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[taikara]

You've probably seen sigs and banners that have a see-through text effect... well, it's actually pretty simple to create, if you know how.

So here we go:

Software used: Photoshop 7.0
Requirements:

• A variated-color background
• A font that you like
• Basic knowledge of how to use the Photoshop Text Tool

Step 1:

Pick out a background to use for the effect. There should be at least some variation in color throughout. You can use a one-color background, but there's no need for this tutorial if you do, as there's a much simpler way to get the effect with a flat background.

I'm using the background I made in my Taffy Pull Background Tutorial:



Step 2:

Select the Text icon and pick out a font you like. Apply text to the image (PS will automatically create a new text layer), play with it until you like the shape, and how it basically looks with the background. The color is unimportant.

My result:



Step 3:

Press Ctrl + click on the text layer you just created in the Layers toolbar. It will do a Load Selection on the text.

To do this without hotkeys: while having your text layer highlighted in the Layers toolbar, go to Selection > Load Selection.

Step 4:

Select your background layer in the Layers toolbar. Press Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V to copy and paste the new layer, which by itself, should look like this:



Make your original text layer invisible by clicking the little eye checkbox next to its name in the Layers toolbar.

Step 5:

While the new layer is selected, go to Layers > Layer Style > Outer Glow (or double click on the new layer in the Layers toolbar, and select Outer Glow).

Tweak your Outer Glow settings until you like the effect.

My settings were like so:



Important Note About Using Outer Glow: The Blending Mode is very important to the Outer Glow effect. If you are using a light glow on a dark background, use the Screen Blending Mode. If you want to use a dark outer glow on a light background, use the Multiply Blending Mode.

When you're done, you should have the appearance of see-through text:



Neat, huh?