Do you want to simply add a puzzle texture to your photo or illustration? You don’t want to cut it into puzzle pieces. But, you don’t find where is the puzzle texture though there are many posts speaking about it. Here you shall see step-by-step how to reach The Hidden Puzzle Texture and how to use it efficiently. If you prefer to see this tutorial as a video you can follow this link or watch it below before reading the step-by-step procedure.
If you have Styles panel in your Side panel, You can skip the first step.
To show the Styles Panel click on, menu > Window > Styles
Or click on the Search icon on the top right panel or menu >Edit> Search, and type Styles Panel. Photoshop will Highlight it with a blue shadow
Second Step, Navigate to Legacy Puzzle Texture
Beside the Styles Panel as in the image to the side, you will find a menu icon as 5 horizontal lines
When You click on it, you will open a styles menu and near the end, you will find "Legacy Styles and More"
When You click on it, It will add the "LegacyStyles and More" folder in the Styles Panel
Under this folder, there are 2 folders: 20119 Styles & All Legacy Default Styles
Under All Legacy Default Styles, navigate to Image Effects
It will open the styles icons, find this one here in 3rd row if you are working width minimum width of the side panel
Third Step, Apply the puzzle texture effect on Images
A. Embed the image in a frame of your choice. Photoshop algorithms will automatically convert the image to fit the canvas size and resolution set in your file keeping the aspect ration.
there is a default setting for the puzzle texture size which is linked to the pixels per inch or the resolution of your canvas
If you select a canvas 1000x1000px with resolution 72 px/in you will get a certain effect as Image 1 to the left below
In case you started with 1000x1000px canvas and 300px/in, you will find the puzzle texture increase as in Image 2 to the right below
image 1, 1000x1000px, 72px/in resolution
image 2, 1000x1000px, 300px/in resolution
B. Apply the Puzzle Texture directly to an Image by opening it in Photoshop
Open the Image directly from menu>File>open
Check the Image size from menu>Image>Image Size
There You can see as in Image 1 below:
Original Image Size in pixels as 3024 px by 4032 px
Resolution in pixels/Inch as 72 pixels/inch
The size it will convert to in inches 42x 46 inches based on the resolution
A sign that width, height, and resolution are linked
A selection to Fit in the original size of pixels if you changed the resolution
Now apply the puzzle texture from the :
If your Image appears in the Layers Side panel as locked with a padlock key beside it, click on it to unlock for edit
Or, duplicate the background as a layer by right-clicking on it and selecting duplicate or, from menu>Layers>Duplicate Layer and apply your edits to the new layer
Then from the Styles Side Panel select the puzzle texture as in Step Second above
You can See the effect in the below Image 2 to the right after zooming in to 50%
Image 1, Linked image aspects
Now, ctrl+z to undo the puzzle texture
Then go back to menu > Image>Image Size :
Change resolution to 300 pixels/inch
Make sure that Resample is unchecked. Otherwise, it will keep the inches size and increase the pixels size to 4 times which amplifies the file size and will keep the puzzle texture as the old one at the same view.
You will find that printing size is now 1/4 as in Image 1 to the left below
Then, apply the Puzzle Texture again
You can see the difference at the same zoom, in Image 2 to the left below
Image 1
Image 2
We shall cover how to Style the contour lines of the puzzle pieces in the coming Post
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