In this instance our canvas size doesn’t matter one bit, so I’ll just leave it at it’s default Letter size and click OK. With Illustrator open, lets use the same keyboard shortcut to create a new document over there: Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N). So now that we’ve nipped that in the bud, lets move on and open Adobe Illustrator. Now, I know some smart-ass is going to leave me a snooty note about how you could have created this text in Illustrator and saved some trouble, but then you wouldn’t have just learned how to convert your text to a path would you?… And this is after all primarily a Photoshop site, so just know that you could have typed your text in Illustrator too. This will effectively copy the vector paths into your computer’s memory so that we can switch over to Illustrator and use them there. With the paths combined you can now copy the selected paths by pressing Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C). With our paths selected, lets first make sure that our lettering all stays together as one single unit by going up to the options bar across the top of Photoshop and clicking the Combine button (if you don’t see a combine button, chances are good that you don’t have the Path Selection tool active). Step 3 – Hop Skip And Jump To Illustrator

At this point color doesn’t make any difference, but font-size does… I’m using 90pt text. I’m using the Ballpark font which can be downloaded from for free. When your new document opens, switch over to the Text tool by pressing the T key and type your text onto the canvas (this will create a new layer above the Background layer named after your text). I’m using my usual 540px by 300px size at 72 pixels/inch and a background color of White. Lets get started by opening a new Photoshop document by choosing File > New from the Main Menu or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N).

(*note: If you don’t have Illustrator, you can jump over to and download a 30 day trial version to play around with.) Step 1 – Setting Up The Photoshop File Don’t worry noobs, you don’t need to know anything about Illustrator, as usual I’ll coach you through the whole process, but you do need to have it installed on your computer. In this Photoshop tutorial we’re going to step outside my usual Photoshop Only philosophy and use the 3D rendering power of Adobe Illustrator to create a cool little 3D text effect.

3d text effect