How to Create a Hollow Text Affect with Adobe Photoshop CS4

Although you would not use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to write a book, you can use it to do some neat affects on text. In this tutorial I am going to cover how you can make your text hollow so an underlying image will be able to show through. You see this affect a lot on posters and advertisements.

  1. Launch Adobe Photoshop CS4 and load an existing image.
  2. Step 2

    Select the “Horizontal Type Mask Tool” from your tools panel as shown in the picture associated with this step.

  3. Step 3

    In my example I have chosen font name, Arial, Black, size 30pt. This creates a good size font that is thick so you can really see the affect of the text being hollow.

  4. Step 4

    Click somewhere on your image to start typing. In my example I chose to write the words “refreshing apples” at the top of my image in all capital letters.

  5. Step 5

    When you are done typing in the text, click the checkmark that is located at the top and to the right. It is circled in red in the picture associated with this step.

  6. Step 6

    From the main menu at the top choose “Select” then from the submenu choose “Inverse”. You could also press the “SHIFT+CTRL+I” keys on your keyboard all at the same time.

  7. Step 7

    Add a hue/saturation adjustment layer, by clicking on the icon that looks like a half black, half white circle located at the bottom of your layers panel, then selecting “Hue/Saturation” from the menu that appears. See the picture associated with this step.

  8. Step 8

    Lower the saturation level and raise the hue level and you will see your image start to fade around your letters making them come through and look hollow.