Creating Halftone Glows for your graphics

This easy to do technique is based off of the previous post about ‘Halftone and Bitmap Effects’. I use basically the same steps to achieve a Halftone Glow, the only addition here is a Gaussian Blur step. This can be useful for printed work as well as giving that ‘print’ feel to on screen graphics or illustrations.

Step 1. Choose the image you will be apply the glow to. This illustration, graphic or photo should be silhouetted out and removed from any background. I am using the 10e20 ‘e’ icon and I have it on its own layer.

Step 2. Create a new document from current state. On the History Palette there is an icon on the lower left of the palette that will create a New Document. Click this, now you have a copy of the PSD.

Step 3. Go to Image/Mode/Greyscale and convert the image. Now covert that to a Bitmap by going to Image/Mode/Bitmap and choose Halftone Screen in the dialog box for Method and input parameters similar to the ones shown here or experiment with the options.

Step 4. Copy and Paste this layer back on the bottom of your original PSD below the silhouetted version of your graphic. Colorize it to match the hues of your graphic, or leave it as is. That’s it!

Extras: Some freeware fonts out there are not so hot, but others can be very useful. I sifted through a bunch and found some cool Free Fonts thanks to Craft for the link.

Had to share this cool slideshow video of mash-up photos from various designers.