DOF Typography

DOF Typography, what the hell is that exactly? Well I needed one day to make the text from a header page someway different, sadly color, position, angle and all other stuff didn’t quite get the main idea of different. Then I thought to make it look like the letters were put there by hand and look like they were hanging, some sort of smooth 3D effect.

Well the idea is not new I’m sure of that, but the solution to do it in Photoshop is quite easy peasy and no super cool plugins or 1000 layers are necessary (feel free to search for other solutions over the net, but this is how I did it so stick around to see my version).

The Desired Effect – Magnified

So, the desired effect in the end should look like the one in the example above, you can see that some letters are in front of the others and the light casted drops a shadow just enough to make them look like they are hanging there without a pin (some sort of a 3D effect)

Step 1 – Add some background

Let me show you how easy is to make something like this. Open PhotoShop and create a new document, 2000 x 1000 pixels with transparent background.

Rename the newly created Layer 1 in Background (or something to tell you that in this layer the background color will be painted) and using the bucket tool () add some color to the layer. I used #000d1b.

Step 2 – Add the Letters Using Individual Layers

In order to get the desired effect each letter from the word or phrase that we need to make must be separate in different layers because later on we will rearrange them to make the effect. I chose for my example the word MAKE and I have created the letters as I said in different layers like the image bellow.

Now using the Align Vertical / Horizontal Centers align them to be in the absolute middle of our document. I used a folder to do this after I aligned all the Text Layers to be on the same Bottom edge. The document should look like this now:

I used the Berlin Sans font for my example but you can use whatever font you like as long as it’s bolded and thick so you can make the effect more obvious.

Step 3 – Bring them all together

Now we need to bring the letters closer to one another and overlap them a little bit so we can do the magic afterwards. Use the SHIFT key (press and hold) to move them on a horizontal line so you won’t break the bottom alignment.

They should look like this now:

I’ve added a red stroke so you can better see what I’m talking about.

Step 4 – The True Power of “Drop Shadow”

You didn’t expect this right? Now go and move the A letter in front of all the other letters by dragging the layer on top of everyone. Go to Blending Options and select Drop Shadow. From the properties pane make the following changes:

Now select also Bevel Emboss and set the style to be Inner Bevel, softened to the max and the size to be only 5 pixels so we give the letter a smooth 3D effect. Also look at my Shading settings bellow and see how it looks like directly on the document, because these settings differ from the type of font you are using so be free to play along with this one.

Now press Ok and take a look at the document, can you see the difference? The A letter stands in front of the other and the shadow makes it look very cool.

And this is it, pretty Easy, right? Now to complete the effect, apply the same settings to the K letter using Copy Layer Style and Paste it over the K layer. To the other letters M and E you should only set the same Bevel and Emboss settings without the Drop Shadow effect and that’s it, you are done.

The Conclusion

Using just the basic settings from Photoshop and the very common drop shadow effect you can create very cool and interesting effects for you Typography. If you have a long word or a phrase try to play with the order of the letters and bring them in front of all the others until you get the desired effect.

You can also ditch the Bevel and Emboss effect and leave them as they are if you like them more like this, the effect looks very cool also without bevel so you can play with this settings also, I personally prefer the effect to be without Bevel and Emboss.