Adding Glows

There are other layer styles on the menu besides drop shadows, and most are useful. In the last example, I needed a glow as well as a shadow to separate the letters from the background. Let's try working with glow styles. You can use a layer style to place a glowor in this case an outlinearound your type. You can also apply an inner glow as I just did, to make it appear as if the letters themselves are glowing . This is a great effect to add emphasis around a piece of text or to make it stand out from a busy background. Figure 17.19 shows a fairly ordinary text and photo combination.

Figure 17.19. The letters don't quite stand out enough.

In Figure 17.20, I've applied a light Outer Glow around the letters. It's simply another way of defining them from the background and is useful when a drop shadow isn't appropriate. (Be sure to see this image in the color section.) Other objects can glow, too, and I'll discuss these in more detail in the next hour .

Figure 17.20. The glow helps separate the text from the background.