In here you’ll learn how to make an easy navigation menu for your web layout.

Before you can start with this tutorial you got to open a new document. The size (canvas size) depands on the width of your design. In this tutorial we use a size of 35×350 px. Background color is white.

STEP 01

First give your background a color (#5d5d5d)

Then take your rectangular marquee tool (M). And choose on the top bar ‘Fixed size’.

And take this settings. Place the rectangle as the image below, and give it a color (#868383) aswell by using the paint bucket tool(g).

STEP 02

Now we will add some blending options and apply a hue/saturation. First we’ll give the navigation menu a better look. Right click on the layer you just gave the colors, and press blending options. Fill in the value’s as below at pattern overlay. The pattern used is a custom-made. It’s a scanline. This tutorial on how to make scanlines can be find somewhere else on this website.

Gradiant overlay

Bevel and emboss

To finish step 2 we’re gonna apply a hue/saturation (ctrl + u). make sure you checked ‘colorize’.

This is what we got now then.

STEP 03 In step 3 we’ll split out the bar in different buttons. first add a new layer (ctrl + N), and give it a decent title. take the pencil tool (b), and make sure the foreground color is set to white. The easiest way to do this is by pressing ‘d’ and ‘x’. Make the lines so the pieces’ distance is the same on each button. You’ll be fine if you get something like this.

STEP 04 Now we will finish it, by adding text and a little triangle next to it. press ‘t’ and activate the horizontal type tool. Select a font (I took Visitor -BRK-), and type a text you want. (tip: it’s better to duplicate the text layer for the second button, and then nudge it so it’s in one line with the other text. dupicating a layer can be done by pressing ctrl + J).

When you made the text, we’re gonna make the triangle. First add a new layer (ctrl + N). take the polygonal lasso tool (l) and make a triangle. You can easily make corners on 45 degrees by pressing and holding the shift button, just try it.

Fill the triangle by using the paint bucket tool (G), and fill it with #a5a5a5 Now we’ll give it a little depth. Right click on the layer of the triangle and press blending options, and apply these settings.

Duplicate (CTRL + J) the triangle three times and place it next to the buttons, and than you’re finished. You just made an easy business navigation bar.