Step Seven: You can also apply a gradi-
ent to the entire document to create a new
background. This time, let’s use a radial
gradient. To do that, c lick the Gradients
panel flyout menu (circled) and choose
Radial Gradient. Drag a gradient preset
into the white area of the document. Pho-
toshop creates a Gradient Fill layer. With
the Gradient Fill layer active in your Layers
panel, you can c lick other presets in the
Gradients panel to try them out (in other
words, you don’t have to drag them). The
Cloud_01 gradient was used here.Step Eight: As you may suspect, you can
apply a gradient to text, also. Just grab
the Horizontal Type tool (circled), click
within the document, and enter some text.
You can use the Options Bar to change
font family and size (Myriad Pro Bold Semi
Extended at 20 pt and Minion Pro Italic at
13 pt were used here).Step Nine: Click the Gradients panel’s
flyout menu and choose Linear Gradient.
Drag a gradient preset onto the letters in
your document and keep dragging until
you find one that you like (Green_28
was used here). Photoshop adds a layer
style to the type layer named Gradient
Overlay (circled).
Tip: Option-drag (PC: Alt-drag) a gra-
dient preset onto a type layer to create a
Gradient Fill layer instead of a layer style.
The benefit is that a Gradient Fill layer
comes with a layer mask, allowing you to
hide the gradient from certain areas.› › HOW TO> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ FEBRUARY 2020[ 68 ]