In this tutorial I`m going to show you how to create a very nice grunge letterpress text effect in Photoshop. Along the way, we`ll be using Photoshop Tools, Blending Options and will enhance the design with patterns and brush effects.

What we`ll be doing here:

Materials Needed

To create a catchy effect, the materials used has to be fancy. So, I chose a grunge font called “28 Days Later” inspired from the much more popular movie and a grunge brush set as well. You can download them from the links below:

28 Days Later Font

Grunge Brush Set

Some of you might not know how to install a font or brush on Photoshop so I`m feeling obliged to explain you before starting the Photoshop project.

1. Installing a Font: Download the font and depending what you have, Windows or Mac, drag the font into Fonts Folder located in Control Panel for Windows or System if you have Mac.

2. Installing a Brush: Download the brush as well and drag it into the Brushes folder located in your Photoshop installation folder, under Presets (YourPhotoshop/Presets/Brushes) or if you don`t want to add the brush to the library, just load the .abr file directly from Photoshop by Selecting the Brush Tool(B) and opening the Brush Preset Picker.

Now that we cleared up these 2 aspects, let`s get started. Open Photoshop and create a new file (File->New). I chose a canvas of 600×400px just to offer you high-quality images in order to help you understand and learn better each step and effects involved. You can choose whatever dimensions you want!

You notice that the first layer situated in the Layer`s Palette(F7) is locked. Double-click it to unlock it and to make it editable. Select the Paint Bucket Tool(G) and with a gray color (#D3D3D3) paint the empty canvas. I`ll show you now how to create a nice paper effect by adding just a simple filter. Go to Filter->Noise->Add Noise and add a small noise of 3%. We`ve just obtained the paper effect we wanted for the background.

Select the Text Tool(T), choose the 28 Days Later font you`ve just downloaded and installed and type in something. The text already looks awesome but there`s room for more.

Next we`ll add blending options to beautify the text and to create the letterpress effect, as we proposed. I want to share a tip with you: To obtain a letterpress effect, you only need to add a white drop shadow and a black inner shadow. Just follow the images and you`ll understand.

The effect obtained is just like I wanted to be…The pattern used is from the Standard Photoshop Library but again, you can use whatever you want. I`ll be glad if you`ll share your own and unique project with us by leaving a comment in the comments` section.

Check this out!

Let`s add 2 more final touches to the entire design. Create a new layer just under the text layer, select the brush tool and with the new grunge brushes, stylize the background.

As for the text layer, I feel that the yellow color of the pattern is too fade and I want to change that by adding some darker and lighter zones, using the Dodge Tool(O) and Burn Tool(O). The layer is not editable yet. You can convince yourself by trying to use on it the Dodge and Burn tools. To let us work on it, firstly we have to rasterize the layer. To backup the layer in case you don`t like what we`re doing next and want to preserve the work, right-click on it and Duplicate it. Now right-click on the new layer and hit Convert to Smart Object. Select the Dodge or Burn tool and try to click on text…ehhhh…it doesn`t work yet but a dialog box should appear and say “This smart object has to be rasterized before proceeding. Edit Contents will no longer be available. Rasterize the smart object?” and you hit “Yes”. Now you`re free to do whatever you want on this layer. Play with the Dodge and Burn tools to obtain lighter and darker zones.

Believe it or not, that was the final step and the tutorial has reached its end. Check out how my grunge letterpress text effect looks like:

If you read this line, this means that you followed the tut step by step and I thank you for that! See you next time for another lesson of Photoshop illustrated in a nice tutorial!

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