How to Create a 3D Text Effect in Photoshop

Select the Text tool. After creating a new image file or loading an image, go to toolbar at the left. Click the “T” icon, which is the Text tool. After clicking this tool, the toolbar at the top of the screen will change to display the different Text Options.

Choose the font. Next thing you need to do is select the font to use for your 3D text. After selecting the Text tool, go to the top of the screen to the Text Options toolbar. Click the the arrow beside the rectangular box next to the “T” icon, and select a font from the list that drops down.

• 3D effects usually works best with big thick font.
• You can also opt to have your texts in bold or italics by selecting the option next to the font styles box.

Change the font size. Click the down arrow button beside the box with the numbers on it in the Text Options toolbar. You will have a set of options from “6” to “72” as font size in the drop-down menu. Click on a size you want to use.

Change the font color. In the Text Options toolbar, you’ll find a box with the default color used for the text, usually black. Click this to open the color picker window. Click on the color you want to use for your text, and click “OK.” The color in the box at the top will change to your selected color.

Add the text to the image. Click an area on the image where you want your text to appear. A blinking text icon will appear. Type in the text you want to create into 3D. The text will appear in 2D in the font style, size, and color you selected earlier.

• If the text appears too large or too small, highlight it and go to the Text Options toolbar, then increase or decrease the font size accordingly.
• After you’re satisfied with your 2D text, go to the Text Options bar and click on the check mark towards the right of the text color box. The text will be accepted, and you will come out of editing mode.

Check and make sure that the text layer is selected. Go to the bottom right side of the screen to find the layers palette. From the layers palette, click the “Layers” option. You can see the text layer placed above the “Background layer.” This text layer helps us to edit the text independently without effecting the background layer.

• If the text layer is not above the Background layer, click, hold, and drag it above the Background layer.

Transform the text. If you want to change the size, orientation, and distortion of the text, you should use the “Free Transform” command. To do this, click “Edit” at the top of the screen, and from the drop-down menu, select “Free Transform.” The keyboard shortcut to do this is Ctrl + T (Windows) and Cmd + T (Mac).

• A transform box will appear around the text in the image. To distort the text image size, click the corner handles of the box and drag it diagonally to the size you want. Depending on how you dragged the box, this will elongate or flatten your text. If you don’t want the text to be distorted, hold down the Shift key before dragging.
• To rotate the text, hold the left mouse button and click on the arrow type handle that appears at the top of the text.
• After transforming, click “Enter” on the keyboard for Windows and “Return” for Mac to apply the transformation, and to come out of the Free Transform mode.

Convert the text to shape. One can’t simply create a 3D effect with a 2D text. Before proceeding, you need to change the perspective of text. Select the text layer from the layers palette then click “Edit” at the top. Select “Transform” from the options, and a drop-down menu will appear with various transformation options. You will see that “Distort” and “Perspective” is grayed out. This means that you can’t perform these actions on the text right now.

• To enable this option, you should convert the text layer to a shape layer. Once it has been converted, you can change the perspective. Before you convert the layer, make sure that the text is edited to your preference since once you convert the layer, you will no longer be able to edit the text.
• Go to the “Layer” menu at the top of the screen. Click “Type” from the drop-down menu. From the submenu options, select “Convert to Shape.” The text layer will now be displayed as a shape layer in the layers palette.

Apply the perspective. Go to the “Edit” menu and select “Transform.” The “Transform” command now appears as “Transform Path.” This is because the text layer is now a shape layer. Click on it, and choose “Perspective” from the secondary menu.

• A transformation box with corner handles will appear around the text. To give it a perspective look, drag the right bottom corner handle down and the right top corner handle up. The height of the text will change, giving it a perspective look. You can also do it vice versa, by dragging the left side corners or the top corners and the bottom corners.
• When the perspective has been changed to your preference, click “Enter” or “Return” to set the changes.

Make multiple copies. Select the shape layer in the layers palette, go to the toolbar at the left, and select the “Move” tool (arrow and junction icon). Hold the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac), and press the right arrow key on keyboard. Press it as many times as you want. One press will give you a new copy of the shape layer in the palette, each layer moving one pixel to the bottom right. If you want it on the left side, press the left arrow instead. Keep pressing the arrow till you reach the required depth of the perspective.

Move the original layer to the top. After creating multiple copies, go back to the layers palette. Select the original layer, which is present right above the Background layer; it doesn’t have the word “Copy” in its name. Click Ctrl + Shift + ] for Windows and Cmd + Shift + ] for Mac. This will take the original layer to the top of the layer stack.

Merge the copies. To merge all the copies into a single layer, keep the Shift (or Option) key pressed down and click on each layer. This will select all the layers; notice that they are all highlighted blue in the layers palette.

• Go to “Layers” menu at the top, and click “Merge Layers.” You can also press Ctrl (or Cmd) + E. All the copies will be merged as a single layer, with Background layer at the bottom and original layer at the top.