Text Effects

So you want to spice up the title graphics on your website. This is how to get a cool text effect using Photoshop.

• Begin with plain text.
• CTRL and click on the text layer to select it.
• Go to Channels and create a new channel.
• Fill the selection with white.
• Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a radius of 10-15 pixels, depending on the size of the image.
• Repeat the Gaussian Blur with half that radius.
• Inverse your selection and hit Delete, to get rid of any jagged edges.

• Go back to the Layers palette and CTRL+click on the text layer.
• Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects.
• You will get a pop-up telling you to rasterize/render the layer, click OK.
• Change Texture Channel to Alpha 1. Play around with the options to get the effect you want. Click here to see what options I used.

• You could add a drop shadow and stop right there if you like it.
• Or you could go to Image>Adjust>Curves and play around a bit with the color and brightness.
• Then you could go to Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap and see what turns out.

Brilliant, no? You can also use the same effect on buttons, interfaces, etc.