Shiny Blue Line Text Effect

 In this tutorial we are going to create a shiny ice text effect in Photoshop using only blending options which will make it very customizeable later on and you can use it for practically everything. To open the images in full scale, just click on them and they will expand.

Step 1: Grab the Type Tool (T) and using a thick font like Impact, type in your desired text. Fill it with a light blue colour such as #00ccff or similar.

Step 1 - Screenshot

Step 2: Right click on the layer in the Layers Panel and in the contextual menu that pops up, chose Blending Options.

Step 3: Click on Inner Shadow and apply the settings as seen in the screenshot below. Make sure to change the contour to ”Cove – Shallow”.

Step 3 - Screenshot

Step 4: Now click on Outer Glow and apply the settings as seen in the screenshot below. Again make sure that the countour is changed to the ”Cone” which is number two in the list.

Step 5 - Screenshot

Step 5: Apply a gradient overlay, white to transparent with the settings as seen in the screenshot below.

Step 5 - Screenshot

Step 6: Now it is starting to come together and you can see the almosed finished look and you could certainly stop here if you’d like to, however we are going to do one more thing to give it some depth and demension.

Click OK on the Blending Options dialog box for now and make sure that the document we are working on is saved.

Go to File > New and create a document that is 5×5 pixels at 72ppi. Make sure the document is fully transparent.

Step 6 - Screenshot

Step 7: Zoom it in to 1600 %. Create a brand new layer and grab the Pencil Tool, set to a 1px brush. Also make sure the foreground colour is set to black. Now we are going to paint per pixel, a diagonal line from the top left corner to the bottom right. Just position the pencil tool at the top left corner so that you can see the one pixel square. Then click once to paint. Repeat in a diagonal line.

Step 7 - Screenshot

Step 8: Now go under Edit > Define Pattern and give it a name, like ”Scanline” used here. What we have done now is created a scanline pattern and defined it for use in Photoshop. You can now close this document.

Step 8 - Screenshot

Step 9: Back in the text effect document, we are going back into the Blending Options and this time we are going to click on ”Pattern Overlay” and apply the settings as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 9 - Screenshot

You will now have the final effect which should look like the sample below. All I did was to add a reflection, a darker rectangle as surface and a gradient background to enhance the look and make it a little more complete!

Final Effect

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