How to Create a Quick Holographic Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

This tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop's layer styles and filters to create an easy holographic text effect. Let's get started!

What you will learn in this Photoshop text effect tutorial:

How to create a holographic background texture in Photoshop
How to create a vignette background
How to create a glass text effect in Photoshop
How to apply a texture to text in Photoshop
How to create a holographic text effect in Photoshop

This text effect was inspired by the many Layer Styles available on GraphicRiver.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:

Premier Script font

1. How to Create a Texture Background Base

Step 1

Create a new 900 x 600 px document with a White Background, right-click the Background layer, choose Convert to a Smart Object, and rename the layer to Texture.

Step 2

Set the Foreground and Background Colors to Black and White, and go to Filter > Render > Clouds.

2. How to Create a Holographic Texture

Step 1

Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Texture > Grain, and use these settings:

Intensity: 100
Contrast: 0
Grain Type: Clumped

To add each of the new filters below, click the New effect layer icon in the bottom right corner of the Filter Gallery window, and then choose the filter.

Step 2

Go to Stylize > Glowing Edges, and use these settings:

Edge Width: 2
Edge Brightness: 6
Smoothness: 7

Step 3

Go to Artistic > Watercolor, and use these settings:

Brush Detail: 3
Shadow Intensity: 0
Texture: 1

Step 4

Go to Artistic > Film Grain, and use these settings:

Grain: 3
Highlight Area: 0
Intensity: 10

Step 5

Go to Brush Strokes > Dark Strokes, and use these settings:

Balance: 0
Black Intensity: 0
White Intensity: 2

Click OK to get out of the Filter Gallery window.

Step 6

Go to Filter > Distort > Wave, and use the settings below. You can use any other values you like as well.

Step 7

This is the basic texture, but you can adjust its size based on the final effect you want and the text you'll be creating.

Here, we will go to Image > Image Size, set the Width to 1200 px, and the Height to 750 px.

Save this file and keep it open to use it later in the tutorial.

3. How to Create a Subtle Vignette Background

Step 1

Create another 900 x 600 px document, click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and choose Solid Color.

Use a dark Fill Color such as #201c20.

Step 2

Add a Gradient fill layer, and use the Colors #909090 to the left and #000000 to the right to create the gradient.

Change the Style to Radial, and the Scale to 250. Then, change the layer's Blend Mode to Soft Light.

4. How to Create Text and Use Glyphs

Step 1

Create the text using the font Premier Script, and set the Size to 200 pt.

Step 2

Because the Premier Script font has a ton of glyphs, you can access a character's available glyphs by highlighting it, and then click the glyph you want to use from the alternatives you get.

Step 3

Another way to access those glyphs would be by going to Type > Panels > Glyphs Panel.

Highlight the characters you want to replace, and have fun changing up the text using the different glyphs available.

Step 4

Make all the changes necessary before the next step.

Step 5

Duplicate the text layer.

5. How to Style a Glass Stroke

Double-click the original text layer to apply the following layer style:

Step 1

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

Style: Outer Stroke
Size: 6
Gloss Contour: Ring - Double
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode: Vivid Light
Shadow Mode: Linear Burn
- Color: #222222
- Opacity: 15%

Step 2

Add a Contour with these settings:

Contour: Log
Check the Anti-aliased box.

Step 3

Add an Inner Shadow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Color Burn
Opacity: 35%
Distance: 1
Size: 1

Step 4

Add an Outer Glow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 50%
Color: #dbd6dd
Spread: 10
Size: 7

This will create a glass-like stroke.

6. How to Style a Glossy Text

Double-click the copy text layer to apply the following layer style:

Step 1

Add a Bevel and Emboss with these settings:

Size: 10
Uncheck the Use Global Light box
Angle: 84
Altitude: 42
Gloss Contour: Ring - Double
Check the Anti-aliased box
Highlight Mode: Vivid Light
Shadow Mode:
- Opacity: 10%

Step 2

Add a Contour with these settings:

Contour: Rolling Slope - Descending
Check the Anti-aliased box.

Step 3

Add an Inner Glow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Vivid Light
Opacity: 35%
Color: #697b99
Source: Center
Size: 5
Contour: Cone - Inverted

This will style the main text.

7. How to Apply a Texture to a Text

Step 1

Go to the holographic texture document, press Command-A to select all, and Command-C to copy the selection.

Step 2

Go back to the text document, and press Command-V to paste the texture. Rename the layer to Texture, and change its Blend Mode to Screen.

Right-click the Texture layer, and choose Create Clipping Mask to clip the texture to the copy text layer.

Step 3

Select the copy text layer, and change the text Color to anything you like. The Color used here is #72757a.

8. How to Enhance a Texture Using Adjustment Layers

Step 1

Add a Vibrance adjustment layer, clip it to the Texture layer, and change the Vibrance value to 50.

Step 2

Add a Curves adjustment layer, change its Blend mode to Luminosity so that you don't affect the colors, and its Opacity to 80%.

Adjust the RGB as well as the Channel curves to get a result you like.

Step 3

Here are the adjusted Channel curves. You can skip adjusting these altogether if you don't feel the need to make any changes, and you can use a different layer Opacity value as well.

Awesome Work, You're Now Done!

In this tutorial, we used a bunch of filters to create a holographic texture.

Then, we created and styled two text layers using a bunch of layer styles to achieve a glass-like effect. Finally, we added the texture to the text, and used adjustment layers to enhance the final result.

Please feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and outcomes below.

Want to learn more? Check out the following text effect tutorials: