Photoshop is great for embellishing display text with little effects. When you add layer styles into the equation, you have the added benefit of the styles being easily transferable. In this tutorial I'll show you how to make six different effects using just layer styles. So really this is like six tutorials in one!
All six of these effects use just layer styles. If you are a Plus member, you can simply download the ZIP pack of six PSDs for this tutorial and copy and paste the styles. If you aren't a plus member, don't worry! I've given enough direction in the instructions that you can piece them together, though I must admit copying so many layer styles may send you slightly crazy :-)
Quick Gold Text
There are a lot of ways to make "gold" text. This one makes use of two layers with the exact same text on it. They are layered on top of each other with the bottom layer a few pixels down so that it gives an illusion of 3 dimenions.
The font we're using here is Trajan—a very elegant typeface that suits gold text.
First the top layer, which is made with the usual suspects—a bevel, a gradient overlay, and so on. Note the faint drop shadow that actually gets applied to the layer below it (which then has its own drop shadow).
This is the layer that gives the depth to our letters. Notice that the interior bit is not important because it gets covered by our gold plating layer above. It uses an Outer Bevel on top of a fat Stroke to create the highlights. Then when we place the other layer on top they come together to make a lovely gold effect!
There are a lot of ways to make "gold" text. This one makes use of two layers.
3D Metallic Text
This effect is actually just a variation on the gold text. As you can see below, we've again used the dual copies of the text, each with layer styles applied. Here I used a different Gloss Contour on the beveled text below, and of course everywhere we used a yellow shade in the last effect, I used a grey color here.
To try something slightly different, I also applied a text warp. You can do this by clicking on to the text layer, selecting the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and then an icon appears at the top (shown below) that you click on. This gives the Warp Text dialog box.
Now if you apply a Bulge to one of the layers, but not the other, you get a slight distortion that looks neat.
DoubleType
This effect is much simpler and just relies on having two versions of the text, one styled and one not. I've used Futura as my typeface here. I believe I saw this effect on a movie poster once so I've used red the way they did, but it works just as well with other colors and combinations.
All there is to do is apply two bits of layer styling:
- Add a 1px Outer Stroke using a gradient instead of a color. I've used one of Photoshop's metallic gradients (see the thin metal style further down for more details). It gives the edges a shiny quality that's nice.
- Then we add a black to white Gradient Overlay to the text set to Overlay and 50%. This means when you change the text color it automatically adjusts so it has a nice bit of shading over the top.
HyperColor
This effect I discovered at Chris Garrett Media's site where he uses it to great effect. It's a very simple effect really, you just grab some text (typeface is DIN in this example) and give it a Gradient Overlay. Photoshop has some really nice Color Harmony gradients that you can add by clicking on that little arrow that points to the right on the Gradient Editor dialog box. The gradients it adds are the bunch at the bottom. If you choose one of those and set it to about 59% on white text, set on a dark background.
Thin Metal
This is the simplest way to make a metallic effect. It relies on the fact that when you see metal in real life, it's usually got lots of highlights and shadows, especially shinier, chromier type metals. So by using two copies of the same gradient at different angles you can make this effect happen really easily and give your text a metallic effect.
It's best on a thin typeface because otherwise the interior of the text looks dull and flat (unless of course we added more styling, but then it wouldn't be super quick!)
So first of all I decided to make my text 'stand up' in this example. So just create a layer below your text and draw tiny circles of black below the points of each letter. Then blur them by going to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it to about 2px. Then hit Ctrl+T and squash them vertically. Finally set them to about 30% Opacity so they are nice and faded out.
For letters like the a and e where there is a larger area of the letter touching the 'floor', you can use the transform tool to stretch the circle our horizontally.
Finally I duplicated one of my circle shadows and stretched it waay out so that it went underneath the whole bit of text to make the overall shadow.
Experiment and you should be able to create some neat little pools of shadow under the letters.
Now the actual text is just a combination of a Gradient Overlay and a 1px Stroke that uses the same gradient. The gradient we use (and it's the same as in the Double Type effect above) is a metallic gradient that comes with Photoshop. You can add this to your gradients palette, using that little right arrow shown in the Gradient Editor below, then choose Metals and you should see it appear.
