Wrinkled Text Using Displacement Map

Preview of the Final Result

In this tutorial you will be able to learn how to use the displacement map in making an interesting text effect. You'll discover how the text goes along with the wrinkle of the paper, and it's another idea you'll surely add to your arsenal of knowhow in Photoshop text effects.

Step 1 : Open the image you’ll be using for the text. Here, we’ll be using the wrinkled paper texture below. You can download the image HERE.

Step 2 : Go to the Channels palette and select which of the RGB has the greatest contrast. In this case, I selected the Green channel which gives the best result. Duplicate this channel by right-clicking it and select Duplicate Channel. A Duplicate Channel dialog box appears. Name the duplicate channel as Map, and under Document, select New.

Step 3 : The new image that appears as a result is a black and white. We will use this as our displacement map. Smooth this via the Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur…), and set the blur value to 0.7 pixel. Save this to your hard drive and name it Map.psd. Close this image for now.

Step 4 : Switch back to Channels. Click RGB to activate it. Now go to Layers tab and then select the Type Tool. Step 5 : Type the text you want. I typed WRINKLED here. A new layer will be seen in the layers palette as a result (named WRINKLED). Right-click this layer and select Rasterize.

Step 6 : Time to apply the displacement stuff. Go to Filter>Distort>Displace… A dialog box appears. Leave all the values to their default settings and click Ok. You will then be prompted to open a file. Open the file we saved earlier (e.g., Map.psd). The Displacement Map has been applied here and a wrinkled text comes into view!

Step 7 : Duplicate the above layer, set Mode to Overlay, and Opacity to 70. Merge all visible layers, then Save. Here’s the final result as shown at the start: