By Vitaly Bekker

Scan Lines

This tutorial will demonstrate how to make those nifty scan lines used on many banners and other graphic designs without much time or effort.

First, create a new image. The dimensions of the image depend on how you want your lines to look. If you want the lines to have little space between each other, make the height of the image three pixels or less. Anything over three pixels or more w

ill make your lines very far apart. The width of the image doesn't matter, but you should use something in the range of 75-25 pixels. The background of the image depends on what the background of your graphic, so if your graphic has a black background, make the background of this image black as well. Leave the rest as it is and click "OK".

Select the line tool from the "Tools" menu. If you are using Photoshop
Elements, the line tool is located under the Shapes (e.g. Rectangle Tool, Custom Shapes Tool). If you are using any other PhotoShop, the line tool should be where the pencil tool is. Draw a line from left to right or right to left through the middle of the image.

Select the whole image. To do this, click the layer you drew the line in, and press "Ctrl + A". While the image is selected, go to "Edit > Define Pattern" on the toolbar. Name the pattern whatever you want and press "OK". Your pattern is now saved in PhotoShop. You can close your current image, or you can keep it open if you think you will be editing it later.

Now, open the image you want to use the scan lines effect on, or
create a new one. I used this image of Ali G, but you should use
an image that fits the background you chose for your line pattern.

Once you are ready, create a new layer ether from the layers window or go to "Layer > New > Layer" from the toolbar. After creating the new layer, select it and go to "Edit > Fill" on the toolbar. When the "Fill" window pops up, select "Pattern" in the contents drop down. Choose the custom pattern button and find the line pattern you created, which should be the last one there. Select it, leave everything else the way it is, and click "OK".

Your image should now be completely filled with your scan line pattern. If you are wondering why it covered everything up, it's suppose to do that, and we will make it look good in the next step.

Select the layer with your pattern. Above the layer, is the "Opacity" option, which makes your image see through. I set my opacity to 15%, but you can try different numbers. If you are looking for better effects, try to experiment with the blending modes, which are on the left of the Opacity option.

You now have your scan lines. The blending modes are very helpful for better looks. If done properly, you can get something like on the right, which is a small piece of the banner at the top of this page.