Photoshop Tip: Embellishing Text for Art

Text is often used in designs as backgrounds, as a collage of words, to give inspirational messages, and as headlines on greeting cards, decorative flags, and other products. Artists can get the approximate text look they want by choosing from a variety of fonts. And they can then enhance the text by using Photoshop blending options to tweak and embellish it to give it that extra touch or to make it pop and more visible.

Blending options include drop shadow, inner glow, inner shading, outer glow, bevel and emboss, satin, stroke, gradient overlay, and pattern overlay. They can be accessed by going to Layer / Layer Style on the command bar at the top of the Photoshop window or by clicking on the fx symbol at the bottom of the layers pallet window.

More than one blending option can be used at a time. They are fast to apply so it is easy to create fun, interesting and decorative text. But because it is fast and easy to use blending options, it is also easy to forget that text should be readable and complement the rest of the design; unless the intent is to make the text the central focus.

See the illustration at the top of the article for examples of different blending options. Below is a description on how they were achieved. Note: Many more effects can be created by adjusting the controls in the blending option windows. So experiment with them.

• 1TEXT - Drop Shadow
green color; 100% opacity; 18 px distance

• 2TEXT - Inner Glow
100% opacity; green color; softer technique; center source; 6% choke, 27 px size

• 3TEXT - Inner Glow
100% opacity; green color; softer technique; edge source; 9% choke; 21 px size

• 4TEXT - Inner Shading
100% opacity; green color; 26 px distance

• 5TEXT - Outer Glow
100% opacity; green color; softer technique; 21 px size

• 6TEXT - Bevel and Emboss
pillow emboss; smooth technique; 481% depth; up direction; 24 px size; 16 px soften; normal highlight; 75% opacity; normal shadow; green color; 100% opacity

• 7TEXT - Stroke
8 px size; outside position; normal blend mode; 100% opacity; green color

• 8TEXT - Satin
normal blend; green color; 100% opacity; 41 px distance; 0 size

• 9TEXT- Gradient Overlay
100% opacity; red and green color gradient; linear style; 90 degree angle; 57% scale

•10TEXT - Pattern Overlay
normal blend mode; 100% opacity; custom made pattern; 25% scale

Related article:
"Photoshop Tip: Editing Font Characteristics" - Adjusting the font size, orientation, sharpness, alignment, color, and numerous warps by selecting the text and using the controls in the text options bar.

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