Tuesday Tip – Really Easy Text Effect

To those in the UK I am really sorry. The dreadful Bank Holiday weather was my fault, I jinxed it by buying a patio set on Saturday, still, I managed 15 minutes on it. Nice to get back to business again and so without any more ado…

 

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Podcast

 

Photoshop User TV – “Matt and Dave each have tutorials to share. They are also joined by special guest Corey Barker, whose tutorial uses the 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS4 Extended.”

 

 

 

 

Martini Hour 013, In Which Colleen Revels in Classic Simplicity –  Deke and Colleen decide to have a quiet tete-a-tete with just the two of them: shoes off, classic martinis, and some classic Martini Hour segments like the secret handshake and reader mail

 

 

Learning Digital Photography – Get the Photo Tip of the Week, Participate in Contests, Enjoy Timely Digital Photo Information, News, Digital Camera Reviews, Photography and Shooting Tips and Camera Techniques, Creative Perspectives, Photoshop Insights, Approaches to Photography, Listener Questions and Answers, and Event Information from Jason Anderson, the “Canon Blogger.” 

 

 

Tuesday Top Tip – Really Easy Text Thing

Anyone that has visited here before knows that my tips are as easy as I can make them, basically I like it to look like I worked hard on it, but actually spent the time on Twitter and drinking tea. With that in mind here is today’s Top Tip;

 

 

 

Create a new layer and make a text box the same size, or bigger, than the background and type in your text.

Select the text and change it’s colour to the same as the background.

Turn off that layer’s visibility for a moment. (Little eye next to the layer)

 

 

Next create the shape that we want to see the text through, in this case I used a PS. Making it nice and big and bold.

 

 

 

Don’t forget to have a play about in the text palette. In my case I pulled the letters together a bit.

 

 

 

Turn back on the visibility of the first text layer and then ‘Clip’ them together. 

To do this, hold down your ctr/cmd key and bring the mouse between the two layers in the layers palette. You’ll see two interlaced circles appear, click.

Lets give it a soft edge now.

 

 

 

Right click on the second text layer (PS in the example) and choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’. Now we clan play about with this layer with no fear of messing it up.

 

 

 

From the menu choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give your layer some blur.

Click OK and there we are.

 

Have a play about, you might be surprised what you can do with very little effort.

 

 

Here I added a drop shadow to the first text layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on this one, a gradient overlay on the first text layer.

 

 

 

 

 

So there we are,have a great day, all being well I’ll see you tomorrow.