GIMP Vista Button

A friend of mine requested that i make a simple yet cool Vista style button tutorial for gimp, so here is what i came up with.

Step 1

Create a new image. 200x100 should be enough.

Step 2

Create new layer and name it vistabutton,grab the rectangle tool and draw a 100px50 rectangle.

Step 3

we will need to create a New Gradient for this vista button, so in the Gradient Dialog click on "new gradient" then right click on the left point and enter the color 252525, then right click the right end point and enter 9a9a9a...



Still in the gradient Right editor, right click on the middle point and select "Split segment at midpoint" then drag both new segments to the middle as shown below, then save.

Step 4

Grab the Blend tool select the new Vistabutton gradient we just made and apply it from bottom to top, make sure its perfectly straight, if you make a mistake then press CTRL+Z to Undo it.

Step 5

Now we will create a 1px outline around the button by Right clicking on the vista button layer, then click on "alpha to selection", create a new layer, name it "Outline" then go to select>Grow>1px.

Step 6

Change your foreground color to 424242 and fill the outline layer then place the layer behind the "vista button" layer.

Step 7

Zoom in to make it easy, and with the selection tool create a rectangle selection inside of the buttonas shown below.

Step 8

Now we will subtract the inner side of the rectangle we just created by either clicking on the "subtract from the current selection" button in the tool options, or pressing CTRL while drawing the rectangle.

Step 9

Create a New layer, Grab the Blend tool and apply a solid White colour to Transparent (FG to Transparent) Gradient from top to bottom ( make sure its straight) and finally adjusting the opacity to 64.

Step 10

Note* make sure you have the selection mode on "Replace the current Selection" after doing step 8. ok grab the rectangle selection tool and create another inner rectangle but this time at the bottom of the button.

Step 11

Grab the Blend tool, and in the "Tool Options" Drag the Opacity to 25 and change the " Shape to "Radial" now apply from the centre and drag the blend tool around 100px down.



This is how it should look

Step 12

Grab our favourite tool and create a 1px gradient at the bottom of the button

Step 13

Grab the "Blend tool" and adjust the "Opacity" to 80 and Shape to "Radial" then apply it from the middle to around 95px down.



It should look like this by now.

Step 14

Finally will Create the Reflection of the vista button by creating a rectangle selection half the size ofthe button,

Step 15

Set the Foreground colour set to cdcbcb use the (FG to Transparent) Gradient and apply it from from top to bottom. your done! your very Vista style button!



A sweet idea would be to make 2 different colours for roll-over effect by changing the colour of the radial gradient in step 11 to a blue.here is an example of a blue version.