The key here is to make sure the Angle on the overlay and the stroke is different. This is what creates the highlights on the text that you can see in the close up screenshot above.
I also set the main overlay to just 14% Opacity over the top of some grey text so that it was a little faded out, but that's optional.
Plastic Fantastic
I love these gel-type text styles, though I must admit I don't think I've ever actually used one in a real design. But who cares, they are so fun to make. This one uses two copies of the text and two different layer styles (similar to our first two metal texts earlier).
You can see the two layers below. The main styling is done in the bottom layer, while the top one is used to create that shine effect.
In the bottom layer we've used a bunch of glows, altered shadows, and gradient overlays. You can see the actual settings further below.
In this layer I've heavily modified a Bevel and Emboss style to create that sharp-edged highlight. Again, you can see the exact settings, including the shape of the gradient contour below.
Digg
Edit: For some reason when I submitted the link to Digg, it doesn't seem to have sync'ed up, anyhow so here's the *real* digg bookmarklet thing-a-me-bob:Related Posts
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Yafundy May 29th
comme d’hab, clap clap
( )Water Marks Video Tutorial May 29th
Great tips and tricks!
( )Godonholiday May 29th
Sorry, my name seems to have changed to my link?
( )Anyways… as I was saying… great tutorials!
Umar May 29th
Not feeling this tutorial man. Usually yours are dope but this def. is “quick” - all the text effects have a unprofessional, tacky look to them.
( )dk June 12th
dude he said quick in the title of the tut…and your comment is unprofessional and tacky…some people find these experiments with layer styles to be very helpful in building new photoshop tricks…why’d you even click on the tut then???
( )Bruce Alrighty May 29th
Nice quick tutorial.
( )From_Azerbaijan May 29th
Simple & beautiful!
( )Alex Beltechi May 29th
Good stuff there Collis. Thanks
( )Frippe May 29th
Nice effects. But is it only me or is the screenshots for the layers styles on the gold effect the same for both the layers? I think it might be duplicates and shouldnt the 3 other ones be for the gold effect?
( )Collis May 29th
oh whoops, thanks Frippe, I’ll fix that now!!! eek
( )Collis May 29th
Meanwhiles something weird seems to have happened when i submitted to digg, and the digg voting box isn’t working.
Anyhow here’s the *REAL* digg link
http://digg.com/design/6_Quick_n_Dirty_Photoshop_Text_Effects_From_Scratch
I’ll go add it to the bottom of the post
( )SINNED May 29th
another pretty tricks from PSDTUTS. Thank you
( )Julesy Wulesy May 29th
Indispensable! Thank you for an awesome tut
Makes my day to see layer styles being put to good use as opposed to all the tacky “bling type” tuts out there…
NICE ONE!
( )Lucian Lature May 29th
Oh, I really like the 3d metal tip!…Great tip, thank you!
( )Ben Griffiths May 29th
Some great little tips there, thanks
( )Daniel May 29th
Cool
Daniel
( )RMPirsig May 29th
Very nice. What font is that for the “hypercolor” text?
( )SimKat May 29th
I just want to thanks PSDTUTS and all its people for making these great free tutorials available for everyone. I have been a big fan of your site and are a also a “plus member” and I appreciate the quality and design you guys put together. Thumbs up!
( )macias May 29th
simply and nice.. ye i like it !
( )Pablo Davi May 29th
Great tut, Luv it
( )Shane May 29th
nice text effects that I’ll be using very soon
( )cougar May 29th
Really cool tips! I like the gold one the most!
( )Thank you!!
Al May 29th
Another great tut. The blending modes are really important, but not always clear - is there a simple tutorial/illustration that would make clear when each should be used?
( )T Jay May 29th
Good tips!
( )PannonDesigner May 29th
Oh, hust fantastic. I love all the tipes. Now i’ll try it in Photoshop.
( )PannonDesigner May 29th
Oh, just fantastic. I love all the tipes. Now i’ll try it in Photoshop.
( )Danny May 29th
this is great, you should write more things like this
( )Mason Sklut May 29th
This just goes to show how you can push “Layer Styles” capabilities to the limit
( )Arnaud Alves May 29th
Very usefull
( )Craig Snedeker May 29th
Awesome tutorial!!!!!!!!!
