5/4/2019

Advanced Photoshop Text Tutorials

The web is brimming with typography tutorials, but many are low quality and others are very out of date. So we’ve trawled the internet to uncover the diamonds in the rough, in the form of 53 top-quality typography tutorials, to bring your knowledge and skills up to speed.

Perhaps you’re looking for a good introduction to the fundamentals of typography? Or perhaps you want to develop and push your type abilities further? Either way, you’re sure to find just what you’re looking for on this list, which includes typography lessons in the form of traditional text-and-image tutorials, animations and video, and even games.

We’ll be adding to this list as time moves on, so make sure you bookmark this page, and come back from time to time to see what’s new in the world of typography tutorials.

We'll start by looking at tutorials to help you with mastering the fundamentals of typography – skip through to another page if you're after something more advanced.

01. Typography basics explained

Not sure exactly what typography terms mean? This video gives you a short and snappy overview of the six most important terms, namely typography, body copy, display type, hierarchy, kerning and leading.

Six further terms (tracking, widows and orphans, serif fonts, sans-serif fonts and script & cursive fonts) are explained in part two, which you can watch here.

02. Beginning graphic design: typography

This quick cartoon video from Learn.org, complete with a jaunty elevator-music soundtrack, runs through the basics of typography including the different types of fonts and common typography terms. You’ll find the text version of the tutorial here.

03. Everything you need to learn typography basics

This introduction to typography starts from the point of view of a marketing professional, who recognises its importance in strengthening a brand and highlighting the central message of a campaign.

Author Brittany Leaning went on a typography course at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and here she explains the fundamentals of what she learned, including a detailed look at the anatomy of type.

04. Lecture 110: Introduction to typography

This video provides an academically rigorous overview of typography, including both a definition of terms and a practical guide to how to place text and create character and paragraph styles within Adobe InDesign CC.

It’s actually a straight recording of a university lecture (by Grant Adams at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California). So you’re best off skipping the first three minutes, where the remarks are purely focused on the students about to take the course.

05. A crash course in typography: The basics of type

It's probably wise to get back to basics before you go running off into the typography sunset. Here, Cameron Chapman gives you the lowdown on everything from fonts to displays.

06. Paragraphs and special characters

In this typography tutorial, Cameron Chapman is back to tell you that yes, designing headers and titles may be more artistic, but the set body text is just as important. Discover why with this step-by-step guide.

07. Principles for combining typefaces

Combining typefaces can be dangerous business, especially if you mix two that certainly don't belong together. Avoid any upset with this typography tutorial that shows you the importance of contrast and mood.

08. Pulling it together

Now you've got the basics down and you've dabbled in paragraphs and combining typefaces, take a look at how to pull it all together. In this typography tutorial, Cameron Chapman rounds it all up and shows you how to finish in style.

09. Typography terms every designer must know

Our article introduces the fundamental concepts and rules of typography, followed by a detailed illustrated glossary of its main terms. Learn about choosing a font, sizing, leading, tracking and kerning, measure, hierarchy and scale, and more.

10. How to work with type in InDesign

The klan unmasked ebooking. Art editor Jo Gulliver on T3 (and formerly on Computer Arts) shows you some of her most valuable typographic tools in Adobe's publishing software. Focusing mainly on the Character Formatting control panel, she explains how these options can be used on a day-to-day basis to help speed up your workflow in InDesign.

Next page: more advanced typography tutorials

Photoshop’s text tools can create some truly mind-blowing effects. Whether you’re designing a logo, a banner, posters, t-shirts, or even ads, Photoshop comes with the required tools to help you inject some awesomeness into your text effects.

Of course, there are many tutorials that will teach you the basics of typography, but sometimes you just want something more, something that just screams creativity! You will find 50 of those Photoshop text effect tutorials in this post.

You might also like: Top 100 Tutorials for Mastering Photoshop.

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Skin-Textured Typography Scene

In this tutorial, you’ll be shown how to create a 3D-looking textured text effect in Photoshop without the need for any 3D tools or applications. All you will need is the ability to create the above text effect is a good idea of perspective so that you can modify light distribution with the help of the color correction tools (Burn Tool and Dodge Tool). The techniques and concepts you’ll learn here can be used to apply any texture (not just skin texture) to any text for simulating depth and lighting precision.

Incredible Typographic Illustration

In this two-part tutorial, you’re going to learn how to bring a simple proverb into a complex typographic illustration that achieves a level of realism without actually using any photos. In the first part, you'll learn how to model your objects in Cinema 4D and prepare them for isolation in Photoshop. In part 2, you will take all the pieces of the puzzle and finalize them.

