Cool photoshop typographic trick

It has been awhile since I wrote a tutorial entry and it is time to make up for it here. In this article, I'd like to show you a cool typographic trick in Photoshop. I am sure you have seen this style before where the fonts are invisible and it has shadow glow around it. I have seen this technique in many movie poster designs. See the sample way bottom of this page to see what we are about to create.

First, find a image with a nice background to lay your text over. I am using an image of old leather texture. The canvas dimension is 550px x 392px at 72dpi.


Then, type in some random word using the text tool. I have typed "TYPOGRAPHY" at the font size of 24pt and black color. Here, it is good to generally pick a thicker font for legibility and stronger impact in which you will see later. I chose Champion font.


Ok, pretty easy thus far. Time to get a little fancy now. Cmd click (MAC) or Ctrl click (PC) on the "T" of the "TYPOGRAPHY" layer as shown in the image below. The text should have the "running ants" around the letters.


Create a new layer above the "TYPOGRAPHY" text layer by clicking on the new layer icon. Then, double click on the new layer to call it "stroke". The running ants around the texts should still be running at this point. Also shut off the eye ball on the "TYPOGRAPHY" text layer to hide the layer.


Now, while the "stroke" layer is selected, go to Photoshop menu EDIT and to STROKE. When the window pops open, put in these values as follows.
Stroke: 10px
Color: Black
Location: Center
Blending:
Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Do not check on the Preserve Transparency.


We are almost getting there. Now, press Cmd+D (MAC) or Ctrl+D (PC) to make an deselection or to stop the running ants. Make sure the "stroke" layer is selected and go to the menu "Filter" then "Blur" then "Gaussian Blur". When the window pops open, type in Radius of 4.5px. It looks kinda ugly at this point but be patient. Good part is coming up. Now, Cmd click (MAC) or Ctrl click (PC) on the "T" of the "TYPOGRAPHY" layer to make the running ants around the texts again. Then, select the "stroke" layer again and press the delete key. You should then see this result below.


On to the final touches. Make sure the "stroke" layer is selected then press Cmd+J (MAC) or Ctrl+J (PC) to duplicate the layer. You will notice the shadow glow has become darker. Now with the "stroke copy" layer selected, bring the opacity down to 40% and you are done!! I hope you enjoyed this technique and experiment using your own settings to your liking.