( )greven May 29th
First two effects are good. The others are ok. I liked it. Nothing fancy but useful That’s what a website should all be about.
( )Has.n May 29th
very nice and very useful
( )Clemson May 29th
it’s nice to see them all in one quick tutorial…nice work.
( )Eric May 29th
Thanks for the tutorial!!!
( )Grafiko May 29th
Simple tips but very useful
( )ubu May 29th
Man if you guys made styles (as in preset layer styles) out of those and made them downloadable, it would be absurdly good.
( )wayno007 May 30th
Thanks, man! I’m a serious beginner — these tuts are invaluable.
( )D. Carreira May 30th
Great tutorial! Thanks!
David Carreira
( )Mukund May 30th
The Gold text effect is the indeed the best of the lot!!
But thanks a lot Collis, coz I’ve been trying to get such 3D effects within a single layer style, somehow using two layers with different styles and combining them just didn’t strike me!! So thanks again for pointing in the right direction!
And yeah, they are simple, only after you have learned them!! Things look a lot easy in retrospect!!
( )Andre May 30th
Waiting for those slick advanced typo tuts.
Good work tho man.
( )LOSWL May 30th
Fantabulous type tuts, I cannot get enough!!….the best thing about this is that once you create the layer styles you can save them for multiple projects!!….that 3D Effect is genius….LOL….great work!!
( )varioke May 30th
very nice tutorial !! i was looking for some nice text effects
( )Andrew D May 30th
Great tips, very much appreciated
( )Paulo T May 30th
These are great, thanks for the effort in creating and sharing this! Fantastic!
( )sdsdfd May 30th
Nice.
( )Tom May 30th
Amazing. There’s no need to say anything else.
( )JPH May 30th
Great tips on how to achieve these effects.
( )sairaB May 30th
Wow, these are awesome… I use a photoshop book (a href=”http://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=4740″>link to the ebooks version) for a lot of my work, but your tips are much easier to follow. Gorgeous!
( )Jeff Lewis May 30th
I love typography, and this is great.
Thanks
( )bobmartien May 30th
Super
( )Ariful Alam Khan May 30th
Simple and Great. The typo looks great in subtle background. Thanks.. When are you going to post the fire tutorial? I can’t wait..
( )TehSkm May 30th
Mind telling us what fonts you guys used? Some of the styles don’t mention it.
( )Victor May 30th
Agree with the other bloke that posted this - does not live up to your usual high quality standard. sorry mate.
I can see how it would be useful for a complete beginner to learn about layer styles, but the end results dont look great.
( )Braden keith May 30th
Purrfect. Thanks for not making this a Plus tutorial!
( )Dan May 30th
What font is used for ‘thin metal’?
( )Andrew May 30th
Nice text effect. Keep the good tutorials coming.
( )Cain May 30th
Nice article. I felt the effects got a bit more basic toward the end but they all look nice.
( )Sean Farrell May 30th
very nice, never really knew the first one, thanks.
( )pickupjojo May 30th
Great tips! <3
( )Toxel.com May 30th
Nice! Thanks for another great tutorial.
( )Fred May 30th
really nice & usefull!
( )ZaFaR May 30th
Really this is fantastic, awesome work, thank for sharing.
( )SALMA May 30th
very good
( )Dot Design May 30th
Just stumbled across your site, some good resources here. Cheers Gareth
( )Lamin Barrow May 30th
Wait that’s beyond COOL it’s HOT. Thx.
( )TechCow May 30th
The only effect i like is the double type effect. It’s kind of overused but i still like it
( )Johan May 30th
Thanks! Can by handy.
My favo is Thin Metal
( )Design May 30th
I like this article keep going
( )MD May 30th
Thanks!
I love it!
( )koeching May 30th
Nice tips guys
( )Joefrey Mahusay May 30th
Wow this is nice tips Collis. It’s been a long time that you did not make a psd tutorial.. Great! Thanks for this.
( )Glacia May 30th
I’d love to see more text-centric tutorials in future - I’ve found that’s one of my biggest issues when it comes to designs >_> Awesome job with this one!
