10e20 Blog

Sometimes you want to get that text to pop off the page or screen. With this tutorial I will go over a simple technique to give your text that 3D angled effect to really make it standout.

Step 1. Create your word with a large, bold typeface and fill it with black. Rasterize the font by going to Type/Rasterize.

Step 2. Slightly tweak the height of the font a bit larger than normal. Go to Edit/Transform/Scale and move the top or bottom out slightly.

Step 3. Go to Edit/Transform/Perspective and use the sliders to give your text a slight perspective and angle. I angled my type a bit down on the left and up on the right. I also made it recede out to the right, larger on the left.

Step 4. Duplicate your text layer and fill the top layer with a solid color.

Step 5. Duplicate the bottom layer. With the bottom layer selected go to Edit/Transform/Scale and use the bottom right sliders to scale down and in the right side slightly, also move the layer a touch to the left. This will make a darker outline skewed to one side, the left.

Step 6. Duplicate this layer and go to Edit/Transform/Again. Repeat these two steps several more times until the thickness of the dark outline is the size you like. The trick with the transform here is to just make the initial edit as minimal as possible and then extend it with the duplicates. You will have several layers now of the darker type, merge them all when you are happy with the thickness.

Tips: With the top layer selected go to Layer/Layer Style and select Bevel and Emboss and get the style you like. Also experiment with a Gradient Overlay to give your type that extra bit of texture and depth.

Maybe even try to incorporate a photo in that text. A Halftone Glow is another option you could go with to further push the design.