Effects In Text
| Difficulty: Beginners Photoshop |
This tutorial shows you all the common effects added to text in Photoshop.
Getting the plain text Start by opening a new file, any size is good for it doesn't really matter. Mines is going to be 400x64 for length, your welcome to do the same. From there hit this button on the tool bar
Pick a font of your choice and type something into the new window. my font is Velvenda Cooler, size 48pt, your welcome to choose a font that matches this, I choose this font because of how thick it is, its easier to show patterns, gradients and other effects. Heres the text plain.
Drop Shadow Now on with the drop shadow. on the layers window (if you don't have yours open please hit the F7 button on your keyboard.) at the bottom of the new layers window find this button
and click it, from there you will get a drop down window, click Drop Shadow. You can edit the setting to reach a desired look, but thats all there is to it. Heres my example
Outer Glow With the drop shadow removed (this can be done by clicking the effects line under your text layer and dragging it to the trash can
if you get a pop up just click ok.) repeat the same step of clicking the layer style button and instead of clicking drop shadow click Outer Glow. If you have a white background like i do change the blend mode to normal 
if yours is black or something close to it you can keep the blend more on the default screen. With the default color being yellow i changed mines to a dark pink, you can try whatever color you want, mines is just show you. Like the drop shadow your welcome to mess with the settings to reach the desired look you want. Heres my example
Gradient Overlay Ever seen text that startes out with one color on top and another on the bottom? well that can be achieved through the following:
Like done before please remove the previous effects by dragging it to the trash, REMEMBER don't drag the layer, drag the effects which is under the text layer. With that out the way click the layer styles button again
, and go to Gradient Overlay. The default colors is white and black, this can be changed to whatever colors you want by double clicking the gradients banner. 
from there another window will open and from there you can chose the colors you want. I'm choosing one from my collection of gradients, mines will be yellow and pink. Heres my example
Pattern Overlay As repeated in the previous steps remove the effects of whatever you tried before by dragging it to the trash can. Click on the layers style button
and go to Pattern Overlay If you never downloaded patterns or even have any cool one outside of the default patterns Photoshop gives you click here to find out how to add some. Now going on to those who have patterns. Like the gradients click the down button next to the preview and choose a pattern you like best. I used one of my own backgrounds for mines. You can edit the settings to what ever desired effect you want, and thats it. Again a very simple effect. Heres my example
Stroke Ever wonder how people get an pretty outline over their text in a different color? will with these steps you can achieve the same effect
As repeated in the previous steps remove the effects of whatever you tried before by dragging it to the trash can. Click on the layers style button
and go to Stroke When the new window pops up your text will be stroked or outlined in red which is the default color, on the stroke window click the little red box and the color picker window will pop up, choose the color of your choice and press ok. Your text will now be outlined in the color you picked, you can also change the size of the outline by messing with the size which by default is 3. You can edit the settings to what ever desired effect you want, and thats it. Again a very simple effect. Heres my example
Bevel and Emboss This effect can look different in certain colors but it gives text a 3-D effect
As repeated in the previous steps remove the effects of whatever you tried before by dragging it to the trash can. Click on the layers style button
and go to Bevel and Emboss, depending on your color you can see a change in the text since I'm using black you can see mines very faintly but the effects there, while the setting for this effect is overwhelming your welcome to play around with the setting till you get the desired look you want. Heres my example
Combined With the knowledge of all those basic text effects now its time to combine them, there are several ways to create a awesome web site header with your web site name standing out. Here are some examples
