Neon text

1. let's start with a new document (ctrl+n). the dimensions of the document aren't important, 640x480 will do, just make sure you have a black background

2. type your text, make it big enough (150 points should do the trick). use a font such as bickley script and give it a white color. select the text layer and hit ctrl+a, now go to layer > align selection > vertical centers and then layer > align selection > horizontal centers, now your image is perfectly centered

3. duplicate your text layer (right click text layer > duplicate layer), hold down ctrl and click on the duplicated layer, now you see the walking ants around your text. go to layer > rasterize > text. next go to filter > blur > gaussian blur, enter 2.2 as radius and hit ok

4. with the duplicated layer still active, go to edit > stroke and use these settings, the color isn't that important, but make sure it's bright and neon looking

5. next up is adding an outer glow: layer > layer style > outer glow. use the following settings:

6. now drag your original text layer (not the duplicated one) in the layers palette to the top and change its blending mode to overlay, you should have something like this:

pretty neat effect huh?