Fun ways to play with Photoshop - by David Peters

Fun ways to play with Photoshop - by David Peters: "There are some pretty cool things you can do with Photoshop that can changed your view of text for a while. One interesting one is having some normal text and adding a few shades to make it fun and more interesting. It is in two easy steps: 1. First, create an image about 300 x 100 pixels, and 72 pixels/inch. Select a foreground color of #CACACA, and fill the image, to make the background this color. When you've filled the background, then select your text tool, and add the text you want to add, make the color of the text close to #3F3F3F A darker grey. 2. OK, now we can add the shadow. It is as easy as adding a layer effect and can come in very useful for other things too. Go to Blending Options (Right-click on text layer).You will get a menu with structure, elements and quality. In the structure menu you would select 100% opacity, 0% noise, and the solid not gradient option. For the elements you would want the technique to be softer, the spread 2% and the size 8pixels. For quality you want 55% range and 0% jitter. You can always play around a little with these, if it does not suit. (The color used for the shadow is #8A8A8A) So once you have that, just click OK, and you should get your final result. It's as easy as that!"