Photoshop Text Effect

This is the first article from the series of articles regarding photoshop text effects. A lot of Web 2.0 layouts contain mirrored text, just like this one:


Let's begin by creating a new file (600*300 pixels). Fill it with a black colour (Edit - Fill - Black). Type some text on the canvas (The font i used is Myriad Pro, size 60pt). Don't worry if it's not aligned with the black background. You can allign it by selecting both layers (Ctrl is required) and then: Layer - Align - Vertical Centers and Horizontal Centers.


Duplicate the text layer (drag it to the Create New Layer button) and follow this steps:
- Edit - Transform - Flip Horizontal
- Edit - Transform - Rotate 180 degrees

Move the mirrored text downward, until it looks like this:



Finally, we need to add a Layer Mask (click on the Add Layer Mask button, located next to the fx button in the Layers Window). Select the Gradient Tool and the white-to-black fill type, and drag a straight vertical line just like here(using the shift button):


If you don't like the result, hit Ctrl+Z and draw the line again. Finally, reduce the opacity of this layer to about 25-30%, and the resulting image should be just like the first one in the article.