Candy Cane Text

This adobe photoshop tutorial will show you a creative way to create an excellent and simple text effect just in time for the holidays!  By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to easily create delicious candy cane text for use in a website banner or other graphic!

Let's take a quick look at what we will be creating:

As you can see, the result is as tasty to the eye as the real thing!  With a few simple blending option modifications, we can turn an ordinary text layer into a glossy red and white treat as shown in the example above.

To begin, create a new document in photoshop.  For tutorial purposes, I will create a 300x300 canvas filled with a white background.

Now we need to place some text in our document.  Select the Horizontal Type Tool from the toolbar in photoshop:

Click anywhere in your documents canvas and begin typing to insert your text.  For my example below, I have used the font Century Gothic, at a size of 91px:

Before our text takes on the appearance of a candy cane, we need to modify some attributes known as our layers Blending Options.  Locate the Text Layer in your layers panel:

Right click on the selected layer (as shown above).  A box will appear with several options.  From the list, choose "Blending Options".

Once selected, the "Layer Style" Manager should pop-up for this layer.  From here we can change the appearance of our layer. 

First, set up the Drop Shadow for our layer as follows:

This will add a soft shadow below our text.  This is not essentially going to effect the actual appearance of a candy cane, but will add some depth which gives your text a more real look.

Next, we need to set up the Inner Glow as shown in the next picture:

The inner glow will make your text appear a little more rounded which is highly recommended for this effect to work properly!

Now modify the Bevel and Emboss Settings so they match the diagram shown below:

This could be one of the most important aspects of this layer style!  Without the bevel and emboss, your text will not appear glossy, and will have very little resemblence to a candy cane!

Continue on and edit Satin as follows:

With the Satin Blending Option added, it will add white stripes to our text, just as the stripes in a candycane.  There is only one thing left to do!  Add a Color overlay with a deep red:

Click Ok to apply your layer style, and you should now have some nice, tasty candy text!

Good Luck!