Add photographic texture to type in Photoshop.

Set your message.

Open up Fatih’s practice file, which includes live text that you can edit and customize, if desired, in the Layer titled “TOUR.”

For this technique, Fatih suggests using a bold sans-serif font to create a short, four-letter word, stacked tightly to fill most of the poster area. This way, the letters will form a good amount of positive space, he explains, for us to distort with texture while keeping it legible. Here, he uses Forma DJR from Adobe Fonts.

Rasterize your text.

Once you’ve finalized your text, right-click on the Layer and select Rasterize Type. This will convert your editable text into a pixel-based image.

Tip: You may want to save a copy of the layer with your live text, in case you’d like to revisit it. You won’t be able to go back and edit your type once it’s been rasterized.

Prep your photo and Color Range.

First, make the “BICYCLIST” layer visible by clicking the eye icon to the left in the Layers panel. Fatih sourced this photo from Adobe Stock, and converted it to black and white. It’s important to select a detailed photo with high contrast values, he says, as this will lend itself to more interesting, intricate textures in the final result.

Make sure to keep the photo layer at the top of the Layer Panel, with your rasterized “TOUR” text layer below it. Next, go to Select > Color Range and select “Sampled Colors” from the pull-down menu, and set the Fuzziness to 170. Using the Eyedropper tool, select an area from the darkest part of the photo. (Doing so will create a higher-contrast version of the cyclist that will be applied to your text as photographic texture in the next step.) Press OK.

Distort it.

Next, hide the “BICYCLIST” layer by clicking the Eye icon to the left. At this stage, you should see your Color Range selection superimposed on your text.

Now comes the fun part. With the selection layer from the photo still active, click back into your “TOUR” layer. Then, go to Filter > Distort > Spherize and max out the setting at 100%. Press OK. All done!

Keep it going.

Want to keep experimenting? Go back to previous steps and adjust your Color Range or Spherize settings, or try Fatih’s technique with your own font and photo combinations.

Add a backdrop, or use your texturized type for another inspired poster design. Show us what you create by tagging us on Instagram at @adobecreate.