Lost in Space Typography

In this tutorial, you will be shown how to create a super quick abstract composition with light effects and apply that as a texture of text. You will be playing with Brushes, Blend Modes, basic filters (Blur and Liquify), and, of course, text.

Atmospheric Under-Water Text Effect

Here you will learn how to create an atmospheric underwater text effect using a few simple steps. You will learn how to properly extract water, and manipulate it to fit your typography.

Urban Type Art

This in-depth tutorial is about giving your typography illustration a fresh touch and experimenting with traditional and digital media, mixing patterns and textures to give your work an extra personal spark. For this tutorial you will need basic Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop skills and some cheap watercolour paint. Afterwards, you should have acquired hands-on techniques you can use on work ranging from typography to editorial to photo manipulation.

Distressed Vector Typographic Poster

Follow this step by step walkthrough of design process for the ‘Spectrum’ poster. Starting with custom made type in Illustrator, you’ll move the vector graphics into Photoshop for some serious distressing with Photoshop brushes, blending modes and more!

Embossed Text with Metallic Glow

How to Create Cool Water Effect Typography

In this tutorial you will be shown how to create cool water typography effect in Photoshop playing with stock photos, blend modes and filters. You will also use some water splash brushes and smooth gradients to give a splish-splash feel to our design.

Retro Folded Typography

In this Photoshop tutorial, you’re going to create a retro-looking text that appears as though it’s constructed using folded strips of paper. Prepare yourself to heavily rely on Photoshop’s Lasso Tool, as well as some other basic tools and simple techniques.

Music Equalizer Text Effect

In this tutorial you will learn how-to make a music equalizer and then apply the equalizer effect on to text using some awesome techniques.

3D Type Art

The new 3D tools in Photoshop CS5 are more advanced than ever. In this tutorial you will use the new Repoussé tool to extrude some text in a way previously only possible in a full 3D application.

Funky Retro Wavy Text Effect

You are going to create a retro-colored psychedelic background, which you will then apply to some text. The purpose of this tutorial is to learn how to mask out an image so that it just shows through the editable text, making it friendlier to modifications later on.

Cool Text Effect with the Puppet Warp Tool

In this tutorial you will be shown how to create a text effect using a photo of rope and the new (CS5) Puppet Warp tool. This tutorial will only work with the CS5 version of Photoshop.

Modern 3D Text Effect

3D Typographic Illustration

In this tutorial, João Oliveira creates a 3D typographic illustration using initially Cinema 4D for building the 3D, followed by Photoshop for the post-production.

Number Candles Text Effect

This tutorial explains the techniques for creating the 3D number candles above without using any 3D tools. It will then guide you through the other sections of shaping the candles, adding lights and shadows and finally placing the candles on top of a cupcake.

Electrified Metal Text Effect

In this tutorial you will be shown the steps to recreate the Electrified Metal Text Effect above. It will cover a number of selection techniques, as well as how we to use the right textures to create this unique text effect.

Striped Road-Inspired Text Effect

This tutorial will show you some tips on how to use the Pen Tool, along with some Brushes and Blend Modes, to recreate the striped road inspired text effect above.

Autumn-Themed 3D Text Effect

Using CS6 Extended all-new 3D interface, this tutorial will explain how to use those new 3D features to create an amazing autumn-themed 3D text effect.

Chalk Ornament Typography

This tutorial will show you how to create a stylish ornament typography and then apply a chalkboard effect using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and some vector ornaments.

Magical Fire Energy Text Effect

In this beginner tutorial you will be shown the steps to create the 'Magical Fire Energy' text effect you can see above. You will be tackling painting, layer blending, and image adjustments.

Valentine's Day-Inspired 3D Text Effect

In this tutorial, you will be combining Photoshop and Filter Forge to create a wood textured 3D text effect with a simple red glass heart.

The Great Gatsby Art Deco Style

In this time consuming tutorial you will learn how to create an Art Deco image and text effect based on the poster of The Great Gatsby movie, using Illustrator and Photoshop.

Fluid Typography

In this beginner level tutorial, using custom brushes and the liquify tool, you will learn how to recreate the beautiful fluid typography you can see above.

Scrabble Tiles Text Effect

This tutorial will show you how to create your own scrabble tiles set from scratch, so that you can use them anytime with any background you like.

Chocolate Text Effect

This Valentines themed tutorial will show you how to create a scrumpicous chocolate text effect using Layer Styles.

Glowing 3D Text Effect

In this tutorial, you will be shown how to combine Photoshop with Filter Forge to create a glowing 3D text effect.

Simple Bokeh Text Effect

This tutorial shows you an easy method for create a beautiful bokeh text effect, using a simple brush and a layer effect.

Old Signage in Photoshop 3D

In this tutorial you will learn how to create an old signage text effect using stock photos. As a bonus you will also create a simple animated GIF.