Solid Silver Text Embedded Into Any Background

Category:	Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
Added:	05/30/2007

Solid Silver Text Embedded Into Any Background

Tutorial Goal

We will design a solid silver text and embed it into any background image using Adobe Photoshop. A simple technique to select the top and bottom half of the text will help you to create future effects of your own. With the following tutorial and a little creativity you'll find its really easy to make seemingly complex effects.

Resources Needed

Find a background image or texture to embbed the text into.
Here is the background used above: two_textures.jpg

Step 1 : Preparation & Document Setup

Open Adobe Photoshop and Create a new Image:
Size: 385 x 385px
(This is the size of the example background image)

Step 2 : Creating the Silver Text Base

Select the Text Tool, , change the text properties to:

Click on Stage and type any text you want to be solid silver.

Open the Layer Blending Options:
Right click the text layer and select "Blending Options" or
Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options...

Apply the following settings:

Outer Glow: The embedded effect.

Stroke: Frames the Silver

Click OK and here is what we have so far:

Step 3 : Bottom Half of The Silver Effect

Now we'll create the solid silver effect. The effect is created by applying two different styles to the top and bottom halfs of the text. Let's start with the bottom half.

Ctrl Click the text layer to select its border.

Select the Rectangle Marquee Tool, , and hold down alt while selecting the top half of the current selection. This will subtract the top half leaving the bottom for us to work on.

Create a new layer, , above the text layer.
Layer > New > Layer...

Select the Paint Bucket Tool, , set the foreground color to White and fill in the selection.

Open the Layer Blending Options:
Right click the text layer and select "Blending Options" or
Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options...

Apply the following settings:

Gradient Overlay: The Silver Gradient

Stroke: Framing the Silver

Click OK and here is what we have now:

Step 4: Top Half of The Silver Effect

Ok, so the bottom half is looking good. Time to work on the top half.

Select the top half of the text using the same technique we used to select the bottom half.

Create a new layer, , above the text layer and below the layer created in step 3. We need this layer to actually be below the bottom half that we created earlier.
Layer > New > Layer...

Select the Paint Bucket Tool, , set the foreground color to White and fill in the selection.

Open the Layer Blending Options:
Right click the text layer and select "Blending Options" or
Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options...

Apply the following settings:

Drop Shadow: Helps 3D look

Gradient Overlay: Apply Silver Effect to Top

Gradient Fill: Details of above gradient

Stroke: Frame the Silver

Stroke Gradient Fill: Details of above Stroke

Click OK and we are finished!

Solid Silver Text Embedded Into Any Background: Concluding Statements

The technique used to select the top and bottom portions of the text layer can help you to create all new effects. This is just an example of how to build up a unique text style. Hope you learned a thing or two.