To add effects to editable text in Artfkt for Mac, choose Add → Text, write your headline, and add effects to that layer. You can change the words after applying the treatment. Save the project to keep the text editable; export a PNG when you need an image to use elsewhere.

This example turns a white Inter headline into grainy gold lettering, then changes SIGNAL to STATIC with the same effect stack. It uses bundled Inter, so no font download is needed. Artfkt runs on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 13 or later.

Set up the headline

Start a new project and choose Add → Text. An empty document receives a transparent 1920 × 1080 canvas. Choose Edit text, type SIGNAL, and press Command+Enter to accept it. You can also double-click the text on the canvas to edit it.

Keep Inter selected. In Active Layer, enter these settings:

  • Font size: 260 px
  • Font weight: 800
  • Color: #FFFFFF
  • Alignment: center
  • Letter spacing: 8 px
  • Word spacing: 0 px
  • Line height: 1.1
  • Box width: 1600 px; Auto height
  • Scale: 100%; Rotation: 0°
  • X position: 0; Y position: 0, set after the typography adjustments

The wide box keeps this six-letter headline on one line. For a longer phrase, narrow the box to wrap the words or insert a newline while editing. Auto height grows with the lines; a fixed-height box can clip text that no longer fits. Resizing the text box changes the space available for wrapping, while Scale changes the size of the entire layer.

White SIGNAL lettering centered on a plain dark background.

Untreated headline. The dark background is added during PNG export; the document canvas is transparent.

Leave playback paused at Time (s) 0, with Shared animation off. The remaining steps build a still treatment.

Give the text a gold color

Select the text layer in Layers. Search for Duotone and add it. Check that it appears under This layer in Active FX, then turn Animate: Duotone off.

  • Shadows: #1C2430
  • Highlights: #F2C14E
  • Tonal balance: 0.50
  • Transition: 0.80
  • Mix: 100%

Keep both color opacities at 100%. The white headline maps to the highlight color, so Highlights makes the visible difference here. Shadows becomes more useful with darker source tones. Duotone treats the rendered letters while the underlying text content and font settings remain editable.

Add grain to the letters

With the same text layer selected, search for Film Grain and add it after Duotone. Turn Animate: Film Grain off. Use:

  • Strength: 0.28
  • Grain size: 0.400%
  • Chroma: 0.05
  • Shadow weighting: 0.35
  • Seed: 37
  • Refresh rate: 24.00 Hz
  • Mix: 100%
SIGNAL lettering recolored gold with visible light and dark grain inside the letter shapes.

Duotone followed by Film Grain on the text layer. The exported background stays plain.

The larger grain gives the letters a coarse, mottled surface. Lower Strength for a quieter treatment, or reduce Grain size for finer texture. Judge the result at its intended display size: texture that reads clearly in a large headline can make small lettering look uneven.

Keep the playhead at 0 when comparing these examples. Film Grain uses playback time even when its parameter animation switch is off. The refresh-rate value does not specify the frame rate of this PNG.

Change the words after adding effects

Choose Edit text, replace SIGNAL with STATIC, and press Command+Enter. Both effects remain on the layer and apply to the new letters. You can still change the weight, spacing, or alignment afterward.

The word STATIC using the same gold color and grain treatment as the earlier SIGNAL headline.
Revised wording, with the same font settings and effect stack.
Artfkt desktop showing editable STATIC text, Inter typography controls, and Duotone and Film Grain on its layer.

The reopened project: STATIC is still a text layer, with its typography and effects available to edit.

One style applies to the whole text layer. Use separate text layers when different words need different styling. If you choose another font, check the line breaks again. Settings → Fonts manages the font library; additional downloads require internet, and downloaded fonts work offline.

Save the project, then export the image

Choose Save and name your project. Reopen it through File → Open when you want to revise the words or treatment. Projects embed their referenced fonts. In this example, reopening preserved STATIC, the Inter settings, and both effects.

For the illustrated PNGs, choose Export and use:

  1. Include animation off, File type PNG, and Original dimensions.
  2. Size: Canvas size, keeping 1920 × 1080.
  3. Preserve transparency off. Set Background to Solid color and Background color to #161820. These changes make Optimization read Custom.
  4. Choose Export and save the PNG. Apply the same appearance settings to each comparison export.

The PNG contains the rendered artwork and background; it does not contain an editable text layer. Keep the project as your working file. For a transparent PNG instead, leave Preserve transparency on.

Already have lettering as an image? Follow the

Glitch text image tutorial to give it colored edges and horizontal breaks in the browser. For a larger composition, see how to give poster layers their own effect stacks.

How this example was made

The headline was created in the native Artfkt app using bundled Inter. All three artwork images are actual 1920 × 1080 PNG exports; the editor image is a capture of the reopened native project. Captures used WebGPU, paused playback at time 0, and disabled shared and effect animation. The typography and article were prepared with AI assistance. These are example settings, not permanent defaults or a promise of identical rendering on every device.