Stretched text effect in Adobe Photoshop

Published on August 5, 2022

Stretch text

In this blog I’ll show you a simple and fast method to stretch text in Adobe Photoshop.

Rather watch the video with instructions? Then click here or scroll down to the end of this page. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Create file and text

Create a new file. It doesn’t matter what size your file is. Also pick a color for the background.

Then select the horizontal type tool. Pick a font and color you like and type your text. Then select the move tool and press CTRL+T to activate free transform. You can now resize the text and pick the right position. Place the text at the top, so there’s enough space left below it to stretch the text.

Step 2: Stretched text

Right click on the text layer and select ‘convert to shape‘. Then select the direct selection tool and select the bottom part of the text.

Only the points at the bottom of the text are blue now. That means that only these points are selected.

If you drag one of these blue points down, it will affect all of the selected points. So the entire text will be stretched.

As you can see in the image above, the lines aren’t going straight down. To fix that, press and hold SHIFT. Do this after you dragged one of the points down (so when you have the same situation as I had in the image above). The lines are now going straight down (as you can see in the image below).

Release the mouse button while still holding SHIFT. You have now stretched your text!

Step 3: Move and resize stretched text

To move or resize your text, select the text layer and the move tool. You can now move the text. To resize it, press CTRL+T to activate free transform. You can now adjust the size of the stretched text.

And that’s how you stretch a text in Adobe Photoshop. You can see the result in the image below!