CoffeeShop Photoshop/PSE Tutorial: Customize Text with Textures!

Today I put together a simple tutorial for Photoshop/PSE showing you how to customize free fonts by adding textures.  This is a great way to really create really interesting fonts for logos, greeting cards, website/blog headers, Facebook covers, etc.

1.  Create a new document with a transparent background and type in your word using your favorite font.  I used Cry Kitty for this tutorial as it is a bold font and is great for adding textures.  I love using fonts at Kevin and Amanda and Font Squirrel as they have a huge selection and all can be used commercially.

2.  Open the texture, image, or digital paper you want to add to the font. This really nice rusty texture is from Pixabay.  All of the images at Pixabay can be used commercially also.  I also have a small set of peeling paint textures that are perfect for this use.

I also love using textures from Flypaper, they are  some of my favorite.  You can also add fabric, damask, digital papers, vintage wallpaper, old musical sheets, etc.  You can really add any image to your text.

3.  Grab the texture (V) and drag it on top of the text document and clip it with the text.  Here is a clipping mask tutorial if you are new to this technique.  I love that you can use anything for a clipping mask, including text.

Ctrl-T and adjust the size of the texture and also play with the placement over your text.  Now your text is rusty!

4.  If you want to  further enhance the texture, you can clip a level adjustment layer to the text layer on top of the texture layer and adjust the contrast by moving the sliders under the curve.

5.  I often like to add some drop shadow, so click on the text layer and go to Layer, Layer Style, Drop Shadow and adjust the settings to taste.

6.  As a final adjustment I like to add a artistic filter to the texture.  I click to select the texture layer and then go to Filter, Brush Strokes or Filter, Artistic and play around to see which filter looks best.  In this case I applied the Crosshatch filter and adjusted the sliders to taste.

7.  Here is my final text with the texture, crosshatch filter, and drop shadow.  I think it is really cool!  The sky is the limit to customizing text this way, and you will find yourself using textured text all over your own designs once you start playing around.  Have fun designing and have a great weekend!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures. 

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.