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In this tutorial I am going to show you the basics when creating a Call to Action Button and learn you how to design one in Adobe Photoshop with some basic techniques you can put into practice in future projects.

Call to action buttons are the buttons that you want all your users click on when they are on your site. Normally they’ll link to free stuffs, rss subscriptions, signup or sales pages.

How to design a great call to action button

Your call to action button needs to be obvious and well place so the user should see it in the first five seconds, when scanning your pages, before even think to left the site. Here’s 5 characteristics of a good call to action button.

1. Place

It should be place where the user would expect to find it easily. In the header, beside a product, navigation bar, wherever you place it, it should be not hard to find.

2. Colour

The colour should grab the eye of the visitor and become an interesting point on the page, usually you get this with brighter or contrasting colors.

3. Action verb

The word you use to communicate with your user is really important. Verbs like free (one of the most used), sing up, download, subscribe, etc. Try to use short and active words so the visitor can easily read and make what it says, with out thinking to much. If you have a button with a 3 line text, that is not a call to action button is a text box.

4. Size

This is the most important button on your site and the objective is to have as more clicks on it as possible, if you make it bigger than any other button and give the user a great area to click on, the chances can get bigger, but dont forget, not always bigger is better, have always in mind the design of your site.

5. Clear

Your button shouldn’t be full of text, images or elements. The text needs sufficient padding so it can be read easily. Also put it in a simple place where it can be distinguished form the elements around.

Once we know that, we can easily create our Call to Action Button

Now Let’s Start The Tutorial

Start a new document 300 x 200 px. Use your prefered background color, I’ve chosed a gray gradient background.

Pick #181818 as background and #343434 as the foreground take the gradient tool and select radial gradiet and starting from the middle of your canvas drag towards one of the edges either left or right, top or bottom. You should have something like this.

step_01

Select the rounded rectagle tool from the sidebar. (You can also use a custom shape if you want).

step_02

Make a rectangle in the middle of your camvas the size you want.

step_02_1

Go to Layers, and make right click on you shape layer (in my case rectangle), then select Blending Options.

step_03

Now add these Layer Styles.

step_04step_05step_06step_07step_08

You click OK and now you should have something like this.

step_09

Create a new layer, name it bright, and make an ellipse over the middle top of the button, using the Elliptical Marquee Tool in the sidebar.

step_10

Then fill it with a withe color like this. (Don’t worry if it looks ugly)

step_11

Now holding shift, make right click over your shape layer for grab the rectangle as a selection, then go back to your bright layer and now,  go to Select > Inverse or (CTRL+SHIFT+I)

step_12

Press the delete key and set the layer opacity to about 15%. You should have something like this.

step_13

Now write your call to action phrase, something like: Download, Free, Sign up, what ever you want. Fill it with any color then add these layer styles.

step_14step_15step_16

You should have something like this. A Call to Action Button.

step_17

Then you can ad a small element like an arrow or a plus it depends on you, to give it more value to your button.

final_call_to_action_button

Thats all, now you have a Call To Action Button, in some simple steps.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  If you like this tutorial just let me a comment bellow with your thought or suggestions.


Our testking JN0-304 tutorial will provide you ample information about basics when creating a call to action button. Download the testking XK0-002 demo and testking 70-630 design guide to learn how to design call to action button in adobe photoshop.

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This article was Written by:

Luis Lopez - He's writen 40 posts in Blog.Exxcorpio.

I'm a Colombian graphic, webdesigner and actually doing a master degree in animation and special effects in Paris-France. Also I work as freelancer, Blogger and I love learnning every thing I can, And I do love soccer. You can visit my portfolio and follow me on Twitter.

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24 Responses


  1. [...] more:  Beginner Photoshop Tutorial – Create a Call To Action Button … SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Beginner Photoshop Tutorial – Create a Call To Action Button [...]

  2. Lauren on 19 Jun 2009

    Thanks, this is a simple but useful tutorial. :)

    • Luis Lopez on 19 Jun 2009

      Yes, is simple cause is my first tutorial, so next ones will be more complicated I think.

  3. Andres on 20 Jun 2009

    Cool!!!

    I’m gonna try it =)

    • Luis Lopez on 20 Jun 2009

      @David
      Yes that’s the idea, You should try it, is nothing difficult and in ten/fifteen minutes you can have a cool result.

  4. Mohammad on 20 Jun 2009

    thanks :)

    I like it

    I hope to see more :)

  5. gameskillz on 25 Jun 2009

    simple but effective tuto.

  6. zoenutvhijn on 25 Jun 2009

    great tutorial

  7. imignishTog on 28 Jun 2009

    great idea, i’ll try it for my site

  8. germot on 29 Jun 2009

    good tut but you could make like a layout? its better

  9. quick stocks on 13 Jul 2009

    Interesting content, will definitely visit soon,

  10. Farga on 15 Jul 2009

    Hi there, thanks a million for this informative tutorial. The tutorial helped me improving my skills a little bit more. It is ever great to get some formidable inspiration and I hope to find more of such articles here the next time because no one will ever stop learning new things. Go ahead

  11. Raymond Selda on 16 Jul 2009

    Really simple but very effective button Luis. There are many button tutorials similar to this one but your button styles really got my attention among others. I think I’ve found my favorite button tutorial! Thanks for sharing and keep it coming.
    .-= Raymond Selda´s last blog ..Create a Brown Web Portfolio Design in Photoshop =-.

  12. EUNA on 21 Jul 2009

    Well button job. will come back soon.

  13. Lauren on 25 Aug 2009

    Hey it’s me again, I just acme by o see if you had anymore tutorials. Write more, I suck at photoshop! :P
    .-= Lauren´s last blog ..Free Twitter Icons & Graphics Set =-.

    • Luis Lopez on 26 Aug 2009

      @Lauren: Next weeks I have a new photoshop tutorial so I let you know first when is ready.

  14. adri_rory on 07 Oct 2009

    Thanks for sharing and keep them coming !
    Really nice button !
    .-= adri_rory´s last blog ..Photoshop – pencil sketch =-.

  15. geceIndurne on 01 Jan 2010

    Thankz for the informations!!

  16. Dale Berkebile on 11 Jan 2010

    Thanks for posting this. I really like how easy this was to create. You made it easy to develop the great buttons. We will use this in the future. I look forward to seeing more of your posts.

  17. www.bulkdomainnews.com on 30 May 2010

    I am a huge lover of your weblog! Look at my website, You can check your weblog there!

  18. Alex Shadwell on 27 Jun 2010

    Hay, i am the owner of vacationtravelmagazine.com .Thank’s for sharing this news.This is very helpful and informative material.Good post and keep it up dude.

  19. [...] Create a Call To Action Button [...]