By Nick Ustinov Revised by Nathan
Segal,* May/2001
For this effect, start with a new RGB canvas with a white foreground
and black background. Next, type some text (a wide font with rounded
edges like Times New Roman Bold works well). Click on the Checkmark
in the Tool Options bar to commit your changes to the Type Layer.
Now, access the Select menu and Load the Selection. Once the Selection
is loaded, access the Select Menu again and save the Selection as
a New Channel with the file name #2. At this point, you will have
two Layers. Click on CTRL+E to Merge the Layers, (CMD+E on the Macintosh).
Next, access the Channels palette and click on channel #2 (if the
Channels palette is not active, go to Windows: Show Channels to
activate it).
Note: If your text is selected, deselect it or the Blur
filter will not work properly.
From there, access Filter: Blur: Gaussian Blur and choose a setting
of 3.0 (this setting will vary depending on the font size).
Next, click on the RGB channel and from the menu bar, click on
Select: Load Selection and click on OK.
At this point, you will add a gradient. Take care not to remove
the selection, then select the Gradient tool and drag it vertically
over the letters from top to bottom or bottom to top. Next, use
the arrow keys and move the selection two pixels to the left (press
the left arrow twice) and 2 pixels upwards (press the up arrow twice).
Making sure not to remove the selection,
go to the menu bar and choose Image: Adjust: Invert. Now, remove the
selection. The last step is to colorize your text. From the menu bar,
access Image: Adjust: Hue/Saturation. Enable the Colorize checkbox,
then adjust Saturation and Hue to create an effect that appeals to
you.
*Nathan Segal is a Writer and Artist who is also active
in Stock Photography.
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