Scan Lines

This is a very requested technique that simulates the lines of a TV screen, this technique is used all over the graphics world.

Lets prepare our lines. Create a new document 2 X 4 pixels for web and try experiment with higher settings for print like 6X12. Also I like to set the contents (background) to transparent.

with the foreground color set to black take the pencil tool and paint the top half of the image.

Select all or press Cntrl/Cmd +A

Edit>Define pattern

This box will come up in PS 6, in previous versions you won't see anything, that is fine. What I love about 6.0 is that when you define a pattern, it is saved in the library for future use.

Open the image you want to add the scan lines to. Or make a selection if you dont want to apply the effect to the entire image.

Create a new blank layer above the image.

Press Shift backspace (shift+Del on the Mac) to open the fill dialog box.

Make pattern the content and in version 6 select our scan line pattern in the custom pattern tab.

Click ok and there it is!

change to Overlay mode and drop the opacity down till it looks good

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Discuss techniques in our forum