Creating a Magnifying Glass from Scratch

In this tutorial, we will look at creating a magnifying glass from scratch. You can use this guide for any underlying image or text, to make it look as though it has been magnified somewhat.

We migrated our web sites to Server Intellect over one weekend and the setup was so smooth that we were up and running right away. They assisted us with everything we needed to do for all of our applications. With Server Intellect's help, we were able to avoid any headaches!

We will start with a blank canvas with the text or image we will have underneath the magnifying glass:

Next, make a selection with the elliptical marquee tool like so:

Create a new layer and fill the selection with a gradient like so:

Now create another new layer and right-click the selection or goto Edit > Stroke. Choose 10px, Outside, Black and you should have this:

We moved our web sites to Server Intellect and have found them to be incredibly professional. Their setup is very easy and we were up and running in no time.

This will be our frame for the glass. Create another new layer, then goto Select > Modify > Expand, by 5px and then Edit > Stroke, 2px, Center, White.

This will be the frame highlight. Now Ctrl-Click the frame layer to make a selection, and with the newest layer active (frame highlight), we will goto Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Choose somewhere around 2-3 pixels, or whatever you think looks best. Then with the same selection, goto Select > Modify > Expand, by about 2px. Then apply the Gaussian Blur to the original frame layer. Not much, only by about 0.5 or so. This is to just blend the edges a bit more. We should now have this:

Next, Ctrl-Click the glass layer to make a selection and hide the glass and frame layers, so we just have the text. Now make the text layer active and goto Filter > Distort > Pinch. If it asks you to Rasterize the Type first, click Yes, or Ok. Now choose a negative value of around -50, or whatever looks good for your effect.

Now unhide all layers and reduce the opacity of the glass layer down to 40% or so :

Need help with Windows Dedicated Hosting? Try Server Intellect. I'm a happy customer!

Now we want to add a lens glare to the glass to give it a more realistic look. Goto Filter > Render > Lens Flare. Choose one of the options, whichever looks best. And we'll get a subtle glass effect:

Finally, make a selection for the handle, wherever you want to put it. If you want it at an angle, you can use the Polygonal Lasso tool using Shift, to create 45° angles, like so:

Fill the selection in with any color on a new layer. Then goto the layer styles and add a gradient overlay. You may need to alter the scale and reposition it whilst in the layer styles window. You may also want to add a texture to it, using patter overlay.

We can add some further effects with drop shadows and duplication, blurring, and reducing opacity:

I just signed up at Server Intellect and couldn't be more pleased with my Windows Server! Check it out and see for yourself.

Guys, please take a look at Server Intellect for Windows Web Hosting. I'm very pleased. You will be too. Take a look and see for yourself!