Web Development: How to Create a Western Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator

How to Create a Western Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to create a simple Western font text effect in Adobe Illustrator.

For starters, you will learn how to create a simple background and how to add a basic piece of Western text. Taking full advantage of the Appearance panel, you will learn how to create your Western text effect.

You'll learn how to work with multiple fills and stroke, Offset, Rounded Corners and Transform effects, some Photoshop effects plus basic blending techniques. Finally, you'll learn how to save and use a simple graphic style.

What is a good Western font when you want to create a Western style text effect? Check out Envato Elements, where you can find a massive collection of fonts with that old Western look.

What You'll Learn in This Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

What is a good Western font and how to use it in Illustrator
How to create an editable Western style text effect
How to save a Western text graphic style

Prefer to learn via video? Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

What You Will Need:

You will need the following font in order to complete this Western style text effect:

Texas Tango font

1. How to Create a New Document & a Simple Background

Step 1

Hit Control-N to create a new document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu, enter 850 in the width and height boxes, and then click the Advanced button. Select RGB for the Color Mode, set the Raster Effects to Screen (72 ppi) and then click Create Document.

Step 2

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and focus on your toolbar. Remove the color from the stroke, and then select the fill and set its color to R=231 G=207 B=180. Move to your artboard and simply click on it to open the Rectangle window. Enter 860 in both boxes and then click OK.

2. How to Add Your Text

Step 1

Pick the Type Tool (T) and open the Character panel (Window > Type > Character). Use the Texas Tango font, set the size to 120 px, and then simply click on your artboard. Add the "WILD" piece of text and set its color to white (R=255 G=255 B=255).

Step 2

Make sure that your text remains selected, focus on the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches), and click the [None] swatch to get rid of that white fill.

Move to the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance) and click Add New Fill to add a new fill for your text. Select it and set its color to R=212 G=92 B=17.

3. How to Create the Back Side of the Text Effect

Step 1

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a second fill using that same Add New Fill button and drag it below the existing fill.

Select the new fill, set its color to R=53 G=9 B=8, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 10 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 10 px, click OK, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Move-Vertical slider to 5 px and then click OK.

Step 2

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect that bottom fill and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the attributes shown in the top-left window (in the following image), click OK, and then add the other three Drop Shadow effects shown below.

Step 3

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a third fill and drag it between the two existing fills.

Select this newest fill, set its color to R=76 G=28 B=15, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 5 px Offset, click OK, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 6 px, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Move-Vertical slider to 4 px and click OK.

Step 4

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a fourth fill and drag it right below the top fill.

Select this newest fill, set its color to black (R=0 G=0 B=0), and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 10 px Offset, click OK, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 10 px, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Move-Vertical slider to 5 px, click OK, and then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Drag the three sliders as shown in the following image and then click that OK button.

Step 5

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect that black fill, lower its Opacity to 15%, and change the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 6

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a fifth fill and drag it right below the top fill.

Select this newest fill, set its color to R=76 G=28 B=15, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 10 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 10 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Move-Vertical slider to 5 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen. Set the Stroke Direction to Vertical, drag the two sliders as shown in the following image and then click that OK button.

Step 7

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect the fill added in the previous step, lower its Opacity to 10%, and change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.

Step 8

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Select the top fill and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click the OK button, and then add the two Drop Shadow effects shown below.

4. How to Create the Front Side of the Text Effect

Step 1

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a new fill and drag it above the existing ones.

Select this newest fill and replace the flat color with the linear gradient shown below. Keep in mind that the blue numbers from the Gradient image stand for Location percentages.

Next, go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -2 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Scale-Vertical slider to -96%, don't forget to check the top middle reference point, and then click that OK button.

Step 2

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Select the top fill and duplicate it using that Duplicate Selected Item button. Select the newly added fill, replace the linear gradient with black, and then go to Effect > Artistic > Film Grain. Drag those three sliders as shown below and then click that OK button.

Step 3

Make sure that your text is still selected, and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect the fill added in the previous step, lower its Opacity to 5%, and change the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 4

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a new fill and drag it above the existing ones.

Select this newest fill, set its color to R=76 G=28 B=15, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen. Set the Stroke Direction to Vertical, drag the two sliders as shown in the following image, and then click that OK button.

Step 5

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect the fill added in the previous step, lower its Opacity to 15%, and change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.

Step 6

Make sure that your text is still selected, and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a new fill and drag it above the existing ones.

Select this newest fill, set its color to R=235 G=190 B=89, change the Blending Mode to Soft Light, and go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Enter all the attributes shown below and click OK.

Step 7

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a new fill and drag it above the existing ones.

Select this newest fill, change its Blending Mode to Overlay, and replace the flat color with the linear gradient shown below. Keep in mind that the yellow number from the Gradient image stands for Opacity percentage.

Next, go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click OK, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -7 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Scale-Vertical slider to -96%, don't forget to check the top middle reference point, and then click that OK button.

Step 8

Make sure that your text is still selected, and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect the fill added in the previous step, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 3 px and then click that OK button.

Step 9

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect the fill added in the previous step and duplicate it using that same Duplicate Selected Item button. Select the newly added fill, lower its Opacity to 30%, and remove that Gaussian Blur effect.

Step 10

Make sure that your piece of text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Add a new fill and drag it above the existing ones.

Select this newest fill, change its Blending Mode to Overlay, lower the Opacity to 20%, and replace the flat color with the linear gradient shown below. Remember that the yellow number from the Gradient image stands for Opacity percentage.

Next, go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -5 px Offset, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Drag the Scale-Vertical slider to -96%, don't forget to check the top middle reference point, and then click that OK button.

Step 11

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel.

Select the stroke, make it black, set the size to 6 px, and then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Set the Radius to 2 px, click the OK button, and then go to Effect > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -2 px Offset and then click the OK button.

Step 12

Make sure that your text is still selected and keep focusing on the Appearance panel. Reselect that stroke, lower its Opacity to 25%, and change the Blending Mode to Soft Light.

5. How to Save and Use Graphic Styles

Step 1

Make sure that your text is still selected, open the Graphic Styles panel (Window > Graphic Styles) and simply click that New Graphic Style button.

Step 2

Finally, you can add new text and use your saved graphic styles as shown below.

Congratulations! You're Done!

Here is how it should look. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and can apply these techniques in your future projects. Don't hesitate to share your final result in the comments section.

Feel free to adjust the final design and make it your own. You can find some great sources of inspiration at Envato Elements, with interesting solutions to improve your design.