Adobe Photoshop 5: Text Effects

Fill type with imagery
Distort type and add it to an image
Screen back the background
Gradient text
Drop shadows

Fill type with imagery

1. Start a blank canvas by going to File > New and typing a suitable width and height (my example is 300 X 300 pixels).

2. Select the Type Mask Tool and click on the blank canvas to open the Type window.

3. Choose font, size, alignment and style. Check Anti-Aliased for smoother outlines. Show Font allows you to preview the font; Show Size gives you the actual size; Leading is the distance between lines; Spacing is the distance between letters. If you want text to appear on different lines you must press Enter/Return for a line-break as you input your text. My example shows News Gothic, 300 points, Bold, Centred.

4. Click OK.   

5. If necessary reposition the type by passing your mouse over it until the cursor changes to a white arrowhead, left click and drag.

6. Open the image you want to fill the type with: File > Open  

7. Make sure it is the active window and go to Select > All, then Edit > Copy  

8. Activate the text canvas by clicking on it and go to Edit > Paste Into

9. Select the Move Tool and reposition the fill image within the type outline to suit

10. At this point you can either continue and add other effects to the text or stop and flatten your image and save it as a JPEG [Layer > Flatten Image].

11. To add other effects, make sure the text layer is selected, then go to Filter and choose whichever effect you wish e.g. Artistic > Palette Knife and Distort > Wave below. These affect the fill image not the type itself.

Distort type and add it to an image

If you want to distort the text itself and add it to another image, follow these steps:

1. When you have flattened the layers as at step 10 above, select the text using the Magic Wand Tool. This is easier if you have a plain background in a contrasting colour e.g. white.

2. On the Tool Options Palette, set the Tolerance to quite a low level [from 1 – 5] and check the Anti-Aliased box as usual. If the background is not a single tone, you will have to increase this level: the more tones, the higher the Tolerance level.

3. Click on the background to select it. Hold Shift if you want to add to your selection e.g. if you need to select the centre of letters such as A or O.

4. To select the letters themselves rather than the background, go to Select > Inverse.

5. Copy the selection: Edit > Copy

 6. Open the picture that you want to put the text onto.

 7. Make sure that it is the active window and go to Edit > Paste

8. With the Text Layer selected (check the Layer Palette) go to Filter > Distort and choose one of the options e.g. Spherize or Twirl or Zigzag. Although the whole layer is distorted this is not apparent because the text layer has a transparent background. If you select the text rather the layer and apply an effect, only the fill image will change as in Tutorial [A] above.

9. Flatten the layers and save as a JPEG with a different name: Layer > Flatten Image, then File > Save As.

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Screen back the background

1.   Open the image

2.   Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer to make a copy 

      3.    Select the Type Mask Tool and type and format your text as before  

4.   To restrict the following effects to the type selection, check the Preserve Transparency box on the Layer Palette 

5.    Go to Select > Inverse

6.   With the background now selected, from the Image menu choose Adjust > Brightness/Contrast and drag the sliders to make it paler and less contrasty than the text.

 7.   Flatten the layers and save with a different name as a JPEG.

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