Photoshop Tip of the Month

Screen Effect

Here's a simple, yet amusing technique that gives your design a vintage retro appeal.

Step One: Start by opening an image of your choice. Duplicate (or copy) the background layer by dragging it onto the 'create a new layer' icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step Two: Select the Horizontal Type tool from the toolbox and type the letter x until it covers the entire image. Here, we copy and pasted a line of x's until it covered the image. A slightly bolder font or style seemingly has better results. Adjust the font size, leading and tracking as needed.

Step Three: Click the Eye icons next to the text layer and the background layer to hide them.

Step Four: Select the background copy layer and then Command-click (Ctrl-click) on the text layer thumbnail in the layers palette. Now click the 'add layer mask' icon (the gray square with the white circle) at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step Five: Select the background layer to make it active and/or click the eye of the background layer to reveal it.

Step Six: Press Command-L (Ctrl-L) to reveal the Levels dialog. Slide the midtone adjustment triangle (in the center) toward the left to lighten the background image. Click OK.

Step Seven: Add your desired elements to complete the effect.