Text image with color of font changing for light/dark areas for readability? How?

[Jegojo]

Trying to create something like this image - the text color changes depending on the area being light or dark, which makes it easy to actually read the text on the page. Want to be able to do this in black and white. I have figured out how to make the image itself all text, or put the image behind the text, but it's then not legible enough if you were going to read, say, a short story that way. I can not figure out how this has been done...which is really not saying much as I'm definitely a newbie. The 'hard way' (which newbies unfortunately resort to sometimes) would be to change the color of the text manually on each line, but before spend a long time doing, I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the experts to see if there's an easier (and shorter!) way to do this.


Thanks for any help.

 

[IamSam]

Hi Jegojo,

The example you have posted offers little help. As far as I can tell it too is not legible.

It would really help if you posted an example of your work using this effect so we can understand the non legible part. It may also help if you tell us what tutorial you basing your technique on. There a tons of tutorials on this type of effect. Have you tried some others?

 

[Jegojo]

Sorry....I guess I should have qualified - "something like this image, BUT legible" which this image actually is at higher resolution, but not showing well here. Not wanting to bore with too much info, I was hoping that creative minds could look at the image, see that there is dark text and light text forming the picture, but also forming a continuous 'story', and understand what I was trying to recreate. This is the closest example I could find - if I could find the perfect example, I might be lucky and find the tutorial as well! So far, no luck.


As you say, there are tons of tutorials on images and text effects; at this point, and the reason I'm now here, is because...there ARE tons! I've tried dozens of them. I'm not sure what wording to use to even search for this particular effect tutorial. As a newbie, I'm here in the 'Newbie Forum' to ask for direction. As far as I know (see newbie description again!) it's something straightforward and I'm just not looking for the correct description. If experienced gurus could even direct me in what I should be searching for, it would be appreciated.


I can simply put the text OVER a b&w image set a low enough opacity that would enable the type to be read OVER it, but I was hoping for something with a little more interest and a bit of a 'that's neat!' factor where the image is incorporated into the actual text.


Thanks anyway. You're time's appreciated. I'll keep looking or go to plan B.

 

[ibclare]

I know we have had this question before, so you might look for an example on the forum.

But, my guess would be that the text has been rasterized. The image is a png with a high contrast between dark and light and the dark has been masked. The text is placed below the png. Then the png is made a selection. This selection is then used on the text layer to make a duplicate. That new text layer is placed above the png image. Finally the new text layer which shows only above the png selection has a hue/sat adjustment made using colorize, upping the saturation and lightness. If you want white text, I would suggest using a levels adjustment, bringing the white slider to the left, and if necessary move the output slider to the right. Or for black, keep the text black where you need it and change the other with hue/sat.

Here is my very quick and not so good example, but I think it gives the idea. What do you think?

 

[Jegojo]

Your 'very quick' mock-up looks pretty perfect to me! I'm sure you're exactly right about how this was done and is probably, for what I wanted to use it for, too 'permanent' in a sense (last minute edits to the text from writers) and therefore too labor-intensive for my newbie skills at the moment (I WILL definitely try to follow your instructions and create something like it if only to 'learn something new'.)

Your time is also appreciated, ibclare. Thanks for the help.

 

[ibclare]

You're welcome. If you would like more detailed instruction with images, let me know. I don't do video tuts, but I can walk you through it. Once you get the hang of it, your newbie skills will be plenty for the job and you'll get pretty fast.

 

[IamSam]

Do any of these appeal to you?

These are all text on one layer so it can just be edited without changing the effect............period.

No 1


No 2


No 3

 

[ibclare]

I guess you could make a selection and just do the hue/sat change right there on the same layer. I wasn't thinking it through!

 

[IamSam]

Claraby, I didn't even add hue/sat layers yet!

No 1 is a masked image layer with a reduced opacity OVER a text layer with a simple drop shadow.

No 2 is a masked image layer CLIPPED to the same text layer.

No 3 is an untouched image CLIPPED to the same text layer.

Super easy for a newbie!

 

[Tom Mann]

Here's how I would get close to the type effect shown in the OP's example.

First, take a look at the layer stack I used. The next post refers to these layer numbers.

 

[Tom Mann]

0. Start with a photo of Abe Lincoln (background layer)

1a. Make a higher contrast version

1b. Invert #1 and make an alpha channel (mask) out of it. Turn off layers 0 and 1.

2. Add a plain white background to the stack.

3. Insert the (editable) text in brown on its own layer.

4. Add a "Levels" adjustment layer masked by #1b (above). Move the black slider (just under the histogram) substantially to the right to dramatically darken the unmasked parts of the image. Set the blend mode to luminosity so the colors aren't thrown off.

5. Tweak the color saturation to taste. At this point, you can also change the contrast and make other final tweaks to dial in the look you want.

6. Merge everything to one layer.

 

[Janifar]

Here's how I would get close to the type effect shown in the OP's example.

First, take a look at the layer stack I used. The next post refers to these layer numbers.

Hey I am grateful to you, it's immensely helpful and useful post, helps me a lot apart of your knowledge.

 

[Tom Mann]

While the approach described in my previous posting probably is a better approximation of the effect seen in the image posted by the OP, when I want text to be visible against a background that goes from very dark to very light tones, I usually prefer an approach based on the difference blend mode, as shown immediately below. Even with text that is intentionally jammed together very tightly (for this demo), you can still make out individual characters, and I feel it retains detail in the image to a greater degree.

However, there certainly are situations where the previous approach would work better visually. The previous approach reminds me of a modern version of the old line printer ASCII art.

T

 

[IamSam]

Great work Tom!

Here's another example I came up with..........

Super newbie friendly! The background can be any color you need! All the writing is legible!


Black and white.....

 

[Tom Mann]

We're straying away from the exact look that the OP wanted to emulate, but, to be honest, I like these alternatives (ie, Sam's most recent ones, Clare's, etc.) much better. This is a wonderful example of how relatively small changes ordinary aspects of the image (eg, contrast, sharpening, tinting), as well as in obscure (and not-so-obscure) typography parameters such as kerning, anti-aliasing, font size, small caps, etc. can give the final image quite different looks.

For example, in my previous postings, I intentionally used extremely small fonts, but inspired by Sam, here's yet another alternative with a larger font, but again, relying on the text being in difference mode.

T