You can create a sparkling, icy text effect using the techniques described in this tutorial.

Click here to open a sample image.

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The sample image contains a text selection. Click Mask menu, Marquee Visible to enable the mask marquee. A check mark appears beside the command when it is enabled.

Fill the selection with a black fill, invert the selection, and apply the Pixelate filter.

  1. Right-click the black color swatch from the on-screen Color Palette.
  2. Click the Fill tool from the Toolbox.
  3. Click inside each letter of the text selection, to fill each letter with black.
  4. Click Mask menu, Invert.
  5. Click Effects menu, 2D Effects, Pixelate.
  6. In the Pixelate dialog box, click the Circular Pixelate Mode button.
  7. Type 4 in the Width and Height boxes.
  8. Type 100 in the Opacity (%) box, and click OK.

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To continue, invert the mask selection, and apply the Add Noise and Gaussian Blur filters.

  1. Click Mask menu, Invert.
  2. Click Effects menu, Noise, Add Noise.
  3. In the Add Noise dialog box, type 68 in the Level box.
  4. Type 6 in the Density box.
  5. Click the Gaussian Noise Type button, and click OK.
  6. Click Effects menu, Blur, Gaussian Blur.
  7. In the Gaussian Blur dialog box, type 4 in the Radius box, and click OK.

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Apply the Tone Curve filter, remove the mask selection, invert the image, and apply the Gamma filter.

  1. Click Image menu, Adjust, Tone Curve.
  2. Edit the curve by clicking and dragging nodes on the graph until the curve looks like this.
  3. Click OK.
  4. Click Mask menu, Remove.
  5. Click Image menu, Transform, Invert.
  6. Click Image menu, Adjust, Gamma.
  7. In the Gamma dialog box, type 1.72 in the Gamma box, and click OK.

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Add dripping icicles to the text with the Wind filter and an icy blue color with the Color Balance filter.

  1. Click Effects menu, 2D Effects, Wind.
  2. Type 89 in the Opacity box.
  3. Type 30 in the Strength box.
  4. Type 270 in the Direction box, and click OK.
  5. Click Image menu, Convert To, RGB Color (24-bit).
  6. Click Image menu, Adjust, Color Balance.
  7. In the Range section of the Color Balance dialog box, disable the Highlights check box. Make sure the other items are enabled.
  8. Type -100 in the Cyan-Red box, -14 in the Magenta-Green box, 10 in the Yellow-Blue box, and click OK.

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Blur the text with the Motion Blur filter, and apply the Unsharp Mask filter.

  1. Click Effects menu, Blur, Motion Blur.
  2. In the Motion Blur dialog box, type 2 in the Distance box.
  3. Type 270 in the Direction box.
  4. Click the Ignore Pixels Outside Image button, and click OK.
  5. Click Effects menu, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask.
  6. In the Unsharp Mask dialog box, type 50 in the Percentage box.
  7. Type 2 in the Radius box, 0 in the Threshold box, and click OK.

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For the finishing touch, add some sparkles to the icy text.

  1. Click the Paint tool from the Toolbox.
  2. On the Property Bar, click the Nib Shape picker.
  3. Select the nib shape that looks like a big "X."
  4. Click the white color swatch from the on-screen Color Palette.
  5. Click to add white sparkles.

Now you have learned how to create icy text. Here's an example of what your image might look like.


Click here for more cool effects.

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