51 top typography tutorials

38. How to design isometric typography

Typography tutorials: london england in type

Isometric art has a very strict set of rules when it comes to what goes where. It's pretty difficult to sit down and draw yourself, but when it comes to Photoshop, you can create a guide for anything. In this London-inspired image, we're going to set out a perfect isometric grid before we build a city of letters, using the Pen tool, selections and layers in Photoshop.

39. How to create reflective typography in InDesign

Typography tutorials: Reflect written in Indesign

Making typography appear as though it's reflected in the surface it's sitting on isn't complicated. It is, however, a little more complex to make it look convincing within the environment that it's placed in. In this tutorial we'll run through how to use Adobe InDesign to quickly create an environment for your type to sit in that follows the basic rules of directional light.

40. Create a long shadow text effect in Photoshop

Typography tutorials: design with a drop shadow

Photoshop CC includes the ability to add multiple instances of the same layer style to a single layer. This is especially helpful when it comes to create text effects. This tutorial shows you a quick way to add long shadows to your text while still retaining the ability to edit it quickly.

41. Create an editable retro text style in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: A in Illustrator

In this tutorial, Chris Spooner shows you how to create retro typography using the fills and strokes within Illustrator’s Appearance panel. These trendy letters have a faux 3D appearance and are fully editable.

42. Create a quick duotone text effect in Photoshop

Typography tutorials: due tone

This short, step-based Photoshop tutorial will teach you how to generate duotone text. Using a texture image, a gradient map, some adjustment layers and filters, you’ll learn how to create this trendy effect in five short steps.

43. Create a vintage film title text effect in Photoshop

Typography tutorials: The Phantom

This tutorial by Spooner explains how to create typography inspired by the film title styles of old black-and-white movies. Using the 3D capabilities of Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC, he adds sophisticated lighting and shading to these retro letterforms.

44. Create gold 3D type in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: Why don't you, written in gold sparkly type

If you want to bling up your typography, follow this Adobe Illustrator tutorial by illustrator Karol Gadzala. Step by step, she explains how to extrude type in 3D, apply metallic materials to give it a golden sheen, and add gems, sparkles and gleams. 

45. Create a Chrome text effect in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: Chrome written in type

Chrome text effects are the '80s and '90s style that time forgot. But these retro looks are now making a comeback. Follow this tutorial to learn how to produce a similar retro style metallic text effect in Adobe Illustrator.

46. Create custom type designs in Illustrator

This Adobe Illustrator tutorial demonstrates how to create a custom typography design. It looks like it’s been lettered by hand, but it’s actually created by customising ready-made fonts with clever OpenType features.

47. Three ways to add textures to type designs

Typography tutorials: lumberjack trading co logo

Photoshop textures are a great way to mimic the aesthetics of old prints and handmade art and give your digital designs more of a tactile appearance. In this tutorial, Chris Spooner explains three ways you can distress your logos and text, each resulting in a slightly different appearance.

48. Create a blueprint text effect in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: blue print

Learn how to create a blueprint text effect in Adobe Illustrator. This tutorial shows you how to combine simple strokes, basic blending mode techniques and a variety of Transform effects to create this impressive look to your lettering.

49. Create a decorative drop cap in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: illustrated 's'

This tutorial walks you through the process of creating a decorative letter in Adobe Illustrator with a range of vector embellishments. The techniques you learn here can then be applied to all sorts of illustration projects in the future.

50. Create vector floral typography in Illustrator

Typography tutorials: into the wild written in a floral design

Here Yulia Sokolova explains to create a floral typography composition in Adobe Illustrator. You’ll discover how to create your own custom vectors brushes and use various drawing tools of Adobe Illustrator to create flowers, leaves, and floral elements. 

51. Create a text portrait effect in Photoshop 

Typography tutorials: text portrait effect

This tutorial demonstrates how to create cool portrait effect using a long passage of text that bends and deforms around the contours of the face. Known as a Calligram, this supercool effect is created using Photoshop’s Displace filter.

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Tom May

Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.