Adding depth to text usually means leaving the confines of your page-layout or image-editing program. With Xaos Tools' TypeCaster for Adobe Photoshop and Strata's 3D XT for QuarkXPress, you can add bumpy, beveled 3-D type to your designs -- or at least add the illusion of 3-D, with ShadowCaster, developed by ALAP (a lowly apprentice production).
TypeCaster yields 3-D type right in Photoshop, using any Type 1 font; ten fonts are included in the package. You can choose from 200 bundled textures and bump maps to dress up your type. To add highlighting around the edges, there are customizable bevels with controls for straight, convex, and concave edges. Completing the image is as easy as adding a light source (or up to ten) and clicking on Render. TypeCaster can also be used in Adobe Premiere or After Effects to generate animated 3-D type effects. $199. 415-487-7000.
3D XT brings the power of Strata's StrataType 3d into QuarkXPress in the form of a Quark XTension. Users can extrude any installed font or a PICT or EPS file into a 3-D logo with controls for depth and beveling. Applying textures is a matter of selecting preinstalled textures that mimic stone, wood, or metal. All of the textures are editable, and users can control attributes such as color or gloss. The rendering engine also supports bump mapping, for lumpy surfaces, and reflectivity mapping, for creating chrome or metallic surfaces. 3D XT is available only through XChange, for $99. 800-788-7557 or 303-229-0656.
To achieve the look of text floating in space, you can add a soft drop shadow to text in QuarkXPress by using ShadowCaster. The shadows are TIFF files placed in the layout with controls for the shadow's resolution, blur, offset, and the like. $99. Sold through XChange.
