Create a PRECISE Grid Overlay in Photoshop

APPLY A CUSTOM GRID EFFECT TO ANY IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP! | Learn to create a custom, exactly precise grid pattern that will automatically work perfectly with any image in this Photoshop tutorial.

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll create an exact 1×1 inch pattern overlay that can be placed over any image or graphic. This grid will save with or be printed with the file and can be useful for sketching or building a reference grid over a complicated piece of artwork.

Tags: photoshop tutorial, photoshop grid, grid effect, place grid over image, photoshop grid effect, photoshop CC, photoshop tutorials, Adobe Photoshop, sketch grid photoshop, graphic design photoshop, how to, photoshop help, tutvid, nathaniel dodson, FEAT

Tutorial Recording Notes:

Disclaimer: these are the actual notes I used to record this video and are written in a language you may or may not understand. Hopefully, you find them useful or cool.

1. The goal here is to create an inch by inch grid that can be placed over any image that you’re working on.
2. Use the crop tool to crop the image to 24in X 18in at 300ppi
3. Note that the ppi setting is important to remember, but it can be any number you like.
4. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + R to turn on the rulers and right-click on the rulers and choose to view the inches
5. Show how you can create a grid layout 24×18 and show how this lines up perfectly with the inch markers, but this will not appear on a printed image or when you export a JPEG
6. We need something more permanent so create a new document and set the size to 1 inch by 1 inch and make sure you set the ppi to the same ppi you set in the Crop tool earlier
7. In this new document grab the rectangle tool and click a single time and create a rectangle that is 1 in X 5px and set the fill to black(this will be the color of your grid), no stroke and make sure snapping is turned on and drag this shape to the bottom of the document.
8. Duplicate this shape and use Free Transform to rotate upright and drag to the right side of the document.
9. Merge these shape layers together and unlock and delete the background layer
10. Go Edit> and define this as a pattern. Name it 1x1inch300ppi.
11. Go to the image where you want the grid and add a Pattern fill layer and choose this new pattern.
12. We can now double check this pattern by dropping that 24×18 guide layout over this again and see how good it is.
13. A couple final things. You can use this new grid on any 300ppi image regardless of the size. The important factor is that 300ppi.
14. Create a 10x10inch image and show how the grid still works.
    If you don’t want to crop the image, use the Crop tool, but don’t input anything into width/height, but do change the ppi to 300 and commit the change.
15. The image will change pixel size, but everything will be at that 300ppi and none of the image will be cropped away and lost.
16. The new, uncropped image is ready to accept that grid that we created.
17. Of course, you could always make grids for 72ppi, 96ppi, and 150ppi images as well. This would ensure your grid is always at the 1x1inch size.
18. Show how to use a clipped Hue/Saturation layer to convert a black grid to white, etc…