Photoshop Tutorials: Add Transparent Type To An Image

Step 3: Lower The Opacity Of The Type Layer

The quickest and absolute easiest way to make your Photoshop type transparent in front of an image is to simply lower the type layer's Opacity value. If we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we currently have two layers, with our original image on the bottom "Background" layer and our text on the layer above it:

To lower the opacity of the text and allow the image underneath it to partially show through, simply go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette and lower its value. The lower you set the opacity value, the more transparent the text will become. I'm going to lower mine to about 50%:

And here's my image after lowering the transparency of my text:

The text now appears semi-transparent, and if I was to lower its opacity value even further, it would become even more transparent. Here's the image with the text's opacity lowered to 35%:

Of course, if I was to lower the opacity all the way down to 0%, the text would become completely invisible, which isn't really what we want. Generally speaking, an opacity value of somewhere between 30-50% works well with most images.

So that's the fastest and easiest way to make text transparent over an image, but it's certainly not what I would call the most interesting way, so let's look at a different way to go about it. Before we do that though, I'm going to set my opacity value back to 100%:

Step 4: Lower The "Fill" Value All The Way Down To 0%

A minute ago, we saw how lowering the opacity value of the type layer can make it transparent. The more we lowered the value, the more transparent the text became. If you look directly below the Opacity value option in the top right corner of the Layers palette, you'll see the Fill option. The difference between "Opacity" and "Fill" has to do with any layer styles that have been added to the layer, and understanding this difference opens up an entire world of possibilities in Photoshop, so it really is important that you know the difference. Currently, I don't have any layer styles applied to my type layer, so if I was to lower the Fill value, the result would be exactly the same as if I lowered the Opacity value. The lower I set the Fill value, the more transparent the type would become. In fact, let's do that now. Lower the Fill value of your type layer all the way down to 0%:

Your text will completely disappear in your image, which is exactly what would have happened if we lowered the Opacity value down to 0%:

Step 5: Add An "Outer Glow" Layer Style

The difference between "Opacity" and "Fill" is that if we had lowered the Opacity value down to 0%, not only would the type itself be completely transparent and hidden from view but any layer styles we tried to add to it would also be completely transparent as well, which means we wouldn't see anything no matter what we did to the type, which means this whole thing would be kind of pointless, really. But, by lowering the Fill value down to 0% instead, the type still becomes transparent but any layer styles we add remain fully visible! Click on the Layer Styles icon (the icon that looks like an "f") at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose the Outer Glow layer style from the list:

This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the Outer Glow options in the middle column, and already, if you look in your image, you'll see the glow around the outside of your type. Again, if we had lowered the Opacity value to 0%, the layer style itself would also be hidden from view, but since we lowered the Fill value, only the text becomes transparent while the layer style remains visible.

By default, the Outer Glow color is yellow, so let's change it to something that fits in better with our image. In fact, let's sample a color directly from the image and use it as our Outer Glow color. To do that, click on the color swatch directly below the word "Noise":

This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker but just ignore it or slide it out of the way if needed, since we won't be using it. Instead, move your mouse over the image and as you do, you'll see your mouse cursor change into the Eyedropper icon. Click anywhere inside the image to sample a color, which will become the color of your Outer Glow. As soon as you click inside your image, you'll see the Outer Glow around your text change to the color you just sampled, so feel free to click on different areas of your image to preview what that color looks like. I'm going to sample a light blue from the top left corner of my image and as soon as I do, my glow color around my text changes to the same light blue color: