I found an old tutorial I made before the big server transition for PW Software so I’m reposting it. Thank goodness for Google’s caching. Oh, and I actually went through about 50 GBs on one of my external hard drives today, cleaning and such [where I found the PSD for this tut among other awesome goodies].

Okay, so I came across this text effect by accident which was cool. I thought I should share such a simple technique that could add some punch to bland text. This is so basic, it can be done in any version of Photoshop.

First thing you have to do is open up a new Photoshop document. Let’s go for the default Photoshop size of 7 x 5 inches. Create a new layer [Ctrl + Shift + N] and add some text. It doesn’t matter which font but I am going to use Pricedown. It’s a nice thick font that will show off the effect quite well, and it’s used in the Grand Theft Auto title.

Right-click on the text layer and go down to “Gradient Overlay” and apply these settings. The first color code is #BCFBFF while the second is #EBFDFF.

You should get something like this. I added the light diagonals so you could see the letters clearer.

Next, head over to “Bevel and Emboss” and apply these settings. Set the highlight mode to pure white [#FFFFFF] if it is not already there, and set the shadow mode to #43C6F6.

Lastly, we’re going to add a simple drop shadow so get to it! Nothing too fancy here, we just want to make the text stand out a little bit. You know the routine. Make the drop shadow color #525252.

And we’re done! Feel free to send me any links of what you’ve done with this mini-tut. I’m curious to see what other people can come up with. View the finished product below.