- Start with a good handwriting-style font; the less computer-generated it looks, the better. Type your test, apply whatever distortions, et cetera, you'd like, and rasterize your layer. We'll be using black text for this example, but you can alter the color later.
- Choose Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur... Be careful! Even for a large image you won't want to blur your text by more than a pixel or two. The goal is to create a slight halo of fuzz around solid, readable text, not to actually make your text seem blurry.
- Duplicate your layer of text.
- Choose Filter -> Stylize -> Wind... The default settings should suffice.
- Merge your two layers of text together.
- Choose Filter -> Distort -> Ripple... The exact amount of distortion you choose to apply here will depend on how large your image is and where on the Canvas your text is located, but you will want to keep it subtle; the goal is to apply a bit of randomness and shakiness to your 'handwriting', not to actually see ripples.
You may be done here, if you are simply looking to replicate the marker look on a clean background. If you're trying to make the marker texture appear as if you actually wrote or drew on the underlying layer, continue with the steps on the next page of this tutorial.
