How Make Brackets in Photoshop

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Whether you're plotting a win for the Final Four, lining up your fantasy baseball team or just need a way to pit entities against each other, brackets are a simple way to whittle groups or individuals down to a single one. When you take advantage of Photoshop, the Adobe Creative Suite graphics program, everyone's a winner with the software's quick drawing and replication tools, sure to spur you forward into the winning circle.

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Step 1

Open Photoshop. Click the "File" menu. Click "New." Type "Brackets" into the "Name" field. Type the document's width and height, such as "11" and "8.5" respectively for a piece of copy paper. Pull down the dimensions menu and select "inches." Click the "OK" button.

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Step 2

Double-click the top-left square of the "Color Picker" at the bottom of the "Tools" pane, and select a color for the brackets -- or leave the default as black.

Step 3

Right-click the shape icon of a rectangle, star or circle to get a fly-out menu. Select "Line Tool."

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Step 4

Press and hold down the "Shift" key on the keyboard. Click the "Brackets" box, and draw the first line of the bracket, such as the top of a square or the top line of an "E" bracket without the middle line.

Step 5

Repeat the line drawing process until one single bracket is complete.

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Step 6

Click the "Window" menu and select "Layers." The "Layers" palette opens with each line in a shape layer and one blank Background layer. Press and hold down the "Shift" key on the keyboard and click each shape layer once so they're all highlighted, except the background layer. Click the small, lined icon at the top-right of the window, and click "Merge Layers." All the lines of the bracket merge into a single shape layer.

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Step 7

Right-click the shape layer and select "Duplicate Layer." Click "OK." Drag the copy of the layer underneath the first bracket into place.

Step 8

Repeat the "Duplicate Layer" process until all brackets on the left side of the workspace are filled in.

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Step 9

Repeat the "Duplicate Layer" process one more time. Click the "Edit" menu, click "Transform" and select "Flip Horizontal." The bracket flips to correspond to the other side of the bracket page. Drag it into place, then repeat the "Duplicate Layer" process (making sure to duplicate this last flipped layer) until the entire bracket board is filled in.

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Step 10

Click the "Type" tool, which looks like a "T" on the "Tools" pane. Select a font, color and size from the toolbar at the top of the screen. Click onto the top-left bracket and type the name, team or item. Repeat until all brackets are identified.

Step 11

Click the small lined icon again and select "Flatten Image." All the layers combine into one with the background.

Step 12

Click the "File" menu, select "Save As," choose a destination to save the bracket and click "Save."

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