Creating templates for your Instagram Stories is a great way to save time, represent your brand, and create captivating stories that your followers won’t want to skip. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to edit Instagram Stories templates using Adobe Photoshop!
If you edit Instagram Stories using Photoshop templates, you have endless creative possibilities, giving you the ability to design and create engaging stories without a lot of work.
How to Edit Instagram Stories Templates with Adobe Photoshop
With so many brands, businesses, and influencers trying to curate a brand aesthetic on Instagram, it’s important to keep your aesthetic consistent across your Instagram Stories too.
Using Instagram Stories templates is an easy way to ensure that your stories look as branded as your feed.
But if you feel intimidated by the thought of creating Instagram Stories in Adobe Photoshop – you’re not alone!
Turns out that using Photoshop for Instagram Stories isn’t that hard if you start with a template, and we’ll walk you through every step of the editing process in this blog post (or watch the video above!).
There are tons of templates available to purchase from Instagram creators and influencers, but if you’d like to get started straight away, you can download Later’s free Photoshop templates for Instagram Stories.
You’ll need to have an Adobe account to download Photoshop, but if you already have it on your computer, you can jump right into our steps below!
Just remember that Adobe Photoshop isn’t a free software, so you’ll need to purchase a license if you haven’t already (starting at $9.99/month).
Step #1: Download and Install Your Instagram Stories Templates for Photoshop
If you want to get started with our 19 free Instagram Stories templates, start by entering your email below and we’ll send the files right to your inbox!
Once you get the email, press the “download now” button.
A .zip file will be downloaded to your computer containing all the Photoshop template files, font files (we’ll chat more about these later), and a guide for using the templates!
Note: There are tons of different ways to edit in Photoshop, and different creators will have different ways of doing things! So if you edit Instagram Stories templates from other creators, they may have different guidelines on how to edit their templates with Photoshop.
Once the .zip file is downloaded to your computer, open it to unzip it.
For Mac users, start by opening the Typeface file and double-click both files named “Montserrat – Bold” and “Montserrat – Regular” inside the folder. A pop-up box will appear showing you the font and then click “Install Font.” If you’re working from a Windows PC, you can follow these steps.
Once your fonts are installed, you can open Photoshop on your desktop. From here, you can go to File > Open and select the template from the Later Templates folder you want to work from on your desktop.
Step #2: Create Your Color Palette to Edit Instagram Stories Templates
Maintaining your aesthetic on Instagram Stories is so important for keeping that cohesive look and feel across all your platforms and building brand recognition.
One of the best things about editing Instagram Stories with Photoshop is that you can really pinpoint and design your stories to match your brand’s color palette.
Here’s how to make color edits on your Instagram Stories template with Photoshop:
Tap the Layers icon in the right-hand corner of your Photoshop dashboard — it looks like two squares stacked on top of each other.
This will open up a box with editing options for the editable layers of your image.
Click on the Background group in the Layers box (look for the folder icon) and select the color you want to change.
To customize the color, you then want to tap on the small square icon on top of the template’s color.
This will open the Color Picker box. You can move the small circle around the color palette, or move the arrows up and down the color scale to select exactly what color you want to try out.
Or if you have brand assets and colors already decided for your brand, you can use the RGB boxes or insert the precise color code!
Repeat the steps above for every layer in the template to edit your design to suit your color palette.
If you’re looking for color inspiration, you can use the Adobe tool Color CC!
It’s a really simple and intuitive tool that lets you play around with color tones and suggests a color palette or combination that’s complementary to each other. You can even look at just monochromatic color palettes if you’d like to find different versions of the same color that work well together.
If you’ve got some great images in mind for your Instagram Stories, and you want to find colors to use in your template that will compliment them, the tool can even pull color suggestions from a photo!
Just upload an image using the camera icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen and it will populate some color combinations that will work well with that photo!
You can play around with different saturation, tones, and hues on the display option.
And if you really want to focus in on a few select colors, just click and drag the small circles on the image to where you want to fo focus on.
The level of detail on color selection is incredible in the tool — you can really experiment with the right tone of yellow or brightest level of orange you want for your photos, and it all happens in just a few seconds!
Once you’re happy with your color palette that’s been chosen from your image, just click “Save” and name your new color palette. Then you can download it to your desktop, where it can then be added to your Photoshop color swatches!
To import your new color palette to Photoshop:
Go to Window and then select Swatches.
This will open another editing box for your swatches.
Tap on the small square in the corner of the Swatches editing box, and select ‘Load Swatches’.
This will open up your files. Simply search and select the Adobe Color CC swatches file you just downloaded.
The colors will then appear in your swatches folder on Photoshop.
Now you’ll want to pull your swatches editing box to the side of your screen, somewhere out of the way of your template, but also within easy access.
Return to the Layers editing box and select the section of the template you want to edit.
Then tap the small square inside the color option, and move your cursor over to your swatches. Your cursor will change to the eyedropper tool and you can hover over the swatches colors you’ve just added, and click to select the one you want to use.
Then you can play around with all the customizable elements in your template, and assign a color from your swatches.
