the same as the weight of the line)
Soften – 0 if you want hard shading, more if you want softer

Don’t worry about the light angle at this point, you can change it later.

Highlight Mode – Normal
Opacity – Choose your own, 50% isn’t bad
Shadow Mode – Normal
Opacity – Choose your own, 50% isn’t bad

Set these both to normal so that you can export this later as a PNG or other image with transparency and use this above any color background.

Now this is important: set the shape layer’s ‘Fill’ (just below opacity when you have the layer selected in the layer panel) to 0%. The layer will become invisible, but the layer style will still show.

Create a solid layer below and test the shading of the line.

When you save this out you can crop the image to the size of the shape layer and use a format that supports transparency.

Darby Edelen