Transparent text with blurred background

Published on May 24, 2023

Transparent text with blurry background

In this blog I’ll show you how to create a transparent text with a blurred background in Adobe Photoshop!

Rather watch the video with instructions? Then click here or scroll down to the end of this page.

Step 1: Create text

Open the photo you want to use. Then select the horizontal type tool. Pick a font and type your text. It doesn’t matter what color the text is, we’ll make it transparent in the next step.

When you’re done with the text, click on the ✓ icon.

Press CTRL+T to activate free transform. You can now resize and/or move the text.

Step 2: Transparent text

Select the background layer and press CTRL+J to duplicate it. Place this copy above the text layer.

Then navigate to ‘Filter > Create clipping mask‘ (or press ALT+CTRL+G). The text is now transparent. By doing this, the text will stay sharp when you blur the background. We’ll do this in the next step.

Your layers should now look similar to the ones in the image below.

Step 3: Blurry background

Right click on the background layer and select ‘convert to smart object‘. Make sure you convert the actual background layer and not the copy.

Then go to ‘Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur‘. I use a radius of 20 pixels, but you can also use a different amount.

Because you have converted the background layer to a smart object, you can adjust the amount of blur at any moment. Double click on the ‘gaussian blur’ layer to do that.

Step 4: Bevel & Emboss

Select the text layer. Then click on the fx icon below your layers and select ‘Bevel & Emboss‘.

The settings you have to use, depend on your file size. You can find the settings I used in the image below. This is with a 1920 x 1440 pixels file. Try out some different settings to create the effect you want.