Learning Adobe Photoshop CS4

By Greg Bowden

Chapter 6

Adding Text
to Designs

Guided Computer Tutorials

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© Greg Bowden

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 Chapter

6
Adding Text to Designs
Text can be added to photographs and manipulated. There are text effects available to
curve letters, display them vertically, set text to follow a path and applying similar effects
to those you added to shapes in the last chapter.

Starting a New Document

1 Load Photoshop or close the current file and select NEW from the FILE menu.

2 Set the WIDTH to 800 pixels, the

HEIGHT to 600 pixels, the COLOUR
MODE to RGB COLOUR and the
BACKGROUND CONTENTS to WHITE.

3 Select OK to start the page.

Entering Text
The TEXT TOOLS are housed in the TYPE TOOL in the TOOLS panel.

1 Click and hold down the mouse

button on the TYPE TOOL and select
the HORIZONTAL TYPE TOOL.

2 The OPTIONS BAR should display the text options which are labelled in the diagram
at the top of the next page.

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Learning Adobe Photoshop CS4

Text Set the Set the Anti- Text Open the Character &
Orientation Font Style aliasing Method Colour Paragraph panels

Set the Set the Alignments Warp Accept or

Font Family Font Size Text reject edits

3 Set the VIEW to FIT ON SCREEN by pressing CTRL+0 on the Windows system or
COMMAND+0 on the Macintosh system.
4 Click the cursor (which is now an I-Beam) near the top centre of the canvas.

5 Set the FONT to CENTURY GOTHIC or

TIMES NEW ROMAN, the FONT STYLE
to BOLD, the FONT SIZE to 18 pt and
the TEXT COLOUR to RED.

6 Enter your first name.

NOTE: A text layer is created when you click the I-Beam on the
canvas.

Altering Text
You can alter text once it has been entered.
1 Highlight your name by dragging the I-Beam across the letters or by double
clicking on the letters.

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 Adding Text to Designs 6
2 Set the FONT SIZE to 36 pt and your
name should become larger, then set
the TEXT COLOUR to BLUE.

3 Click on the COMMIT ANY CURRENT

EDITS button to accept the changes.

Warping Text
There are a number of special curved effects that can be applied to the text. These are
found in the WARP TEXT button in the OPTIONS BAR.

A Single Arced Text

1 Click the I-Beam anywhere in your name.

2 Click on the CREATE WARPED TEXT

button in the OPTIONS BAR and the
WARP TEXT dialogue box will open.

3 Set the STYLE box to ARC and move

the WARP TEXT dialogue box so
that you can see your name, which
should now be curved.

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Learning Adobe Photoshop CS4

4 Move the BLEND slider and the size

and direction of the arc will change.
Set it to a negative value.

5 Decrease the HORIZONTAL

DISTORTION and the letters should
start large and curve to smaller.

NOTE: The reverse occurs if you increase the HORIZONTAL

DISTORTION.

6 Increase the VERTICAL DISTORTION

and the angle of the letters will be
altered.

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 Adding Text to Designs 6

7 Set the HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL

DISTORTION bars back to 0 then click
on the VERTICAL radio button at the
top of the dialogue box.

NOTE: The VERTICAL option gives text the illusion of the text moving
out of the screen.

8 Increase the BLEND to reverse the

effect.

9 Click on the HORIZONTAL button to

set the text back to normal then set
the STYLE box to ARC LOWER and the
curve will move down.

10 Increase the BLEND to +75% to see

the effect more clearly.

NOTE: Setting the STYLE box to ARC UPPER will set the curve to a
slightly different curve up to the normal ARC style.

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Learning Adobe Photoshop CS4

11 Try setting the STYLE box to ARCH, BULGE, SHELL LOWER and SHELL UPPER to see
the effect of these styles.

B Multiple Arcs
You can also set text to wave along a path. In other words, arc more than once.

1 Set the STYLE box to FLAG and

decrease the HORIZONTAL
DISTORTION to see the effect more
clearly.

2 Try setting the STYLE box to WAVE, FISH and RISE to see the effect of these styles.

C Three-Dimensional Effects
Warping can also be used to set three-dimensional effects.

1 Return the HORIZONTAL

DISTORTION to 0 and set the STYLE
box to FISH EYE.

2 Adjust the BLEND to enhance the

effect.

NOTE: As you read across your name the centre letters appear you
come out of the screen.

3 Try setting the STYLE box to INFLATE, SQUEEZE and TWIST to see the effect of
those styles.

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 Adding Text to Designs 6
4 Select OK to return to the page.

D Text Orientation
You can change the direction of text at any time.

1 Click on the CHANGE THE TEXT

ORIENTATION button in the OPTIONS
BAR and the name should be set to
vertical.

2 Click on the CHANGE THE TEXT ORIENTATION button again the text will be returned
to its original direction.

Vertical Text
Text can be set to be entered down the screen.

1 Click and hold on the TYPE TOOL

in the TOOLS panel and select the
VERTICAL TEXT TOOL.

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Learning Adobe Photoshop CS4

2 Click next to your first name and

enter your last name. It will be
entered down the screen. Press
<enter> or <return> to set it.

NOTE: The same warp options can be applied to vertical text.

Adding Styles to Text

The styles you used in the last few chapters can be applied to text in the same way that
they were applied to shapes.

1 Expand the LAYERS panel and click

on your first name layer to select
your first name.

2 Press CTRL+T or COMMAND+T to select FREE TRANSFORM PATH.

3 Use the size ‘handles’ to increase the

size of the name.

4 Press <enter> or <return> to accept the transformation.

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 Adding Text to Designs 6

5 Open the STYLES panel in the

PANEL GROUP.

6 Click on the PANEL MENU icon and

select WEB STYLES.

7 Select OK to replace the current style.

8 Apply a style to the text.

NOTE: As with shapes, you can turn styles off in the LAYERS panel.

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