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Text in a Box
- Open any image.
For this Photoshop tutorial we are going to use white text.
- Press D and X as required so that white is the foreground colour over black.
- Select T in the toolbox for the Text Tool.
Choose a plain font like Geneva, 14 point and the Left align box from the options bar.
- Put the cursor on a plain portion of the image and drag to the right and down to create a bounding box, which will contain the type.
This box can be reshaped, rotated and distorted by dragging on the corners.
Type a few lines of text into this box – any old gibberish will do for now.
- Go to Window > Show Paragraph.
There is also a button in the top options bar which gives quick access to the Character and Paragraph palettes.
The Paragraph and Character palettes allow changes in text configuration.
Justification can be left, centre, right or forced.
As long as the box is active the text does not have to be selected – just click on a different box in the Paragraph palette and the type will be realigned.
Paragraphs and individual lines can be indented.
In the Character palette it is possible to change font size, leading (line height and pronounced ledding), kerning (tracking) and colour.
Hold the cursor over the little boxes to identify their functions.
These boxes and functions work like most word processing systems.
- To move the text as a block, select the Move tool and use the arrow keys. Shift + the arrows moves the box by 10 pixels at a time.
Anti-aliasing
The edge between contrasting tones and colours will be hard and will appear jagged because of the pixels edges. Anti-aliasing is a blending of the two edges by using intermediate tones.
So with a black subject on a white background, the new anti-aliased edge will be pixels of grey. Consequently, the edge will look smoother.
When making a selection, anti-aliasing is put on by default.
With text, it is an option in the top options bar.
Crisp is a standard setting, with Strong and Smooth to taste. When an image with text is being prepared for the web, small type will look crisper if anti-aliasing is set to None.
Tip
The font used in several layers can be changed all in one go.
Link all the type layers together.
While holding Shift, select the new font from the Character palette.
A Title on a Backgound
The images used in this Photoshop tutorial on text can be downloaded from
HERE.
- Via Photoshop, open images number 01.jpg and number 02.jpg.
- Hold Shift and drag the Sunflowers image on to the Poppy image.
- Set the foreground and background colours to default with black on top.
The shortcut way is to press D.
- Select the Type Tool by pressing T.
Choose a font with some softness such as Flexure and a large size of 60 point.
Pidif in the word 'SUMMER' in capitals. With the cursor away from the word itself, it changes into the Move tool symbol and the word can be repositioned.
- To change the shape of the letters, the type layer must first be converted to a normal layer.
Go to Layer > Rasterize > Type.
- Bring up the Free Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl + T / Cmd + T.
- Drag the central handle down to elongate the letters.
Press Enter or Return.
- In the Layers palette, drag the SUMMER layer down to below Layer 1.
- Type can be filled with an image or texture.
To achieve this, the images involved must be linked as a clipping group. The image or texture takes the shape of the letters.
In the Layers palette, place the cursor on the join between the SUMMER layer and Layer 1.
Hold down the Alt key and the cursor symbol changes to two overlapping circles, then click.
The lettering is filled with the sunflowers image while Layer 1 becomes indented.
- Ctrl + G / Cmd + G will also clip the active layer with the layer below.
- With the cursor as the Move tool and the cursor inside the lettering, the background image of sunflowers can be repositioned.
- Highlight the text layer SUMMER and Layer 1 by holding Shift and clicking on them both.
Link them by clicking on the Link icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Now both the text and its content can be moved together.
- In the Layers palette, double-click on the SUMMER layer icon to open the Layer Style dialogue box.
Click once on the words Inner Shadow.
In the Inner Shadow dialogue box, set Blend Mode to Normal.
Click on the black colour box and choose a bright yellow. Set Opacity at 100%;
Angle at 135;
Distance at 7. OK
- As it is, the poppy background would be too strong for any text to be put over it – the text simply would not stand out sufficiently.
- Select the Background in the Layers palette.
- Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation (Ctrl + U / Cmd + U). Reduce Saturation to -40. OK.
- Press Ctrl + L / Cmd + L to open the Levels dialogue box.
Levels is another way of controlling tone, contrast and colour. It is a companion function with Curves.
• Adjusting the Output Levels scale changes the contrast of the image.
Moving the highlight slider towards the centre darkens the image as it reduces contrast.
Moving the shadow triangle in reduces the contrast by lightening the dark tones.
Move the shadow adjuster to the right until its value is 160.
Click OK.
This is a better method than lowering opacity for the layer. Lowering opacity would lose highlight detail, but this method avoids that.
Text or other images can now be positioned more successfully on the background.
The technique is useful for putting a logo on letter headed paper, making it look like a watermark.
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Text - 1
Do More Great Things With Text
The How to Use Photoshop page
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