How do I gradient my texts?

[Adam Kuan]

Everytime I try to use gradient on my texts, it ends up coloring the whole canvas. I tried putting the text on a different layer but it didn't work. Can anyone help?

[BoltBait]

There is a couple ways to do it. Here's an easy one:

Type your text WHITE on a BLACK background.

Add a new layer and draw your gradient on that layer.

Press F4 to edit the gradient's layer properties and change the blending mode to Multiply.

[racerx]

I would do it with "Alpha Mask" plugin.  Easy to do and best quality in PDN.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Another method:

 

1. Activate the magic wand tool

2. Hold down Shift and click anywhere on the text layer which isn't a character (i.e. select the background or surrounding area).

3. Invert the selection with Ctrl + I

4. Add a new layer

5. Draw your gradient. It should fill only the selected region on the new layer.

[racerx]

Alpha Mask works great for textures as well as gradients.....

 

[Adam Kuan]

Thanks guys! This really helped me out!

[MandolinQuinn]

Another method:

 

1. Activate the magic wand tool

2. Hold down Shift and click anywhere on the text layer which isn't a character (i.e. select the background or surrounding area).

3. Invert the selection with Ctrl + I

4. Add a new layer

5. Draw your gradient. It should fill only the selected region on the new layer.

This is what I do, works well if you turn off anti-aliasing