In this tutorial, we will be making a typographic grunge wallpaper in Photoshop CS5. If you are a noob at photoshop then you can learn photoshop online or you can try these books to learn photoshop .

Here is what our final wallpaper will look like:

I am working in Photoshop CS5, but the steps will remain the same in CS4 as well.

Step 1: First open up Photoshop, and create a new RGB document with the following settings (as shown in the image).

Step 2: Fill the background with a gradient from #1d1d1d to #797979

Step 3: Using the type tool {shortcut T} write the text. Here I have written COMPTALKS , the font that I have used is Impact at 160 pt size. For an added effect I have reduced the spacing between the characters to – 25 (circled blue) although you can try different fonts, which will all give a unique feeling.

Step 4: Next we are going to modify the looks of the text a little bit. For this, first raterize the text by right clicking on the text layer in the layers tab, and selecting the option “rasterize text” [more about raters and vectors in some other post]. This step will allow us to play with the font easily. Now on the text layer, create a layer mask by right clicking it and selecting the symbol in the bottom (the tiny white circle in the grey rectangle). The layer mask will allow us to remove parts of the layer without damaging it for future use.

Now using the rectangular marquee tool {shortcut M} create a rectangular selection of a width that suits the font size the you have taken and position it as shown in the figure. Make sure that the height of the selection is larger than the height of your letters.

Now select the layer mask, and using the paint bucket tool {shortcut G} fill the selection with black. It will make the selected part invisible. Move the marquee (but not the selection) by selecting marquee tool and then rolling mouse over it and then move it when you see a small arrow with a rectangle near it. Move it over each character, repeating the process. My final effect looks like this.

Step 5: Now we will orient the text in a way that we like. I want it to be a little inclined to the side. So, select the text layer, and press Ctrl+T. you can also go to edit>transform>free transform. Now if you move the cursor to any corner of the newly appeared bounding box, you can see a little cursor that has two arrows at 90 degrees, this is the symbol for rotate. Rotate the figure to your liking. You can also move it around. Press enter to confirm transformation. Here is how I did it.[Tip: Pressing shift while rotating  will restrict the rotation to 45 degree multiples.]

I am pretty happy with how this looks right now. Now I would like to add some texture to the background.

Step 6: For that purpose, create a new layer(new layer button is near the garbage bin button on the layers tab). Select the foreground color as black and the background color as white. Go to filter>render>clouds. Move this layer below the text layer, just above the background layer. Now set the layer mode to overlay and fill to 25% . This will create a nice gradual texture in the background.

I still want the background to have a little more texture, so I chose a paper texture I found on here: http://amptone-stock.deviantart.com/art/Grunge-Texture-20-108469321.You can also surf through the net and find several others. I opened it in photoshop, and just dragged on to my file. Placing it over the background layer, then transforming it with ctrl+t , resizing and rotating. Then I changed the layer mode to color burn  and lowered down the opacity to 40%. This is what I got.

Now this has given a little bit of color to my otherwise grey and black image. Looking at the current image, although the background looks nice, but its evident that now we need to work on the text.

Step 7: Now to make the text look more interesting, we will apply some layer styles to it. To do this, right click on the text layer and select blending options. This will open the dialog box for the layer styles. The settings I used as as shown in the following screenshots.

Here is how my layer panel looks at this time:

Step 8: Now I took some splatter brushes I found at deviantart.com, and made a few splatters here and there on a new layer until the composition appealed to me. The color I used is a pale bluish green #008250. Now duplicate this layer and go to filter>noise>add noise. Use the following settings.

Set the splatter layer to overlay and the noise layer to multiply. Play around with the opacity till you reach a satisfactory result. Now right click the little “fx” icon on the text layer and select create layer from it. It will make the layer styles as a new layer. Now for the color fill layer, I changed the mode to color dodge. This brings out a lot more color in the image. Now we are getting some where.

Next I decided to play around more with the splatter layer. To change the color, press Ctrl+U which will open up a dialog box where you can change the color of splatter. I also tried changing the blending modes and finally reached a composition where everything fits well together.

Step 9: Now I thought to add a final bit of dramatic effect to the thing, I would just add some light effects. To do so, first we need to stamp the layers, for that select the topmost layer and press ctrl+alt+shift+e. Now go to filters>render>lighting effects. Play around with the lights till you find a composition you like. To add a new light click on the small bulb icon below the preview.

Finally set this topmost layer to linear dodge. Adjust opacity if you like, I kept it at 100%, and you are done.

This is the final result: click on the image to get a wallpaper version of it.