How did I do this?

[NancyJ]

I lost the original psd for this website banner (hard drive malfunction) and now the client wants to make a change to it, so I figured, no big deal I'll just remake it, only problem is, 1. I dont know what font I used, I downloaded it from the internet and dont remember what it was called. 2. I cant recreate that text effect. I know it was done just with text and blending styles - possibly including gradient overlay, stroke, drop shadow and bevel but I just cant get it right

[Kraellin]

sorry, nothing i have is close. have you tried the font sites and/or google?

craig

[mistermonday]

Hi Nancy,
The font looks similar to Comic Sans MS in Win XP. There are also a bunch of fonts which look just like this at www.clipart.com in the Font section of the site.
The effect looks like one of the Plastic layer styles in PS.
Regards, Murray

[elless]

This certainly isn't the exact font but it could be somewhat similar....looks right at about 60pt...just type your heading in to the sample box there to see.

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/spieceg...xt-sg/regular/

[makeovermagic]

here's another font site to try:

www.1001freefonts.com/fonts/afonts.htm

[Swampy]

The font looks like ITC Highlander Bold.

[NancyJ]

not so much bothered about the font as the blending styles on it. At the end of the day the client isnt going to notice the minute details between different fonts.

[philbach]

Well perhaps this is kind of what you want. A black color and then use inner bevel style and technique smooth in the layer style menue

[goose443]

This is the wrong font but if the effect is close enough let me know and I'll guide you through it.

[makeovermagic]

here's my version - pretty close; wrong font though

[NancyJ]

MoM & Goose, those are almost perfect!

[goose443]

OK, lets see if I can explain this:

First obviously you type out your text (layer 1)

Next duplicate the text to a new layer and shift it up a couple of pixels (layer 2)

Using the orginial text layer (layer 1) make a selection and delete that information from the second text layer (layer 2) You should be left with the upper tips of the letters.

Take those tips and fill them with white.

Now move the "tips" layer (layer 2) and line it back up with the original layer (layer 1).

Make a selection and cotract by one or two pixels to reduce the thickness of this "tips" layer (layer 2). Invert the selection and delete.

The next step is to both gaussian blur and motion blur very very slightly (to taste) until you're left with a suitable highlight.

OK, now that your highlight layer is done go back to the original text layer (layer 1) and make a selection out of it.

You then want to contract this selection by 2 or 3 pixels.

Make a new layer (layer 3), fill the selected area in white and do a slight gaussian blur.

Next make a layer mask on this cotracted blurred text (layer 3) and using your gradient tool create a gradient in the mask so that the upper part of the blurred text is masked and there is a slow progression to the bottom of the text which should be visible.

Reduce the oppacity of this blured white text layer (layer 3) to about 20% (to taste) until your counterhighlight is at a desirable level.

Add a drop shadow to the orginial text layer (layer 1) at 90% and set it to taste.

Rinse and repeat.

[makeovermagic]

i just had a text layer and played around with drop shadow; outer glow, bevel/emboss, and black/gray gradient for color.

[goose443]

I guess I'm a little old school in my approach but I find you get much more control. You also have the option to do double embosses, gradiated bevels and a lot of other stuff you can't really achieve with the layer styles.

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by makeovermagic

i just had a text layer and played around with drop shadow; outer glow, bevel/emboss, and black/gray gradient for color.

Thats pretty much what I did when I did it - I dont suppose you know what settings you used?

[makeovermagic]

drop shadow: multiply
opa 63
blur 6
distance 3
intensity 14
angle 90
outer glow: screen
opa 69
blur 1
intensity 76
bevel/emboss: highlight: screen: white
opa 97
shadow: white
opa 27
blur 1
depth 200
soften 0
angle 45/46
inner bevel

hope this helps!

[Gina_D]

Looks like you may have the effects figured out, but as a side note regarding the question of this font or another in the future, there is a great site called whatthefont.com that could come in handy. You upload an image of your font in question and the site scours its database and comes up with a match. Pretty cool site. I discovered it in one of the design publications I subscribe to a couple years ago. whatthefont.com
Gina

[byRo]

Gina, what a fantastic site!!

I cleaned up some letters from Nancy's banner and got a pretty much perfect match - Cocon Bold

Rô

[NancyJ]

ro, thats a perfect match, shame I dont know the name of the free one I used thats just like it. I've found one called trivia, its close enough that it will have to do

[NancyJ]

tried it with the trivia font and I've got the effect perfect but the font just isnt right! grrr... damn computers