Inlayed Text Programs Used: Photoshop 6 Skill Level: Basic
If you're looking for a different way to improve the "straight-text"
kind of look on your buttons and interfaces then this tutorial may hold
the answer for you!
For an example I am going to use the Photoshop image that I created for
last weeks YNOT NEWS called "Bullet Buttons" and if you haven't
done that yet I'd advise you to check the tutorial and follow through
with that first.
1. Open the PSD that you created in last weeks tutorial.
2. Create a text layer and put in your initial with a White fill. An "A"
for me :) Try and use a blocky font like Arial Black or Impact so that it
fills the sphere nicely.
3. From the Layers window - WINDOW >> SHOW LAYERS - change the Blend
Mode from "Normal" to "Soft Light".
4. Right click your text layer and duplicate it. Change the
text color to black in your new layer.
5. Using the Move Tool and your arrow keys (on the keyboard) move the
new layer up 1 pixel and to the right by 1 pixel.
6. Because this has made the letter kind of hard to see we
are going to duplicate the new layer by Right-clicking it and choosing "Duplicate
Layer". As you can see this has made it quite dark.
7. Change the opacity of the layer from 100% down to about 50% but you
may not want it this dark. Change the setting to your own liking.
8. One final step is to Right click your original Text Layer and choose
LAYER EFFECTS. Apply an INNER SHADOW to the letter. Doesn't that look great?
9. Now that you have the basics try it on something a little
different. Like this button graphic for example. Have fun using this on
a whole heap of different kinds of shapes.
