Dashed Grid
by Jen White

Quickly add trendiness to your next digital project by creating a customizable dashed grid using your favorite font and color.

For this tutorial you will need:

• Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop

Step One: Prepare a New Document

You’ll want to start with a full-sized document so that you can make the grid nice and big. As with any element, it’s okay to make it smaller, but making it bigger will cause pixelation.

• Create a new 12×12 inch document (File > New > Blank File) at 300 ppi with a white background. (PS: Choose File > New.)
• Press the letter D to reset the Color Chips to the default of black over white.

Step Two: Create a Dashed Line

You can create a dashed line many different ways, but the simplest way is to use a dash from a font. You’d be surprised how many different styles of dashes are in your font stash.

• Get the Horizontal Type tool.
• In the Tool Options, open the Font Picker and choose a common font to start with. I’m using Helvetica Regular.
• Set the Size to 40 pt and the Alignment to Center.
• On the document, click in the center to place the cursor.
• Press the dash key until the dashed line nearly reaches the sides of the document. Click the checkmark to commit.

NOTE: You could also call this character a hyphen. The difference between a hyphen and a dash is: a hyphen is not surrounded by spaces, while a dash is.

TIP: Try other looks by using an en-dash or an em-dash. (See below.) Not all fonts will offer these options.

Step Three: Duplicate and Move the Line

• Get the Move tool.
• In the Tool Options, uncheck Auto Select Layer.
• On the document, hold down the Alt key (Mac: Opt key) and click and drag out a duplicate line.

Step Four: Duplicate and Rotate the Lines

• In the Layers panel, hold down the Shift key and click on the previous line layer. Now both line layers should be active.
• Press Ctrl J (Mac: Cmd J) to duplicate the line layers.
• Press Ctrl T (Mac: Cmd T) to get the Transform options.
• In the Tool Options, set the Angle to 90˚. (PS: Set the Rotate to 90˚.)
• To reposition the lines, click and drag inside the bounding box.
• Click the checkmark to commit.

Step Five: Move an Individual Line (Optional)

• Get the Move tool.
• In the Layers panel, click on one line layer to activate it all by itself.
• On the document, click and drag to reposition the active line.
• Repeat to move other lines.

Step Six: Shorten an Individual Line (Optional)

• In the Layers panel, double-click on the thumbnail of the line you’d like to shorten. This will highlight/activate all the dashes in the line.

• Press the Right Arrow key to move the cursor to the end of the line of dashes. This will deactivate all the dashes in the line.
• Press the Backspace key (Mac: Delete key) until the line is shorter.
• Click the checkmark to commit.
• Repeat to shorten other lines.

Step Seven: Change the Appearance of the Grid (Optional)

• In the Layers panel, click on the top line layer to activate it.
• Holding down the Shift key, click on the bottom line layer. Now all four line layers should be active.
• Get the Horizontal Type tool.

• In the Tool Options, click directly on the name of the font to highlight it.
• Press the Arrow keys to cycle through the fonts you have available to you. NOTE: Some fonts might require you to lower the Size in order for the grid to fit on the document.
• Press the Enter key when you find one you like. I’m using Charlemagne Std Regular.

• In the Tool Options, click on the Color Chip to view color swatches.
• To choose a custom color, click on the color wheel to open the Color Picker. In the Color Picker, choose a color and then click OK.

• In the Tool Options, click on the Color Chip to open the Color Picker.
• In the Color Picker, choose a color and then click OK.

Step Eight: Save the Grid

• Save the document as a PSD file (File > Save) with a unique name.

• In the Layers panel, click on the Visibility icon of the Background layer to hide it.
• Save the document as a PNG file (File > Save) with a unique name.
• Close the working document without saving.

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Author: Jen White | Contact Us
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