How to Add Effects to Editable Text

To add effects to editable text in the Artfkt desktop app, 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 and 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PCs.

For reflective lettering, follow the editable chrome-text poster tutorial, with controlled roughness and light-angle examples.

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 on Mac or Ctrl+Enter on Windows 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:

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 starts on and stays on as you experiment with spacing, effects and resizing. In 2D Free Transform, drag either side handle to change wrapping width; height follows the complete text. Choose Fixed height explicitly if you want a cropped box with corner handles. Scale mode and the Scale control change the size of the lettering without changing wrapping width or the height setting.

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

Try a fitted caption background or a quick effect

In the free browser demo, select a Text layer and open Inspector → Background. Enable Text background, then choose Fitted lines for a joined contour that follows each line, or Block for one backing. Adjust the background color, opacity and padding. Corner radius 0 makes square corners; increase it for rounded captions. The words and their wrapping remain editable.

The Text Inspector also has Fire and Ice shortcuts. Choose one to add the effect, then adjust its controls in Active FX. Choosing the same shortcut again opens the existing effect. These Fire & Ice treatments also work on images and cutouts. Fire uses transparent space above the source for its rising flames; an opaque photograph retains its rectangular silhouette. Local text effects leave the fitted background clean. Document effects process the complete composition.

Choose Animate, then Play, to move Fire. Leave Still selected for a held frame. Ice starts still. Desktop Material treatments attach an ember or frost coating to solid text and models; they do not add flame or crystal geometry. The gold example below uses the ordinary layer effect workflow.

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.

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:

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 on Mac or Ctrl+Enter on Windows. Both effects remain on the layer and apply to the new letters. You can still change the weight, spacing, or alignment afterward.

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. To place an actual 3D object beside your words, see how to make 3D art without Blender.

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. If the result still shows a background, check the PNG for transparency.

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. These are example settings, not permanent defaults or a promise of identical rendering on every device.