The Photoshop help thread!

[JonatanRaven]

how can you create text, i know with the "T" button, but thats pretty basic mellow.gif and all over i see cool words n stuff.

Cool text can be made in several ways, so I will try to show a few techniques.

The easiset way to make text look anything other than plain black (or whatever colour you chose) is to use the layer effects available in photoshop. This way is the most basic way to add effects to your text and includes drop shadows, glow, bevel and other "simple" effects. You find the different options under the layer menu or when you right click the layer.

any combination of the above..

______________________________________________________________________________

The other way to make cool text that I frequently use is to use the preset filters that are included in photoshop. To do this, you need to render the text layer first so you might want to duplicate the text layer and work with the duplicate instead. Render the duplicate and start playing around with different filters. When you find a nice filter you can start playing around with the layer effects as well until you find a nice combination.

Here's a combination of the filter "plastic Film" and the layer effects I used above:

______________________________________________________________________________

The next thing you can do to make cool text is to instead of using the regular text toll, use the "type mask" tool. You can access this tool by pressing and holdong the "T" button. Write what you want directly on the background layer and then press "ctrl+enter" to make the selection. You can now play around with the selection by chosing "edit selection" (or something like that) under the select menu. Play around with the selection until you're satisfied. When you are, copy the selection onto a new layer. You can now play around with the settings I mentioned above to achieve some nice effects.

Here I have used the type mask tool and applied an inner shadow layer effect. To get the 3D illusion, I lowered the layer brightness a bit. To lower the layer brightness, use the Image/Adjustments/Brightness/Contrast menu.

PS: The original image was 1800x1200pxl

______________________________________________________________________________

For an advanced tutorial check this out:
Writing in the sand

---