( )worldfamousinds May 30th
How about a list of the fonts? please?
( )Andrew J May 30th
Quick and dirty…… just the way I like it.
Naw, really this was a great set.
( )Zach May 30th
Collis,
I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but you have two tutorial websites dealing with design and web development and your menu is jacked in Firefox. Fix it brah, it’s not exactly jacked just the background image on hover and active is too high. Drop it down 3 to 4 pixels and you’re done.
Peace we out.
( )Zach May 30th
It’s that way on NETTUTS too.
( )Aminur Rahman [aka Tom R] May 30th
nice, cheers.
( )Daniel May 30th
very nice and tricky ! thanks a lot collis !
( )J.T. Shaver May 30th
It’s alright. Shows very basic usage of blending options.
- http://www.shaverdesign.com
( )amogh May 30th
your tutorials are xcellent . I see daily ur web site. i uploaded my work through ur inspiration on flicker but how i show u?
( )Mark Provan May 30th
Awesome To The Max
Love it!!!
( )Fodcj May 30th
Really like the first gold effect one. Thanks!
( )Pauk May 30th
awesome tutorial. very nice clean-lookin’ text effects!
( )P7 May 30th
Your tutorials just keep me busy again.
Thanks a lot.
( )Monit May 30th
This is Awesome……It has made my life so easier…..Thanks PSD tuts……..This is one rocking website…. best photoshop website ever
( )sean steezy May 31st
THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks for doing this for everyone. Its amazing, every time i check up on this site, more awesome tuts that look so crisp and fresh.
don’t ever stop. ever. never. nerver.
( )Terry May 31st
i’d like to see this in illustrator when you have the vectortuts up and running.
also, are you guys going to cover fireworks or cinema 4-d in the nettuts? they’re great for slice and dice work…
yes? no?
( )Tony May 31st
Nice Typo tutorial !
( )I think we should have more…
wildwise May 31st
you’re not bad collis ;p
( )Mark Abucayon May 31st
Another psdtuts best tutorial simple yet useful.I really love all the effects.. Great tuts, Great site and Great Job for a Best Designer in town, Thanks collis for sharing this to us.
( )KrashSquad May 31st
Nice type tuts
( )Nick May 31st
on of the best. tutorials. period.
( )DeadPresidentDesigns May 31st
Thanks for sharing a lot of these effects…. I liked them because they are so simple…. thanks for sharing
( )David May 31st
the gold text looks really good!
( )Hip Hop Makers May 31st
These are great. Thanks
( )Ali May 31st
very nice very nice very nice very nice
great tutorial
( )Dan May 31st
EXCELLENT TUTORIAL. This is the psdtuts I remember man! Tutorials that teach you something you can use in a variety of ways instead of just reproducing an image. Excellent work Collis.
( )eric May 31st
niiiice. these will be placed in my arsenal of weapons.
( )CAMBRIDGE WEB DESIGN June 1st
Very useful indeed - Thanks!
( )eod June 1st
thanks
( )Constantin Potorac June 1st
Just like the rest of your works and tutorials. Simple, professional and beautiful.
Thank you
( )Diesel June 1st
Again, some more simple tutorials that will push my deisgns up there a notch - is it just me or it all to do with the 1px BORDER?
ALL HAIL THE 1 PIXEL BORDER!
( )Housed93 June 2nd
So good!
( )Hoditta June 3rd
That’s good…
keep working!!!
( )Tiago June 4th
Thnks a lot!!!!
( )Peter June 4th
Another great read, I really enjoyed the Quick Gold one. I have been trying to create “Pirate” gold lettering like that for a while but not been able to find a good tutorial to get me started.
I added a ‘Layer Styles Only’ tutorial to my site with a shiny chrome text.
( )shanchumima June 4th
wow, so cool !! giveing me many tips that i didn’t know before.
( )thanks for sharing !
Anush-logo design June 4th
I used gold one in my logo work and my client loves it
( )Rax June 5th
Maybe not the facniest of looking texts I’ve seen on this site. However lots of great little tips and trix!
( )Thank you, very good as usual.
josef June 5th
straight to the point… i like it.
( )can’t wait to put it to good use.
alan way June 5th
Thank you… Good work.
