Photoshop templates are often overlooked by those who already know what they’re doing. If you’re a novice interested in customizing professional designs (and perhaps even eventually moving on to author some of your own originals!), Photoshop templates will undoubtedly be a welcome addition to your graphic design process from here on out.
Where to Find Templates in Photoshop
To use a Photoshop template, you’ll need to create a new document. You can select a template to use at start-up, alongside all of your other new document options.
At the top, you’ll notice that we start out with the Recents tab. You can click over to Photo, Art & Illustration, Web, or any of the others.
Select any of the options in front of you. In this menu’s sidebar, you’ll be able to read a bit more about the Photoshop template itself—the size of the document, the color space, whether or not it comes with alternative options, and even simple things like the file size.
All of the Photoshop templates here, by default, cost nothing. You’ll find premium Adobe templates beyond these on Adobe Stock, just in case you aren’t seeing exactly what you’re looking for.
You can actually search the entire Adobe Stock collection using the convenient little search bar, just below the template directory.
Just enter anything you want; you’ll be taken to the Adobe Stock website, where you’ll find results relevant to your search. Some of what you’ll find here will be free; other templates will not be.
You can sign up for an Adobe Stock subscription for instant access (or partake in a fraudulent trial, if you’re really desperate—no judgement here).
For now, let’s hold off on acquiring anything outside of the Photoshop default templates—honestly, these Bauhaus business cards are really speaking to me.
Let’s take them out for a quick test run; select any Photoshop template you like and hit Download. Once it’s arrived, click Open to continue.
How to Use and Customize Photoshop Templates
Immediately, we’ve already got a fully-blown graphic design project in front of us; these cards are gorgeous and professional-looking. If you’re just learning Photoshop for the first time, Photoshop templates provide an excellent insider’s perspective on how a project should be laid out and organized.
All of these layers are live, raw, and totally un-rasterized. You’re free to edit any of the info here, and even to customize the design and color scheme.
If you see anything that you would like to change, you can use the Move tool with Auto-Select enabled. Click on the element that you want to modify, and it should become the active layer in the Layers panel. From here, you can do whatever you need to do until you’ve got the look.
Here, you can see that we’ve shift-selected each of these groups of shapes by color and replaced what was there with something much less attractive. This is only one simple example of what you can do at this juncture, however.
We highly recommend digging through any template that intrigues you; you’ll get a behind-the-scenes exclusive on just what exactly goes into a professional graphic design project in many capacities. It’s the perfect way to get inspired when you’re stuck for a new idea.
Photoshop Templates: Asset Packs and Texture Packs
Under Art & Illustration, you’ll find a veritable boatload of helpful asset collections, including many free texture packs that you can use to supplement your own Photoshop projects.
A fair warning: some of these are huge downloads—Photoshop will let you know if you’re about to grab something that’s over 100 MB. Today, we’re going to go ahead and steamroll right through this prompt.
One high-quality example of the type of thing you’ll find here: the Dreamy Watercolor Textures Set by Dreamstale.
Not only does this Photoshop template include several generic options, all of which would be perfect for a website background or the backdrop for any other visual presentation—there are also a few pre-made filtering options included to the left. You can choose any of these on-the-fly, redesigning your layout without missing a beat.
Another favorite of ours has got to be the Floral and Plant Scene Kit by MrMockup. Instead of giving you a series of textured plates, Photoshop templates like this put an incredible line-up of professionally-photographed graphic elements to intersperse throughout your project.
You’re free to tinker with these gorgeous new graphics—even the shadows are all on separate layers, saving you the trouble of isolating each object manually. It’s a hassle-free luxury that makes putting something polished together quickly an absolute pleasure.
How to Use Photoshop Templates for Social Media
Next up: the Mobile tab. Here, you’ll find a collection of stunning mobile media templates, all just as customizable as the others that we’ve seen thus far.
You can use these designs in any of your favorite places to share your stories or promote yourself. As with the rest, adding your own images and text is a breeze. They’re incredibly useful branded solutions for those who maintain extremely active feeds.
Earthy Geometric Social Stories Set by You and I Graphics is one classy stand-out, but there are dozens to choose from.
Aside from all of these professionally-designed social media templates, you’ll also find a bunch of really handy blank templates for app development.
This includes not only cross-functional templates, such as those bridging the gap between iPhone and Apple Watch, but also templates for designing app icons for desktop, mobile, Spotlight, and more.
Photoshop Templates for DIY and Crafters
Finally, let’s talk about Photoshop templates for arts and crafts, especially scrapbooking. We’re going to hop back over to the Photo tab to take a closer look at some of the cool photo frames, scrapbook layouts, and collage templates Photoshop has to offer.
Here, you can see that several different styles are represented: you’ll find standalone overlays to incorporate into existing designs, as well as full-page fare for those starting from square one.
Here, you can see that we’ve chosen Scrapbook Collage Moodboard by Wavebreak Media. It’s a fun and free-spirited scrapbook template that will only take on life as you add each of your own most-cherished memories.
Photoshop Templates Leave the Impression of a Lifetime
With Photoshop templates, you can quickly and easily create a variety of multimedia projects. You’ll never have to stare at a blank Photoshop document again.
In this article, we’ve just barely scratched the surface, but there’s an entire world of creators constantly coming up with fresh, novel content. Who knows? After a bit of practice, you might end up becoming one yourself.
