OSXFAQ Mac OS X Design Tip-of-the-Day  

If you've ever tried to use Photoshop's Glass filter (found under the Filter menu, under Distort), then you've already found that it doesn't work worth a darn (and that wording is overly kind). It just shouldn't be named "Glass." It should be named something like "Mess up your image" or "Junkicizor"--something more indicative of the real effect it has on your image. There's one instance where you might consider using the Glass filter, and that's when creating a Glass effect on type. You start by creating an Alpha channel of your type, blurring it a pixel or two, and saving it as a Displacement Map. Then when you use the Glass filter, choose "Load Texture," and load the map you saved; it applies a glassy look to your type. It almost looks decent. It doesn't look like glass, mind you, but it looks decent.

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