Let's Make Some Glossy Text

I just love me some Glossy Text so I thought I would provide you a tutorial for creating this effect in Photoshop. I sometimes use this effect on my e-Learning title pages and throughout the course as page headers, but this same effect can be used to make your own cool glossy buttons and more. This tutorial uses Photoshop 7 but should translate regardless of your Photoshop version. My PC runs like a slug when I run CS4 so I still use old reliable 7.0. Don't be afraid to experiment and deviate a little to get just the effect you want. Here's our desired result.

Open a new document and slap some text on that bad boy. The thicker the font the better the effect comes out.

Put a light gray 'Stroke' on it (About 2 pixels) and also put a dark 'Inner Glow' until it looks something like this.

Now you need to add an additional layer above your text layer.

Now hold down the 'Ctrl' key on your keyboard and click the original text layer so your text looks like this.

Now we want to bring that selection in a little so click 'Select' from the top menu, choose 'Modify', then 'Contract' and contract the selection by 1 or 2 pixels (depending on the original size of your font). I contracted by 2 pixels here. Your image should now look like this.

Now choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Now hold down 'Shift+Alt' and select only the top part of your selection. You're image should now look like this.

Now select your gradient tool and set it up as 'Foreground to Transparent', with the Foreground being white.

Start at the very top of your selection and drag down to the bottom of your selection like so.

Now deselect your image and you should have something similar to this.

This is pretty good as it is but I like to access the Blending Options for the top layer and lighten it every so slightly, then I go play with the previous 'Inner Bevel' setting I did earlier until I get it just like I want it. Here is my final product.

Now go make some cool glossy text and buttons. Have fun!