$99 Websites + Website Design: How to Create Speech Bubbles in Photoshop

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In the following steps, you will learn how to how to create speech bubbles in Photoshop. Add the essential element to your comic book and cartoon illustrations and photo effects.

What You Will Learn in This Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

How to create add a speech bubble in Photoshop
How to add an action speech bubble in Photoshop
How to add a thought bubble in Photoshop

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

Want to cut out the hassle of learning how to create speech bubbles in Photoshop?

This pack of custom shapes is the quickest solution and comes with all the elements that you would need for a comic book design: talk bubbles, speech bubbles, action speech bubbles, and thought bubbles. You can use the outlined or filled version for any of these speech bubbles, and keep in mind that you can easily adjust and stylize the designs.

For more inspiration on how to adjust or improve your final Photoshop speech balloon, you can find plenty of resources at Envato Elements.

What You Will Need

You will need the following resources in order to create a Photoshop talk bubble:

Childo font
Best Friends font
More Sugar font
Muslims Learn the Religion From the Scholars Illustration
Woman Working With Laptop Vector Illustration
Young Girl Drinking Juice Vector Illustration

1. How to Create a New Document and Set Up Grid

Hit Control-N to create a new document. Select Pixels from the Units drop-down menu, and set the Width to 850 and the Height to 700. Select RGB for the Color Mode and then click the Create button.

Enable the Grid (View > Show > Grid) and Snap to Grid (View > Snap to > Grid). You will need a grid every 5 px, so let's go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices, and enter 5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box. Try not to get discouraged by all that grid—it will make your work easier, and keep in mind that you can easily enable or disable it using the Control-" keyboard shortcut.

Now that you're set, let's start by learning how to add a speech bubble in Photoshop.

2. How to Add a Speech Bubble in Photoshop

Step 1

Pick the Ellipse Tool (U) from your toolbar and create a 180 x 140 px shape. Remove the Stroke color applied to this shape and keep the Fill color set to black.

Step 2

Make sure that your shape stays selected and that the Ellipse Tool (U) is still active. Hold down the Alt key and draw a 140 px circle, exactly as shown in the following image.

Step 3

Make sure that your shape stays selected and switch to the Rectangle Tool (U). Hold down the Alt key and create a 190 x 100 px shape, exactly as shown in the following image.

Step 4

Select the Ellipse Tool (U), create a 205 x 150 px shape, and place it as shown below.

Step 5

Focus on the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and select the two shapes made so far. Right-click on one of these selected shapes and go to Merge Shapes.

Drag this illustration inside your Photoshop document and place your Photoshop speech bubble roughly as shown in the second image.

Step 6

Make sure that your Photoshop talk bubble is selected and focus on the control panel. Change the Fill color to R=254 G=244 B=225 and the Stroke color to R=63 G=95 B=4.

Step 7

Select the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and type in your text. Use the Childo Rounded font for your text, set the size to 40 pt, and change the leading and tracking to 30.

Step 8

Change the color of your text to white (R=255 G=255 B=255) and then double-click your text (in the Layers panel) to open the Layer Style window.

Activate the Stroke and enter the settings shown below.

Activate the Drop Shadow and enter the settings shown below. Click OK and move to the next step to learn how to create an action talk bubble in Photoshop.