Textured Text Effect In Photoshop

Here's an example of the effect we'll be working towards:

The final textured text effect.

Let's get started!
Step 1: Create A New Document
The first thing we need is a new document to work in. Go up to the File menu at the top of the screen
and chooseNew, or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N (Win) / Command+N (Mac). Either way brings
up Photoshop's New Document dialog box. Choose the size you need for your document. For this
tutorial, I'll create a document 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high and since I'm not planning on printing
this, I'll leave the resolution set to 72 pixels per inch. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog
box. The new document will appear on your screen:

The New Document dialog box in Photoshop.

Step 2: Fill The New Document With Black
I'm going to use black as the background for my text effect, which means I'll need to fill the document
with black. To do that, go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choose Fill. This brings up
the Fill dialog box. ChooseBlack for the Contents option at the top of the dialog box. Also, make sure
the Blending Mode is set to Normal andOpacity is set to 100% (these are the default settings so
you probably won't need to change them):

Choose Black for the Contents option in the Fill dialog box.
Click OK to exit out of the Fill dialog box. Photoshop fills the new document with solid black:

The document is now filled with black.

Step 3: Add Your Text
Select the Type Tool from the Tools palette, or press the letter T on your keyboard to quickly select it
with the shortcut:

Select the Type Tool.

Once you have the Type Tool selected, the Options Bar at the top of the screen will display options for
working with type. Choose the font, font size and text color that you want to use, then click inside the
document and add your text. If you want to get a little fancy with your text, you'll find additional
options for formatting type, like leading, kerning, tracking, and baseline shift, in
Photoshop's Character palette which you can quickly access by clicking on the Character and
Paragraph palette toggle icon in the Options Bar:

Click the Character and Paragraph palette toggle icon for additional type formatting options.
I'm going to be using a photo of some water ripples for my texture, so I'll choose a blue color for my
text and type "ripples in the water" into my document:

Click inside your document and add your text.

When you're done, click the checkmark in the Options Bar to accept the type and exit out of text
editing mode:

Click on the checkmark in the Options Bar to commit the text.

All of your text should now be on one layer directly above the Background layer in the Layers palette:

All of your text should be on a single type layer.

Step 4: Open The Texture Photo
Open the photo you want to use as the texture in the effect. Here's the image I'll be using:

Open the photo you'll be using as the texture.

Step 5: Copy The Photo To The Clipboard

We need to copy the image temporarily on to Photoshop's clipboard, which simply means we're copying
it to the computer's memory. Go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose All, or
press Ctrl+A (Win) /Command+A (Mac) for the faster keyboard shortcut. Either way selects the entire
image, and you'll see a selection outline appear around the edges of the photo. Then go up to
the Edit menu and choose Copy, or press Ctrl+C(Win) / Command+C (Mac), to copy the image to the
clipboard.
Step 6: Add A Layer Mask To The Type Layer
With the texture photo now stored temporarily in memory, switch back over to your original document
(the one containing the text). Make sure the type layer is highlighted in blue in the Layers palette,
which means it's the layer currently selected. If it's not selected, click on it to select it. Then click on
the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. It won't look like anything has happened in
the document, but if you look at the type layer again, you'll see that a white layer mask thumbnail has
now appeared:

Click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. A layer mask thumbnail will appear on
the type layer.
Step 7: Paste The Photo Into The Layer Mask
We're going to paste our texture photo directly into the layer mask we just added. Normally, Photoshop
doesn't allow us to paste an image into a layer mask, but here's the trick. Hold down
your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, then click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette:

Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click directly on the layer mask thumbnail.
You'll see your document window fill with solid white. What you're actually seeing is the layer mask
itself, which is something we don't normally see when working in Photoshop. With the layer mask now

visible inside the document window, go up to the Edit menu and choose Paste, or
press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac) to paste the texture photo into the layer mask. To clear the
selection outline from around the photo, go up to the Select menu and choose Deselect, or
press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac). Since layer masks deal only with black, white and shades of
gray, the texture photo will appear black and white inside the layer mask:

The texture photo appears in black and white inside the layer mask.
With the photo now pasted into the layer mask, once again hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and
click on the layer mask thumbnail in the layer palette:

Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click once again on the layer mask thumbnail.
This exits us out of the layer mask and returns us to the normal document view mode. You'll see the
texture photo now appearing inside the text:

The photo now appears inside the text.

Step 8: Apply The Threshold Adjustment To The Layer Mask
To make the image inside the text look less like a photo and more like an interesting texture, we'll use
Photoshop'sThreshold image adjustment. Photoshop allows us to apply some (but not all) of its image
adjustments directly to layer masks, and the Threshold adjustment is one of the ones we can use. The
Threshold adjustment takes all of the colors (or shades of a gray) in an image and converts them to
either black or white, greatly reducing the amount of detail in the image.
You should be seeing a white highlight border appearing around the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers
palette. This tells us that the layer mask is currently selected. If you don't see the highlight border
around the thumbnail, click on it to select it. Then go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen,
choose Adjustments, and then choose Threshold:

With the layer mask selected in the Layers palette, go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold.
This brings up the Threshold dialog box and right away, you'll see a change in the appearance of your
text, with some areas of solid color remaining visible and other areas now hidden from view. The actual
areas that are hidden will depend entirely on the photo you're using for your texture:

Areas of text disappear from view as soon as the Threshold adjustment is selected.
You can control how much of an impact the texture photo has on the text by dragging the small slider
at the bottom of the Threshold dialog box left or right. Remember, the Threshold adjustment takes
everything in the image and converts it to either solid black or solid white, and on a layer mask, which
is where the texture photo is sitting, areas of white reveal those parts of the layer while areas of black
hide those parts of the layer. As you drag the slider towards the left, more and more of the texture
photo will be forced to white by the Threshold adjustment, which means that more and more of the text
will become visible. Dragging the slider towards the right will force more of the texture photo to black,
which means more of the text will be hidden. Exactly where you drag the slider to will depend entirely
on the photo you're using for the texture and the effect you're going for, so you'll definitely want to
keep an eye on your text as you drag the slider until you've achieved the result you want. Since my
text is almost unreadable at the moment, I'm going to drag my slider quite a ways over to the left to
reduce the impact of the texture:

Dragging the threshold slider left and right affects how much of the text is hidden from view.
With more of my texture photo being forced to white, more of the text is now visible in the document:

More of the text is now visible after adjusting the Threshold slider.
Step 9: Unlink The Layer Mask From The Text Layer
If you're happy with the results of the effect, you can stop here, but if you want to resize the photo or
move it around inside the text, click on the small link icon between the type layer's thumbnail and the
layer mask thumbnail. This will unlink the layer mask from the text, allowing us to move our texture
photo around in the layer mask without moving the text itself:

Click on the link icon to unlink the text from the layer mask, allowing you to move one without moving
the other.
Step 10: Resize And / Or Move The Texture Photo With Free Transform
With the texture photo on the layer mask and the text no longer bound together,
press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T(Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform box and handles
around the texture photo. Drag any of the corner handles to resize it. Hold down Shift as you drag the
handles to constrain the proportions of the photo if you don't want to distort its shape. Add
the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key while dragging a handle to resize the photo from its center rather than
from the corner. To move the photo around inside the text, simply click anywhere inside the Free
Transform box and drag the image with your mouse:

Use Free Transform to resize or move the texture photo inside the text as needed.
Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) to exit out of the Free Transform command and you're done! Here is
my final textured photo result:

The final textured text effect.