Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Special Text Effects

You can spice up Photoshop text in a variety of ways by adding fades, strokes, drop shadows, textures, and more. You can even take a photo and place it inside of text. The great thing is that you can perform all these techniques without rasterizing the text, so it remains fully and gloriously editable. Read on to learn all kinds of neat ways to add a little something special to your text.

Tip

Perhaps the easiest special effect of all is creating partially opaque or ghosted text. All you have to do is lower the Type layer’s opacity in the Layers panel, as explained on Tweaking a Layer’s Opacity and Fill. That’s it!

Faded Text

It’s easy to make text look like it fades into an image, as shown in Figure 15-25. This technique is useful when you’re creating a photo-centric advertisement or postcard announcement, or want to showcase a collection of photos on your website. Here’s what you do:

1. Open a photo and add some text.

   Press T to grab the Type tool and type a single word. Be sure to pick a thick font such as Helvetica Bold or Black, Arial Black (used here), or Impact from the Options bar or Character panel.

   Tip

   Instead of straining your brain to choose a color for the text, you can snatch one from the photo instead; that way, it’ll match. Simply highlight the text and then click the color square in the Options bar (or the Character panel) to open the Color Picker. Next, mouse away from the dialog box and, when your cursor turns into an eyedropper, click a spot in your ...