Soft Sleek Text Effect

The Final Result:

Notes:

* the software used in this tutorial is Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
* the size of the final result image is 1024 * 768
* you might want to check the Basix Page to see some useful topics on dealing with Photoshop basics, such as loading palettes and some shortcuts.

Resources:

* Purple grit tileable texture by *thespook.
* You might need to load the Contours used in the tutorial, so check this image to see how to do so.

Step 1:

- Set the Foreground color to #c577a4 and the Background color to #713c5c. Pick the Gradient Tool, choose the Foreground to Background gradient, and click the Radial Gradient icon in the Options Bar. Then create a radial gradient from the center of the document to one of the corners.

- Place the Purple grit tileable texture on top of the Background layer, and change its layer's Blend Mode to Soft Light. This texture is tileable, so you can apply it as a pattern as well.

Step 2:

- Create the text using the Foreground color (#c577a4). The font used is Sail and the size is 250pt.

- Duplicate the text layer.

- Right click the copy text layer, and choose Rasterize Type.

- Make this layer invisible by clicking the eye icon next to it. We'll get back to it later to create the texture.

Step 3:

Double click the original text layer to apply the following Layer Style.

- Drop Shadow: Use the default settings.

- Bevel and Emboss: Change the Gloss Contour to Cove - Deep, check the Anti-aliased box, and change the Shadow Mode color to #8a8a8a.

- Contour: Choose the Ring Contour, and check the Anti-aliased box.

- Satin: Change the Blend Mode to Vivid Light and the color to #eedfe9, the Angle to 0, and the Contour to Linear.

- Stroke: Change the Size to 1, the Fill Type to Gradient, and change the Angle to 90. Then, click the Gradient Box to create the gradient used.

- The gradient uses two colors: #6a6a6a and #e8f0f5. Add five stops for the first color and four for the second, and place them as shown below:

- This will add a very nice and elegant effect to the text.

Step 4:

- Make the copy text layer visible again by clicking the empty box next to it.

- Go to Filter -> Texture -> Craquelure and modify the values as shown below:

This is what you should get:

- Then, go to Filter -> Distort -> Glass and modify the values as shown below as well:

This will create a simple marble-like texture.

Step 5:

- The last step is changing the Blend Mode. The Blend Mode used here is Soft Light, and the layer's Opacity is 80%, but you can go ahead and try some other Blend Modes as well. A couple of them will give different nice results.

Hope you liked the tutorial and found it useful.