I got a request to make this one, so here's a good reference for you guys. Some of the text in the images fuzzed out for some reason. I did my best to reitterate all the text in the images below each picture.

Lets get started.



1. Start off by finding an image that you would like to use. I suggest starting with a bigger size image. The size I used in this tutorial is 640x480.



2. Next select a font you want, and create the text ontop of the image that you selected.

Note: Try to make the font legible, and as big as possible since you are already taking out the majority of the image. The larger the font, the more of the image that will remain inside the text.

Note: Font color is not important, as the layer will not be used anyway in the end.



3. Hold Ctrl and Left Click on the THUMBNAIL image of the text layer NOT the layer name. This will create a selection around everything in the layer (the letters for this layer).



4. Hide the text layer while still keeping the selection around where the text used to be.



5. Select the Background layer (or whatever layer the image is on).



6. Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the Background layer. With the area where the text was still selected, Photoshop will only duplicate the selected areas of the layer.

7. Hide the Background layer.

Note: If nothing is selected, pressing Ctrl + J will duplicate the whole layer.



At this point, you are already done with the text. the next few steps are for preparing it for uploading onto the forums, or for any final product.

8. If you want to upload the image onto the forums, you would want to have a steady background behind the text. I choose to use the color of the forum, which will make the font look "stamped" onto the forum itself. Create a new layer just above the original "Background" layer. Fill this layer with whatever color you want (if you choose to use the forum's background color you would use the RGB values: 241, 241, 241)

9. I like to make the text look a little more professional, so I chose to add a Stroke to the image. Click on the little icon with the F in it, at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will take you to the Stroke menu. I made the Stroke black with a 2 pixel width. If you choose so, you can also add a drop shadow, glow, or anything else you wish while still in this window.

10. There is a lot of empty space around the image now, so I suggest to Crop the image. Select the Crop tool, and just drag it around the image, leaving a little bit of the background sticking around the edges, and double click the selected area, and it will crop the image down to size.


And thats it!