How do you do this? [Archive]

Aea

10-18-2003, 12:09 AM

1)
Press T to select the Type tool and type some text - I used the font Courier New, 40pt in bold. (Courier is a popular candidate for this type of thing because it's an old typewriter font. This gives the effect of some typewritten text with a typewriter whose ribbon is low on ink.)

2)
Hold down the Ctrl key and click on this new type layer to select the text. Now make this selection into a layer mask by pressing the layer mask button at the bottom of the layers palette. Layer masks make parts of a layer invisible (transparent) or partially invisible. Pressing the layer mask button when there is a selection makes everything but the selection invisible.

You should now see a thumbnail of the layer mask, just right of the ‘T’ (for text layer) symbol. The colour black represents the mask, or that which is invisible. The colour white represents what is visible. Since the layer mask is only masking the transparent part of the layer right now it makes no visible change to this layer.

Also notice that this new thumbnail has a solid line around it. That means you are now working on the layer mask NOT the actual layer. This is also indicated by the layer mask icon to the left of the ‘T’. You can alter the mask with many of the Photoshop tools and filters. It works in greyscale - shades of grey indicating partial transparency. The darker the grey the more of the layer it blocks out. If you want to see the mask rather than image (not necessary here) simply Alt + click the new, layer mask thumbnail. Alt + clicking it again returns to the layer view.

For the next step make sure the layer mask is selected - i.e. has a solid line around its thumbnail.

3)
Go to Filter>Brush Strokes>Spatter. Play with the spray radius and smoothness settings. I used 10 for both. This looks more severe in the preview window than the type appears when finished. That's because we are altering (and seeing) the mask not the actual text. When the layer mask is applied it only takes away from the text below. Where the mask is distorted but not actually over the original text it has no effect because the pixels on the type layer underneath are already transparent.

Click OK when you've chosen your settings. If you want to run your last used filter again press Ctrl+F or, press Ctrl+Alt+F if you want to run the filter with different settings.

4)
As a final touch I blurred the layer mask slightly: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. I used a setting of 0.3 but, as always in Photoshop, experiment to see what looks what best.

Other options include fading the spatter filter. This option is only available immediately after applying the spatter filter: Edit>Fade Spatter or Ctrl + Shft + F.

To fade or strengthen the worn bits adjust the brightness/contrast of the layer mask Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast or use levels: Image>Adjust>Levels (shortcut: Ctrl + L)

First find on google :)