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I want to emphasize a word in a sentence. I've seen it somewhere but couldn't find the picture. Its like the selected word is normal but all other things are blurry. And maybe the word is closer than the rest. Any tutorial or tips on doing this?

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Are you looking for some filter or particular look, or some method of the text editing tool? What do you mean by "And maybe the word is closer than the rest."? – kontur Dec 6 '12 at 21:29
I meant the depth, like the desired word's depth is less than others'. – AliBZ Dec 6 '12 at 23:20

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

In Photoshop, you can manually create a blur effect in everything surrounding your image using the Blur Tool.

enter image description here

For example:

enter image description here

  • Rasterize your text so you have a bitmap image of your text.

  • Duplicate your layer (to keep the original safe!)

  • Select the Blur Tool, choose an opacity of 30% or so, and a brush size of 40px.

  • Start blurring your image from the outside in. First do the borders, then surround the word you want to keep on focus.

  • Repeat the strokes until you achieve the illusion of depth (so the borders are more blurred than the middle).

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This looks nice, I will try it ASAP. thanx – AliBZ Dec 6 '12 at 23:21
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If you're looking for further reference, this is called a "tilt shift" effect. It's a photographic technique. – plainclothes Dec 7 '12 at 0:28
@plainclothes thanks, I didn't know the name! – Yisela♦ Dec 7 '12 at 1:02
I think even with the watermark intact you should not pick a photo from a commercial stockphoto provider for reference. – kontur Dec 7 '12 at 10:09
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@kontur it was the only image I could find that had the effect, I just forgot to add the link. I now added one I created. – Yisela♦ Dec 9 '12 at 19:43
up vote 1 down vote

You're question could benefit from further info (available software, intended use, what you've tried already, etc). Nonetheless, I'll take a shot.

  1. Set up your main text and duplicate the emphasized word over it.

  2. In Illustrator, the most controllable option would be to apply a feather to the text (Effect > Stylize ... > Feather). Depending on the size, it won't take much: Consider how thick the strokes of your font are. Other blur effects in Illy or Photoshop would work too.

  3. Your emphasized word will remain un-feathered and, thus, emphasized. You can play up the difference by scaling it up or using a darker/brighter color.

I would recommend wiping out the emphasized word in the original text and inserting the necessary clear space in it's place.

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Hi, thanks for the reply. I haven't tried anything because I have no idea where to start from. I've worked with photoshop, not much, and I know its basics. I will try that with illustrator and let you know. thanx – AliBZ Dec 6 '12 at 20:39

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