Photoshop has two very useful text tools that allow you to make a horizontal or vertical selection from an image. Use them with an appropriate image and you have a simple recipe for some slick text effects.
For the purposes of this tutorial, an image featuring a water-like texture was combined with a font called Alleycat ICG which, for the purposes of the tutorial, can be downloaded as a zip file. The serif font with its sharply pointed letters was ideal to suggest the irregularity of waves.
This tutorial has been written for Photoshop 5.5.
| Step 1 | Open the image from which you want to select the text.
 Click on the horizontal selection text tool. Next click on the image - it doesn't matter where as you can move the selection once you create it. This action will bring up the text dialogue box. Enter the text you want and click OK.
  With the text tool still selected in the tool palette, put your cursor within the selection and drag it across the image until you find a section of the image that pleases you. Control + C to make a copy of the selection. Control + N to create a new document or File > New. Because text is always created on its own layer, it doesn't matter whether or not your new file has a transparent or opaque background so don't worry about setting that preference. Also the default size of the new file always reflects the exact dimensions of the copied selection. In order to accommodate the shadow you'll be adding shortly, enlarge the size a little. Click OK. Then Control + V to paste the selection into the new document.   All tutorial content including images © Lise Kool 2004
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