( )Musa June 5th
Great tuts but my colours not matching your exactly. please put colour code on layer styles so it’s easy to see what the actual colour is. For example, the Yellowish/gold colours are almost the same.
Great tutorial though;
( )Alex Nichols June 6th
What font is used in the thin metal section?
Thanks,
Alex Nichols
( )ayoub June 7th
greaaat i want also to know wich font is used in thin metal .. thanks
( )JokR June 8th
Great . . . just great . . . and to think about how many other effects you can achieve with the endless combinations of these simple effects
( )Eric June 11th
I love it, thanks so much! - Eric
( )LJ June 12th
what font is used for PLASTIC ?
( )Jeff Payne June 14th
Excellent! Very nice!
( )Valen July 3rd
Muy bueno el tutorial.. una masa!!! saludos
( )wel July 4th
u r rock u r the man
( )subhash July 10th
That will be help to improve my photoshop skill.
( )Aarya July 21st
Brilliant Tutorial!
Have Used It Many Times And It Never Fails With It’s Simple,Clean Yet Unique Looks
But I’m Very Keen On Getting My Hands On The Font You’ve Used For The ‘Plastic’ Typeface
Kindly Share The Name Of The Font
Regards,
( )Aarya
Bill July 22nd
Hey! Another Great tutorial!!! Must have the font that you used for the Plastic one! And, to all the people who say “It looks unfinished!!!” or “It looks so unprofesional and low quality!!!”: it says, Quick’n'Dirty Text Effect from Scratch… It doesn’t say, “6 Incredibly profesional and hard to make text effects that will confuse beginners and…”. Get a grip people! I think they look GREAT.
Keep it up!!! I wish I could make a tutorial but I have no Idea on what to make it on!
( )JMe July 29th
Oh! very fantastic!! good job!
( )JD August 5th
one word for this tute: AWESOME! Thanks..learnt heaps.
( )Jacob August 8th
This is possibly the most incredibly useful and effective article on this entire site. My hat is off to you, sir.
( )13.GuE August 15th
Amazing Man!
( )Great Tutorial!!
Valver August 19th
Muchisimas gracias por el tutorial!!!
( )Ahmed Dashti August 30th
cool text effects! Great tips
Thanks
( )Neeraj Lodhi September 3rd
3d Effects is great!!! Lovely Lovely Tips.
( )Thanks!
Trinity September 13th
Wow! These are way cool! Thanks for sharing! You are the bomb!
( )CreativeMedia September 16th
Hi Collis,
I’m a Plus member but I can’t find the “Quick Gold Text” (the first tut on this page) source file in the Plus member’s download area?
I could only find this one “Gold Text Effect” but it’s not the same the “Quick Gold Text”
It should be there becouse it says so at the top of this page.
“All six of these effects use just layer styles. If you are a Plus member, you can simply download the ZIP pack of six PSDs for this tutorial and copy and paste the styles. If you aren’t a plus member, don’t worry! I’ve given enough direction in the instructions that you can piece them together, though I must admit copying so many layer styles may send you slightly crazy :-)”
Collis, can you please tell me where these source files are the Plus member’s download area?
Thanks
( )CreativeMedia September 18th
@ psdtuts Staff/Admin
I posted a message here two days ago & until now I have not received a reply & the files still have not been added to the Plus membership area?
I signed up for the Plus membership just so I could get the PSD source files for these tutorials but they are not in the Plus membership download area as stated above?
At the top of this page it says:
“All six of these effects use just layer styles. If you are a Plus member, you can simply download the ZIP pack of six PSDs for this tutorial and copy and paste the styles. If you aren’t a plus member, don’t worry! I’ve given enough direction in the instructions that you can piece them together, though I must admit copying so many layer styles may send you slightly crazy :-)â€
Can one of the admins please check why they are not there then add them to the Plus membership area so I (and the other Plus members) can download them please?
( )CreativeMedia September 20th
@ All
I just received an email informing me the psd source files have been added to the Plus membership area.
@ Sean
Thanks for uploading the psd source files to the Plus membership area! I’m glad to see they have been added!
They are very nice & easy to use!
@ Collis
Thanks for this Great tutorial!
