Make a new document thats 500x250px and with black background, make a new layer and name it “Circle” and create a white circle like this size:
And apply these Blending Options to it:
Now create a new text layer and type in your text (in Bold if necessary), I will use Arial:
We will need to Raterize the text layer (right-click) and then separate each letter into a new layer:
Let the letters grow:
For each letter, go to: Edit > Transform > Skew and in the tool bar you will see some fields, in “H” pu -9:
When we transformed the letters, they moved a bit so we need to bring them closer together in the middle.
Now, make a selection on the Circle layer (by holding Control and clicking its layer) and press Control + Shift + I so we inverse the selection, with a letter layer selected, press delete. Do this to the other letter:
Apply these Blending Options to each letter:
You should have something like this:
Create a new layer between the text layers and the “Circle” layer and name it “Circle effect” and using the Elliptical Marquee tool, make a selection:
Pressing Control + Shift + Alt, click once the “Circle” layer so the selection intercepts with the orb:
Now, with the selection still active, press Shift + F5 and fill it with Black. Set the layer to Opacity: 15% and the Fill to 0%, use these Blending Options:
You should have something like this:
Almost done! But we need to make one last effect.
We will need to duplicate the “Circle effect” layer and name it “Letters effect” and place it above the letters. Right-click the “Letters effect” layer and Clear Layer Style, now, while pressing Control click on one of the letters layer, then you will need to press Control + Shift to add the selection of the other letter and you should get this selection:
Now, press Control + Shift + I to invert the selection and press Delete:
Again, we will need to make a selection, while pressing Control click the “Letters effect” layer and right-click inside the selection and click Marke work path, use 0.5 tolerance:
Select the Pen Tool and move the anchor points like this:
Now, right-click inside the Work path and click Make Selection: Feather Radius: 0 pixels, Anti-aliased, Operation: New selection. Press Control + Shift + I to invert the selection and press Delete:
This is our final step, set the Opacity of the layer to 60% and apply these Blending Options:
And this is what you should end up with:





















































Geokit issues
Yesterday while debugging an issue on our main app, I discovered that Geocoder.ca always returned a successful response when geocoding a postal code (yes, we geocode with that only). The successful response came back only with longitude and latitude values, that means, that city, province and country was nil and saved like that on our database.