Summary: Is your Photoshop text lacking perspective? Try adding an easy to create, classic 3D-style perspective shadow!

Written by Steve Patterson
Exclusively for Photoshop Essentials.com.

Part of our complete collection of Text Effects tutorials.

In this Photoshop text effects tutorial, we'll learn how to create a popular, classic effect by giving text a perspective shadow as if a light source behind the text was casting a shadow onto the ground in front of it. I'll be using Photoshop CS5 throughout this tutorial, but any recent version will work.

Here's what the final result will look like:

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Let's get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Text Layer

To begin with, I've gone ahead and added some text in front of a background filled with a simple black-to-gray gradient. You can create this perspective shadow effect with any background colors or image you like:

If we look in the Layers panel, we see that my text is sitting on its own text layer above the Background layer:

We need to make a copy of the text, so with the text layer selected in the Layers panel (selected layers are highlighted in blue), go up to the Layer menu in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy. Or, for a much faster way to choose the same command, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac):

Nothing happens in the document window, but a copy of the text layer appears above the original in the Layers panel:

Step 2: Drag The Copy Below The Original

Click on the copy of the text layer in the Layers panel and drag it directly below the original text layer. When you see a highlight bar appear between the original text layer and the Background layer, release your mouse button to have Photoshop snap the layer into its new position:

Step 3: Rasterize The Text

In a moment, we're going to reshape the text so it looks more like a perspective shadow, but Photoshop won't let us do that while the text is still text. We need to first convert the text into pixels, which is known in Photoshop-speak as rasterizing it. To do that, go up to the Layer menu, choose Rasterize, and then choose Type:

Step 4: Flip And Move The Text

With the copy of the original text now converted to pixels, go up to the Edit menu and choose Free Transform, or press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to access Free Transform with the keyboard shortcut:

This places the Free Transform box and handles (little squares) around the text in the document window. Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) anywhere inside the document window and choose Flip Vertical from the contextual menu that appears:

This flips the text upside down in the document window:

Next, click anywhere inside the Free Transform bounding box, hold down your Shift key, then drag the text down below the original text. Holding the Shift key as you drag limits the direction you can drag in, making it easier to drag straight down. I'm going to add some space between the original and flipped versions of the text so it will appear as if my original text is hovering in the air above the shadow:

Step 5: Stretch And Reshape The Text

Click on the handle in the bottom center of the Free Transform box and drag it downward to stretch the text vertically:

Then, with Free Transform still active, once again right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) anywhere inside the document window and choose Perspective from the contextual menu:

With Perspective selected, click on either the bottom left or bottom right handle and drag it outward horizontally. As you drag one of the handles, the other handle will extend out in the opposite direction, giving the text a 3D perspective. Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to complete the transformations:

Step 6: Fill The Text With Black

Press the letter D on your keyboard to quickly reset Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors if necessary, which will set your Foreground color to black. Then press Shift+Alt+Backspace (Win) / Shift+Option+Delete (Mac) to fill the flipped and reshaped text with the Foreground color (black):