Keep up the good work!
Best regards
( )Identium Reklambyrå October 12th
Fo shizzle! Gold Rules. I used to work with gradients to get a similar effect. This way is better!
( )marinella October 12th
can i have this post. . . .? Its great. . . .thanks for posting this tutorial. . .. .
( )Hosting Reviews October 15th
Great work, that turned out really well. I’ve often found it hard to emulate Gold (the color). Good work.
( )Kevin October 21st
These tut sites are just damn fine. Man.
( )s-mu November 10th
Excellent……………..
( )Rulo November 10th
Thnks! Nice Work!!
( )Tom November 12th
some of your examples are good to know!
( )rahul kk November 15th
such a nice way to get new tricks in photoshop…. it is very helpful to make over work much better than earlier one….
( )thank u…. friends….
luke November 17th
i would rate this very highly, but the absence of the font names seems rather irresponsible. the right typeface is very important, and several people have already fallen for some of these. myself, i would love to know the “thin metal” font. alas, i’ve spent 3 hours trying to figure it out with no luck. now this tutorial just makes me sad.
( )Jehzeel Laurente November 23rd
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for
The thin metal tut is what I need.. yay! thanks psdtuts 
( )Jay November 28th
hey does anybody know the sub text this guy is using for each tut???
( )MariWana November 28th
Nice
( )Ben November 29th
The font used in the “Plastic” tutorial is Futura Extra Black.
( )Lito | TheFilipinoEntrepreneur.Com December 6th
Nice tutorial. I’ll come back more often for other tips.
( )Pete December 19th
Thanks so much, you made this too simple! What is your webpage?
( )PS Website Design December 20th
Some very nice text effects here, thanks.
( )Team Nirvana December 28th
Awesome text effects.
Thanks for sharing.
( )zindagi002 December 31st
wow you r great. such nice and good tricks………. amazing………..
( )reznor January 10th
This site has some really great tutorials. However it may prove to be more effective if you let people know what font your using. And after the number of request you have received for this font I have know idea why you have not answered.
Anyhow for those interested in the thin metal font, the closest I could find is ITC Bauhaus Light. Its not an exact match but it is very very close.
Without arming people with all the details you’ve made your tutorial about as useful as downloading Drupal but not receiving the database creation scripts well done!
( )rawr January 17th
Wow, this is awesome! Thanks for the great tuts.
( )J0HNS0NKiiD/ January 27th
Man, this stuff looks hard!
( )jhoss January 29th
great tutorial! congratulations!
( )joyoge designers' bookmark January 29th
Awesome text effects. thank you for tutorials..
( )Designer February 11th
wow, amazing!!!
thanks a lot
( )dummahund February 16th
you gotta do better tutorials
im a beginner and i dont get it :s
( )Abhimanyu Ghoshal March 5th
One of the best tutorials ever! I’ve been looking for something like this, and hadn’t come across a set this comprehensive. Great stuff!
( )baraga March 10th
this iz wicked mate! love the quick gold
( )Helen March 11th
Golden Text had worked better if there had been quoted color values …
( )10YearsOld March 21st
hi how do like your logo effect plz post tutorial. Sorry my english language (^_^).
( )Birgit March 30th
Hi,
thanks for the great tutorials! I also want to know the sub text font!
Seems like the comment date is 9 days late lol
( )Marcelificus April 1st
thanks for the great tutorials!
( )Anon April 5th
Useless tut, he doesnt show the gradients and he doesnt name the fonts or the colors used.
9/100.
( )Mike April 7th
For the Gold text, what is the first colour you start with. The steps are not clear at all.
( )Ariel April 8th
Crap on you! You dont even mention the font names, thats bad people!
( )Sabu George April 27th
Thank you so much! God bless!
( )Raphael May 22nd
very very gooood!
( )Amy May 23rd
thank you so much! now, it would be great if you could show us how to do the lighting for the background
( )venaketesh June 3rd
super
( )Fab June 5th
thanks
( )scifunk June 6th
everyone has to start somewhere - thanks for these tuts - much appreciated by a design noddy
( )Jamie Allsop June 12th
These are some really great tips for people who want to make there text more interesting and stand out.
( )