Let's begin by opening an new image measuring 150 pt square with a white background. I'm going to start with the letter "g" (which you will all be very tired of by the end of this tutorial!) with font Garamond set at a size of 200 pt with strong aliasing. The color you choose to use at this point does not really matter. We'll be changing it in a moment.

Okay, now go to Layer>Layer Style or click on the icon on the Layers palette. Go to Color Overlay and click to open the Layer Style palette. Click in the color selection box and set the color to #0000FF at 100% opacity.

If your image looks like this (and at this point, there is no reason why it shouldn't), you are on the right track! We're not done with the Layer Style palette, so don't click OK just yet.

Now, click on Bevel and Emboss and make certain it is highlighted. As you can see in Figure 4, I've set it for a smooth Inner Bevel with a depth of 131% to give the letter a little thickness. I also set the bevel size to 20 pt and softened it to 5 pt to give the letter a more rounded appearance.

We find ourselves left with an image similar to Figure 5. The letter still looks too flat to me, so to add a little more highlight, I click on Contour within the Bevel and Emboss settings.

As you can see, doing this has added quite a bit of contrast to our image.

Now, we need to add some inner depth to our object to increase the illusion of thickness within our image. Again, go to the Layer Style palette and highlight Inner Shadow. Use the settings in Figure seven as a guide, but these will need to be adjusted if you are using a different font size.

Remember, the idea behind this is to create inner depth, not to completely darken the image area. So, set accordingly.

Okay, this is where we are at right now. It looks pretty good so far, but appears to bleed into the white background a bit. So, back to the Layer Style palette we go!

This time highlight the Stroke option and set the stroke size to 1 pt. For this image I chose to go with a simple black (#000000) color type. In some cases, a gradient type stroke can create some interesting effects. Experiment on your own with that.

Now, since I don't like the hard edge that a full stroke can give an image, I set my opacity to 61% to better blend with the image. Often, 75% is a good opacity setting for strokes.

And here we are with the final image. Click OK and save your work. This technique can be used to create interesting effects with any number of objects, not just text.

Experiment with different styles and text and feel free to send me a copy of your .gif or .jpg.

If you trade out the Color Overlay for the Gradient Overlay in the Layer Styles menu, you can create a whole new level of interesting and eye-catching glass text effects!