Easily Make a Text Distortion Effect in Photoshop

Photoshop Text Effects

Photoshop has a wide range of tools that can be used to create unique and attractive text effects. Among these, text distortion effects stand out as a captivating and eye-catching way to add depth and intrigue to your designs. There are of course various techniques to distort a text in Photoshop, and today I will show you a quick and easy way to distort any kind of text in Photoshop using only the default Photoshop tools and a single texture, that can be any image you want.

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, plase download the "Marbled Paint Background Textures" pack right here at Medialoot.

Step 1

Open any image texture you want to use for your text in Photoshop. In this case, I will be using the "marbled-3" texture included in the Marbled Paint Background Textures pack that you can find right here at Medialoot.

Step 2

Go to Image > Image Rotation > 90º Clockwise.

Step 3

Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale.

Step 4

Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels. Drag the Shadows and Highlights sliders until you get a more contrasting look like in this example and click OK in the Levels window.

Step 5

Save the file on your computer as .PSD with any filename that you want. I will name mine as "Marble Distortion".

Step 6

Make a new file in Photoshop with the same (or similar) dimensions of the texture you will use to distort your text. In this case, I will make mine at 4800 x 3200 px since the texture has those dimensions.

Step 7

Select the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and type your text using any font that you want, in this case I will be using the Heavitas font.

Step 8

With the text layer selected, go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

Step 9

Now go to Filter > Distort > Displace. Set any value you want for the Horizontal and Vertical Scale (higher values produce greater distortions), be sure to have the following options enabled and click OK.

Step 10

Lastly, locate the texture we saved before on your computer and click the "Open" button.

Some Final Tips:

Now that you know how to easily make a text distortion effect in Photoshop, you can try other textures, test different values for the same texture and even move the text to a different artboard location to get an unlimited number of distortion effects to use on your next projects.