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See-Thru Text
Software Used: Photoshop 5.5

Note: If you have Photoshop 6 or higher, you'll want to use the updated version of this See-Through Text tutorial. Otherwise, scroll down to begin...

See-Thru Text Effect

1.) Open the background image you wish to use, or create a new file and fill it with a background pattern. This effect works best with a fairly pale background.

The background

2.) Set the foreground color to white. Select the type tool and type your text.

Adding the text

3.) In the layers palette, select the SeeThru layer, right-click, and choose duplicate layer. (If you typed something other than "SeeThru" your layer name will be different.)

Duplicating the text layer

4.) On the SeeThru copy layer, right click, choose effects, and apply the drop shadow effect.

Adding a drop shadow effect

The drop shadow applied

5.) With the SeeThru copy layer selected, go to Layer -> Effects-> Create Layer. This separates the drop shadow from the text.

6.) Ctrl-click on the SeeThru layer, switch to the drop shadow layer, and hit delete. This trims away the portions of the drop shadow that don't extend beyond the text. Hide the other layers by clicking the eye icon on the layers palette to see the results, it should look like the image below. Deselect.

Trimming the drop shadow

7.) Now right-click the SeeThru copy layer in the layers palette. Choose Effects, and apply an inner shadow.

Adding the inner shadow effect

After the inner shadow is applied

8.) Again go to Layer -> Effects-> Create Layer to separate the inner shadow effect from the text.

9.) Click the SeeThru copy layer and set the blend mode to "multiply".

Changing the blend mode

10.) Now adjust the opacity of the drop shadow and inner shadow layers to tweak the effect. You should still have your original SeeThru layer hidden; if desired, make it visible and drop the opacity down to about 20% to give the text a frosted look. My opacity settings for each layer are shown below in red. You may need to vary them depending on your background.

Adjusting the opacity of each layer

11.) Here's the final image and a couple of variations.

The finished image

A variation

Another variation

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