How to Create a Japanese Brush Font Text Effect in Photoshop

Creating a completely custom font from scratch may sound like a daunting task, but it's not as complicated as it seems. In this quick tip, we will be taking a look at how to create a Japanese brush font text effect in Adobe Photoshop.

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel to create your very own Japanese brush style font:

What You'll Learn

How to create Japanese brush strokes in Adobe Photoshop
How to import and install your new Japanese brush stroke
How to create a Japanese brush stroke font effect
How to change the color of your Japanese brush style font

What You'll Need

To complete this project, we are using the following resources:

Find more resources on Envato Elements!

1. How to Create Paint Stroke Photoshop Brushes

Before heading to the Japanese brush font design process, let’s start by creating an ink brush Photoshop brush.

Step 1

Import an image of painted brush strokes. Ideally, you want them to be long, with tapered and textured edges.

Step 2

Turn the image black and white by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

These paint strokes are a little light, so let’s darken them by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and bringing the Contrast up to 100 and the Brightness down to -150.

Repeat this step until your paint strokes are a nice solid black.

Step 3

Select your paint strokes by going to Select > Color Range and clicking on the black paint. Bring the Fuzziness all the way up to 200 and hit OK.

Step 4

Create a Color Fill layer set to black. The color fill layer will automatically take the shape of the selection.

Step 5

Smooth out the edges of the paint stroke by double-clicking on the color fill layer's layer mask and choosing Select and Mask.

Set Smooth to 9, Contrast to 24%, and Shift Edge to -30%. Your settings may vary, but we don’t want to lose too much of that streaky brush texture, so be careful.

Step 6

Finally, Crop down your paint stroke and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Name your brush, and you are done.

You will want to make as many Japanese brush strokes as possible, but alternatively, you can also download a set of premade brush strokes that come on a transparent background or a premade brush pack that is all ready to go.

Step 7

If you're not sure how to install Photoshop brushes, you will want to select the Brush Tool, open the Brush window, click on the Gear icon found in the top right-hand corner, and then select Import Brushes.

From there, you will want to navigate to wherever you save your brushes, select them, and that’s it!

2. How to Create a Japanese Brush Calligraphy Font

Finally, let’s move on to creating our Japanese brush style font.

Step 1

This first step is optional, but it might help you out for your first few tries with this effect.

Choose a font that's similar to the structure you want your text to have. In this case, the Japanese brush font download Little Samurai works perfectly.

Type out your word or phrase. Now, we can use this as a template when we are placing our Japanese brush stroke.

Step 2

Import your brush stroke brushes, or have your brush stroke images (with a transparent background) in a folder nearby so you can drop or paint them in as needed.

I will be using these brush stroke PNGs found on Envato Elements.

Step 3

Now, it’s a matter of combining different brush strokes to make different letters. Let’s start with an easy one, “M.”

Drag and drop your strokes to match up with the three vertical lines that make up the lower section of the "M", using our text as a guide.

Make sure to use different strokes for each line. You want to avoid patterns and repetition.

Step 4

Place a fourth line going through the upper portion of all three lines. You have an “M”!

I suggest grouping all of the brush strokes into their own group and naming it according to the letter they create.

Step 5

You can use the Paint Brush and Eraser Tool to add or take away detail from each line to add further fine-tuning and variation to your Japanese brush font.

Also, remember to Flip lines Vertically and Horizontally and adjust both their height and width to avoid the look of repetition.

Step 6

Use the Warp Transform Mode to create and match curves, and to fit the strokes to match the shape of the template text.

Do these steps over and over until all of your letters are created. This way, you'll get your Japanese brush calligraphy font done.

Step 7

Change the color of the text by adding a Color Fill layer and clipping it into your master group—the group holding all the letters of your brand new Japanese brush style font.

You can also go ahead and fill in any sparse spots quickly by creating a New Layer below all of your text layers and painting using a hard white brush. This will help your paint look fuller, if that's the look you are going for.

We've Done It!

And there you have it! You can whip up these painted letters in a matter of minutes, and if you find yourself reaching for this kind of text effect fairly often, go ahead and create the whole alphabet, save it in a PSD file, and you've officially created your own Japanese brush calligraphy font template.

As always, keep experimenting with different techniques and practicing the art of crafting Japanese brush fonts.

More Japanese Brush Fonts and Strokes From Envato Elements

Now you know how to create a Japanese brush stroke font from scratch, but if you want to leave it to the pros—and save time in the process—then take a look at these Japanese brush strokes from Envato Elements, as well as some Japanese brush font download options:

1. Okami Japanese Brush Font (OTF, WOFF)

Okami is a hand-drawn Japanese brush font download with rough and bold letters. It's great for logos, branding, print projects, and of course creating a Japanese brush stroke font text effect.

2. Wonderfont Brush Typeface (OTF, TTF)

This font face is ideal as a Japanese brush font download with a more rustic and unrefined look. It's very versatile and works for many purposes and design styles, but it definitely makes the cut as a Japanese brush stroke font.

3. 30 Acrylic Brush Strokes (PSD)

Maybe you still want to design your own Japanese brush fonts, but skip the stroke-creation bit. In that case, try this collection. It contains 30 isolated high-resolution brush texture strokes made using yellow acrylic paint and many different paintbrushes that are perfect for creating a Japanese brush font.

4. 66 Long Ink Strokes Photoshop Stamp Brushes (ABR)

Download 66 hand-painted ink Photoshop brushes that work with any Photoshop version. This ink brush Photoshop pack is high resolution and would be a great addition for designing your Japanese brush fonts.

Explore More Resources

There you go! You've mastered the steps to design Japanese brush strokes and create your very own Japanese brush calligraphy font. And if you want to leave it to the professional designers, you can always find Japanese brush fonts on Envato Elements.

Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following tutorials: