How to get a letters pressed like Adobe do with CS4 and 5

We recently looked at some great features like puppet warp and drawing in perspective in CS5. Today we take a look at the Letterpress technique is a form of embossing that has recently caught on in the web design world.
Today we will look at a simple way to get the desired effect as seen in the image below.

keep it modern with letterpress tip

Step 1

First it allways looks a lot better on a 3d background. There are several techniques to accomplish this but the easiest way is by using a desired colour background and then adding a light effect.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects

Choose what ever settings look good for you

Step 2

Add your text and font and resize so it looks correct
Ctrl T to transform the text to the required size
Choose a colour that compliments the background, normally a mid grey will suffice. This can be changed later so its not overly important.

Step 3

First the Inner Shadow

Now on the layer filter choose the Mulitiply blend mode on the colour black

Follow the settings in the screenshot below though depending on the size you may alter slightly either way of these settings opacity 90, distance 9, choke 0, size 14. The angle is probably best at the default 120.

Step 4

Now we will turn our attention to the Drop Shadow

Now on the layer filter choose the Mulitiply blend mode on the colour black

Follow the settings in the screenshot below though depending on the size you may alter slightly either way of these settings opacity 90, distance 9, choke 0, size 14. The angle is probably best at the default 120.

Step 5

Now we will turn our attention to the Gradient overlay

This will help provide the depth needed for the effect we are after.

Now on the layer filter choose the Overlay blend mode.

Choose and opacity setting of 15 and scale of 100

Step 6

You should now see something similar to the screenshot below

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