Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

Adding Special Effects

Besides warping your text, you can apply all kinds of Layer styles, filters, and special text effects to give text a more elaborate appearance. You can change the color of your text, make the letters look 3-D, add brushstrokes for a painted effect, and so on. (There's more about Layer styles, filters, and effects in Chapter 13.)

Elements gives you lots of different ways to add special effects to your text. The following sections demonstrate three of the most interesting: applying text effects, using a gradient to make rainbow-colored text, and using the Liquify filter to warp text in truly odd ways.

Text Effects

The Content panel (The Content Panel) has a whole category dedicated to effects for text (Figure 14-8). You apply text effects just the way you apply any other effect: Make the Text layer active and then double-click the effect you want.

Figure 14-8. The Content panel includes a whole section of text effects. Most, like Animal Fur Zebra and Denim, are unique to this section. Others, like Bevel, are just shortcuts for effects you could also achieve using Layer styles, gradients, or other Elements tools.

If you already have Layer styles on your text, it's hard to predict how much these effects will respect the existing Layer styles. Some effects build onto the changes you've previously made with Layer styles; most undo anything you've done before. Experimenting ...