Not sure where to start when it comes to branding your business on Instagram Stories? No worries! Check out our free video guide to help you find and create a killer aesthetic for your Instagram Stories and get more followers!
Step #3: Add Your Own Photos to Your Instagram Stories Photoshop Template
Now that you have your brand colors, it’s time to add in your photos and design your story!
If you think of your Instagram Stories as an extension of your feed, try to use images in your templates that are of equally high quality and match the overall aesthetic of your brand!
Here’s how to edit images in Instagram Stories templates with Photoshop
Start by opening the Layers editing box from the right hand of your Photoshop desktop. If you can’t see the Layers editing box, you can go to the navigation bar at the top of your screen, click Window > Layers.
Select the Images folder and press the down arrow beside the folder icon.
This will open up a list of the images that are already present in the template. To change them, click on the small square icon in the corner of the image preview in the Layer’s editing box.
This will open up the image in another tab, and if you want, you can edit the existing image from this tab.
But if you want to replace your image, open your files and click and drag the image you want to insert into your template into the new tab that opened for the image.
To resize, remember to click and drag holding the shift button on your keyboard so your image does not distort and it keeps the correct aspect ratio.
Once you’re happy with the size and placement of the new image, click File > Save to save.
Then return to your template editing tab and see what it looks like with your new image upload!
You can repeat this step with any other images that are in your template and replace them with your own. Just remember to edit the new image in the tab that opens up when you select the image later from the Later editing box.
Step #4: Changing Fonts in Instagram Stories Templates using Photoshop
The best thing about creating Instagram Stories templates in Photoshop is that everything is customizable, including the fonts! Using your brand font is a great way to keep your stories recognizable.
If you don’t already have a specific font in mind, one of the best places to find beautiful and free fonts for your Instagram Stories templates is Google Fonts!
You can search all of Google’s free font options and choose to refine your search if you already have a font in mind. Just click on the “Filter” button and screen and select the options that best applies to your brand’s style.
Remember your fonts on your Instagram Stories should be clear and easy to read. Your phone screen and the Instagram Stories dimensions really don’t give you a lot of room to work with, so you’ll want to make sure your fonts are as simple, and clear as possible.
Or if you know the exact name of the font you want to use, like Roboto for example, just type it into the search bar!
You can also see options like the weight of the font, the bold and italic version. You can also view just the alphabet, instead of the sample sentence, just tap the first drop-down menu under your font name and select “Alphabet”.
Once you’ve chosen your font, click small red plus symbol above the font to select it. This will bring up a pop-up box at the bottom of your screen. Then click this box.
From there, you can click the “download” button in the top right-hand corner and your files will begin to download to your computer.
Just like we did for the Later Instagram Stories templates font files, you’ll need to double-click on this file once it’s fully downloaded and select “install.” Then your font files will be added to your computer and will appear in the drop-down list of font options in Photoshop!
To change the font and the sample text on any piece of content in your Instagram Stories template in Photoshop, just select the Text Layer from your Layer editing window.
To change text, select the layer for the content you want to change and press T on your keyboard and start typing your new text!
Once you’ve inserted your new text, you can change the font, the size, the weight of the font, or make it italic, bold, or light using the options in the toolbar across the top of your editing screen.
Finally, to change the color of your text, highlight the text you want to edit, and then navigate to the icon in the bottom right-hand corner that looks like two colored squares on top of each other.
Click on the box that is the current color of your text, this will open up a color selector tool. Again, just like your color edits, you can play around with the color wheel, or select from your swatches to change the font color of your Instagram Stories text!
Step #5: Saving and Exporting Your Instagram Stories in Adobe Photoshop
Ready to publish your customized Instagram Stories? It couldn’t be easier!
Go to File > Export in Photoshop and select “Save for web.”
From here, you’ll be able to change some of the files settings, but for social media images, you can use the file extension .png, .jpg, or .gif. We’d recommend keeping it as a .jpg file or a .png file.
If you think the file size might be too big — depending on the file size of the photos you used in your templates, the overall size of your Instagram Stories template file you’re exporting could be quite big — you can use the percentage box to reduce the size if needed.
Click “Save,” name your file, and save it to a folder or to your desktop.
Now it’s time to get your files from your desktop to your phone. You can use Airdrop if you’re a Mac user, or Dropbox is also a great way to save and sync your desktop files with the app on your phone.
Once you have your Instagram Stories template saved to your phone’s camera roll, you’re ready to upload and share it with your followers!
Did you know that you can also schedule Instagram Stories with Later directly from your desktop?
Now you can plan out your Instagram Stories posts in advance, schedule them to the best time for your audience and post to Instagram with a simple phone notification! Easy!
Learning how to edit Instagram Stories with Photoshop is a great investment for not only the future of your Instagram account, but also your own professional development!
Not only will you be leveling-up your Instagram Stories with customized and curated posts that perfectly match your overall feed aesthetic, but you’re also be learning valuable skills to build your photo editing in Photoshop.
Don’t forget! Our 19 Instagram Stories templates are completely free and can be in your inbox in just minutes!
