Give Someone a Barcode Tattoo With Photoshop

 

This month I thought I’d show you a twist on the classic Barcode tutorial.

Step 1.

To create a barcode with Photoshop is child’s play, first we create a new canvas (File>New>) I chose a 1024 x 768 at 300ppi sized document but you really can use any size you wish.

Step 2.

Create a new Layer above the Background Layer and using the Rectangle Marquee Tool create a fair sized rectangle, fill this Rectangle with White using Edit>Fill>White.

Step 3.

We now fill the Rectangle with Noise, we do this by going to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set Amount to 400%, Distribution to Gaussian and tick Monochromatic.

Step 4.

 

ReMove the selection (Select>Deselect>), we now select the Single Row Marquee Tool and click somewhere on the Noise rectangle we just created. This will create a single line of a selection, next click Layer>New>Layer via copy. This will promote the single row to a new Layer. The noise layer can now be hidden or removed.

Step 5.

We now use the Free Transform Tool (Edit>Free Transform>) to stretch the selection upwards, this will give us our barcode bars.

Step 6.

Make an new Layer Above our barcode,we now take the Rectangle Marquee Tool and draw a smaller rectangle at the bottom of our barcode. Leave a bit of the barcode at either side of the rectangle. Fill the Rectangle with White.

Step 7.

Select the Text Tool and add some numbers, position them inside the rectangle we just created. I used the Impact Font.

Step 8.

We now put a selection around our barcode using the Rectangle Marquee Tool again. Select Edit>Copy Merged. We now paste it onto our model and position it so it looks correct, I used a picture from http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/57360.

Step 9.

Select the Warp Tool and manipulate the barcode so it looks like it wraps around the arm, any left over bits remove using a Layer Mask.

Step 10.

We then remove all the white by changing the Layer Blending mode to Multiply. That’s it – fairly simple and straight forward – if you have any questions please let me know in the comments box and feel free to visit my website at simonrudd.info .