Basic Techniques: Inner Glow

In this episode i will show you how to make a texteffect called Inner Glow.

The subtle shine you can see coming from the edges inside the text boundaries, is the Inner Glow.

01. Type your text: i used a canvas of 560x280px, black

Font: Sans Bold 215px, Spacing: -14, Colour: 666666

Align your text (use the Align or Move Tool) and click 'Layer to Imagesize'

02. alpha select your text and save it to a channel (Select -> Save to Channel)

create a new transparent layer and name it „Inner Glow“

03. Invert the selection,

04. fill the transparent layer with the color your want for your glow.

(i used white) and

05. Select → None

06. Next we apply a Gaussian Blur to our Glow Layer.

For demonstration purposes i use a rather „strong“ blur of 25px.

07. Now we want to get rid of all the white outside the text boundaries.

You can choose between two possibilites: activate the selection from your saved channel, invert and hit delete

or

apply a layermask.

I prefer using a layermask, because it gives me more control, in case i want to change something later.

Rightclick on your Glow Layer, Add Layermask and choose 'From Channel'.

08. As a final touch we change Mode and Opacity. Choosing modes depends on color and desired effect. I used the „default“ for light colours: 'Screen' at 75%.

09. And this is your result:

Here is a quick summary of the effect: