Custom Splash Screen Tutorial for Photoshop

[Evangeline Mcdowell]

This was the tutorial I wrote waaaaaay back for noated. Just transfered it here in case anyone wants it.

Bored and had nothing to do so..... �_�


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Table of Contents
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I Background Info
II Resources Needed
III How to Do it

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I Background Info
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Ever wished you can change that boring old photoshop splash screen into something more you? I've been looking around on the net trying to find a way to do this, but all the tutorials I've found were for Macs. As far as I know, this is the first splash screen tutorial for Windows Systems. This tutorial only covers changing the Splash screen for Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Although the process is the same for Illustrator and Photoshop CS, there are a few fundamental differences (such as which resources contain the files you wish to change). Although this tutorial only covers Photoshop, you can use the same techniques for changing resources in other programs like Windows Media player or Winamp.

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II Resources Needed
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Okay, to start things off....a list...

- A copy of Adobe Photoshop
Yes...you need it!

- Reshack
Reshack is a FREEWARE utility to view, modify, add, rename and delete resources in Win32 executables and resource files. Incorporates an internal resource compiler and decompiler. Works on Win9x, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP. You can get this from
http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

- Some good art
For your future splash screen. Whatever it is, make it look good.

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III How to Do it
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Okay... got both of them? Now for the tutorial...

1) First, of, make sure you exit photoshop first. Fire up Reshack, then click on File>Open. Select PSViews.dll from the main Photoshop directory. This can usually be found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\

For the CS users, I think its PSArt.dll, but since I don't have a copy of CS, just try looking through the dll's. Maybe you'll find something more interesting ^_~ Make sure you back up anything you plan to change first, just in case something horrible happens.


2) Once Reshack loads up the dll, you will be presented with an explorer style view of the dll's internal resources. You can mess around with all the rest later, for now, go to PNGF > SPLASHART.PNG Expand the folder, and you will see a resource named 1033. This is the actual .png file used by photoshop as a splash screen, but Adobe Programmers encoded it as a hex string instead of a normal file, no doubt to further confuse would-be reverse engineers.

3) Now that you have found where exactly photoshop keeps it's splash screen, it's all a matter of swapping the default file, for one of your own customized ones. To do this, first select the resource 1033, then click on Action > Save Resource as Binary file on the main menu. Save it as whatever you want, anywhere you want but make sure it's extension is .png so you can read it.

4) Now that you have saved the splash screen as a viewable/editable png file, it's all a matter of editing the splash screen to your preferences. Just take note of the little white space where the credits usually goes. After you're done editing, just save it as an ordinary png file.

5) Now, back to Reshack. Select on resource 1033 again, and this time, right click on it. This will bring out a menu, just choose "Replace Resource" , and then, click on "Open file with new resource". Choose your brand new splash screen, then when reshack prompts you for the resource's information, just type the following:

Resource Type: PNGF
Resource Name: SPLASHART.PNG
Resource Language: 1033

Then click on replace. Once you have replaced the resource, just save the dll, by going to File > Save and you are done! If at first your splash screen doesn't show up, make sure that photoshop is not running, then try saving the dll again. This isn't restricted to just the splash screen. There are a bunch of other stuff you can also change in here. Go ahead and try to explore. Heck if you're patient enough, you could try replacing all the resources and 'skinning' Photoshop. Just remember to back up the files you are going to work on in case something goes wrong.

[Evangeline Mcdowell]

Sample of what you can do...

http://e-shuushuu.net/images/2006-05-17-21575.jpg

[/img]

[Fettgans]

Thanks for this tuto

Yes it is PSArt.dll with CS but the ressource of the splash screen isn't anymore "SPLASHART.PNG" but "SPLASHARTFEATHER.PNG".

ResourceHacker is a nice little tool

[Drake]

thak you a lot evangeline ^^ I'm gonna try it when I'll have some time to loose ^^ (for the time being I dont )

[onomeister]

wow, that was an excellent tutorial...and welcome to Eshuushuu Evangeline (saw some of your image postings on the board). I hope we can get various links or other tutorials like this up in a collection on our lil forum here! (we already have some links for 'vectoring') a one-stop cg/graphics tutorial haven!