15 Cool Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop can produce some amazing works of art, if you have the know-how. It is also great for generating unique and interesting text effects that catch your attention.

We’ve compiled this brief list of the best and most fun text effect tutorials online. These tutorials dive deep into using layer effects, brushes, and more tools, so that you can create the text effect you need for your project.

1. Dramatic Text on Fire

What would a list of text effects be without a tutorial on how to set text on fire? This is the first thing that anyone wants to make in Photoshop. It is a relatively simple effect, and produces something that looks pretty good, if not a bit cliched.

2. ‘Stranger Things’ Inspired Text

The title graphic for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things is iconic and retro, making it perfect for recreating. This Stranger Things text tutorial is straightforward. All you need is the proper font with an emboss effect and glow effects. This guide goes through the best settings to emulate the red glow, so you will be able to turn any text you want into this 80’s flashback look.

3. Plastic Text Effect

Creating a plastic effect in Photoshop is satisfying, because the text will appear to have reflections and a 3-dimensional feel. In fact, you will just be using layer effects such as contour, inner glow, and stroke. The result is a versatile and fun effect that has a realistic texture.

4. Use a Clipping Mask with Text

An oldie but a goodie, using a clipping mask with text can turn any background image you like into a text. All you need is to type the words you want, put the layer below an image, and select to create a clipping mask with the image. This great-looking effect quite literally will take you 30 seconds.

5. Create a Grassy Text Effect

A 3-dimensional grassy texture is vibrant and realistic. This is a fun text effect to try, and relies on a number of layer effects with a grass stock image. It requires some precision pen tool work to make it look perfect, but the time investment will be worth it!

6. Make a Bold and Funky Sticker

Making a text sticker in Photoshop can be incredibly useful if you’re looking to create some fun graphics for your website, or maybe even a sticker pack. This Photoshop text effect pairs nicely with handwritten text and paper textures. It’s a simple tutorial, but can make all the difference in bringing your project together.

7. Vintage Sugar Bag Effect

Creating a vintage text effect based on old logos is easy to do, and looks great for a variety of uses! The internal shading and white “shadow” really sell the piece, and they’re essentially the only steps.

8. Design Metallic Embossed Text

Any Photoshop text effect that produces a 3D look is great for beginners. This embossed metallic text effect is no different, which creates a clean look with a bit of depth. This is accomplished through layer effects and some additional small details that really make the piece pop.

9. Billowing Smoke Text

This smoke text effect uses a custom brush to create smoke tendrils, and relies on other simple effects like blurring and smudging, until things look just right.

10. Practicing Airbrushes to Make Text Glow

While a lot of these tutorials utilize layers to create a great text effect, this tutorial will teach you how to use Photoshop airbrushes to make optimal highlights and shadows on a flat layer of text.

11. Retro Folded Paper Type

This folded paper text takes a lot of cutting out of shapes, but ends up looking like natural folded paper! This is in fact digitally built but will be much easier to emulate if you fold actual paper first so you have a real reference point.

12. Create a Dripping, Gooey Mess!

This may look complicated, but really it just requires a little bit of digital drawing. The organic drippy look is achieved through drawing around the original text. This is a great lesson for learning the pen tool, and even if you’re not interesting in the gooey look, this a great tutorial to learn some essential Photoshop skills from. Perfect for Halloween, candy/food effects, and more.

13. Displaced Text Effect Photoshop

This is a simple but potentially versatile technique. After applying some effects to make the text look nicer, just cut off parts of the text and move them around until it has a satisfying disjointed look.

14. Glowing Retro Sign

This tutorial uses layer styles to create a 3D sign effect. You can use the techniques in this tutorial to make it your own and customize to your liking. The end result looks almost realistic and is a standout text effect.

15. Whimsical Comic Book Text Effect

This fun text effect is inspired by comic book action words. The bright yellows and reds sell the look, but the red dots reminiscent of comic book art are the finishing touch. This effect shows off that certain looks are achieved by some subtle (and sometimes not as subtle) details.

Pre-Made Text Effects

Another way to get stunning text effects in Photoshop is to purchase layer styles from other creators. Designers and talented Photoshop users are constantly innovating to create cool text effects and type styles, find a few cool products worth trying below.