Online PS Tutorial: Designing an Invitation

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An invitation is not hard; the details are what take care. A deep-blue ground, a white inner frame, a heart shape carrying the title, small floral flourishes and the body copy — eight steps to an invitation you can send out as it is. Change the palette in Online PS and it suits a different occasion.

1. Create the canvas

  1. Open Online PS and click File → New in the top-left (or press Ctrl+N).
  2. In the dialog that appears, set:
    • Width 800 px, height 1200 px.
    • Background contents White (white is already the default; you can also set “Background” to “White”.)
    • Leave the resolution at the default 72 dpi (this is for on-screen display).
  3. Confirm and click Create to get a blank white canvas.

2. Fill the background with deep blue

  1. Click the Foreground Color swatch on the left of the toolbar to open the colour picker.
  2. Type #003366 (deep blue) into the HSL / HEX field and confirm.
  3. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Backspace (or Edit → Fill) to open the fill dialog, choose “Use: Foreground Color” and click OK.
  4. The canvas is now filled with deep blue.

3. Draw the white rectangle

  1. Select the Rectangle tool (U) in the left toolbar and make sure the mode is Shape rather than Path.
  2. In the options bar at the top, set Fill to #FFFFFF (white) and turn the stroke off (Stroke set to None).
  3. Click and drag in the centre of the canvas to draw a white rectangle roughly 700 px wide and 1000 px high, leaving a deep-blue border all round. Typing the width and height into the options bar keeps the size exact.
  4. You now have a large white rectangle sitting on the deep-blue ground.

4. Draw the inner deep-blue rectangle

  1. Still with the Rectangle tool, change Fill to #003366 (deep blue) and turn the stroke off.
  2. Inside the white rectangle, draw a slightly smaller one — around 620 px wide and 900 px high — and keep it centred.
  3. You can enter X, Y, W, H in the options bar to position it quickly and keep it centred.

5. Draw and adjust the heart shape

  1. Switch to the Custom Shape tool (U) in the left toolbar (press and hold the Rectangle tool, or press U and pick the shape).
  2. Find the Heart shape in the shape library at the top. If it is not there, click “More Shapes…”, search for “heart” and import it.
  3. In the options bar, set Fill to #FF6666 (light red) or a colour you like, and turn the stroke off.
  4. Drag in the top-left or top-right corner of the canvas (whichever suits the layout) to draw the heart, starting at around 200 px × 180 px.
  5. With the heart selected, use Edit → Transform → Distort (Ctrl+T → right-click → Distort) to skew and stretch it into an angle that fits the invitation's decoration.
  6. Then drag the heart into the best position with the mouse (near the top-left or top-right of the text area works well as a decorative accent).

6. Type “INVITATION” inside the heart

  1. Select the Horizontal Type tool (T) in the left toolbar and set the text colour to #FFFFFF (white) or deep blue, whichever contrasts better with the shape.
  2. Click once inside the heart; a text box appears — type “INVITATION” and add letter spacing so the word spreads across the shape.
  3. Choose a suitable font in the options bar (for example “Microsoft YaHei” or “Source Han Sans”; use “FangZheng KaiTi” if you want something more formal).
  4. Set the size to 80 pt (adjust it to the size of the heart) and turn on Bold or Italic so the word stands out.
  5. Nudge the text with the Move tool (V) so it sits centred inside the heart.

7. Add small floral flourishes to the type

  1. Still with the Custom Shape tool (U), search the shape library for “floral” or “ornament”. Pick two fine flourish patterns you like.
  2. Set the flourish Fill to #FFFFFF and turn the stroke off.
  3. Place one flourish to the upper-left of the first letter and the other to the lower-right of the last (or either side of the two lines), scaling them to suit (about 30 px wide).
  4. If a flourish is too large or badly placed, select it and adjust again with Free Transform (Ctrl+T).
  5. Once done, the type and decoration look more refined, with a stronger sense of layers.

8. Add the body copy of the invitation

  1. Select the Horizontal Type tool (T) again, click in an empty area of the white rectangle (or inside the deep blue) and type the event details, for example: 
    Date: Saturday, 15 March 2026, 19:00
Venue: Banquet Hall, XXX Hotel, Beijing
Theme: Spring party
Please reply by 10 March
  2. Choose a suitable font size (say 48 pt) and line spacing (about 1.2), and set the colour to deep blue or black.
  3. Add or remove lines as needed, and use the alignment buttons (left align / centre) to keep the layout tidy.
  4. Save the piece: File → Export As → PNG/JPEG (or simply Ctrl+Shift+S) to download the invitation image.

References

  • Online PS
  • Adobe official documentation
  • Photoshop tutorial sites
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