Just what is a "Personal Altar", anyway?

How DO you transform plain text to text with style?

 Here's how:

This is what Notre Dame means to me.

You have your fabulous image of Notre Dame first.  If you need to add m ore area for text, you'll have to create more - easy by using the clone stamp!

Before Clone Stamp...

After Clone Stamp...

This will be my text image...

You will be creating your headline out of another image that you think will contrast nicely in the area where you'll be placing it.  I wanted the word "family" to stand out so I chose a red sky at night image (see above!).

Now you want to add your headline - you know, that great reason why you go to Notre Dame?  Create a new blank document and make sure it is the same size and resolution as your Notre Dame image.  Using your tool box, choose "type" and create the word or words you'll be using.

Choose a font you think goes with your idea.

In the Layers palette (on the right side of Photoshop) where you see your background picture (the sky image in mine), hold down Shift and drag directly from the layer on top of your word ("family" for me).  You'll see the image cover your word but in the layers palette you'll see the new layer now called Layer 1.  Change the name of the layer so you'll remember it!

With the image layer (sky for mine) still selected, choose Create Clipping Mask from the Layers palette menu.  The image (sky for mine) is now showing through the text.  I wanted to add a drop shadow for depth so I selected the text layer to make it active, clicked the Add Layer Style button at the bottom of the Layers palette and chose Drop Shadow from the pop-up menu.  In the Layer Style dialog box I changed the opacity to 35% and clicked OK.

To place the text on your Notre Dame image you'll have to link the text and image together before you move the final word as a unit.

Click to select the image layer (sky for me), then Shift-click the text (family for me).  then choose Link Layers from the Layers pop-up menu.  A link icon appears next to the names of both layers.

You can now select the Move tool and drag the type to your Notre Dame image.

Ta-da!

What do type, photography, advertising, and Notre Dame have in common? Ahhhh, this must be your next assignment...

I'm sure you've all played around with text - written many papers for school, made posters for that English class you love, text constantly on your phone...but what do you REALLY know about type and design in Photoshop?  Here's the assignment:

1. Take a photograph of Notre Dame that is interesting and shows the  school in its best light.  Compose the image in your viewfinder so you will have space for placing text.  NO FLASH.
2. Think about why Notre Dame is such a great place to go to school and write down at least two reasons.  You will be using those as your headline.
3. Look at the examples below and think about advertising you've seen - billboards, magazines...what made you LOOK at something...then create your own headline on the image you've taken.
4. The only rule is to be creative.  You can use Photoshop for anything you shoot.
5. Now go ahead - sell me on Notre Dame!

Wow! What a fabulous school!

Want more options for being text-creative?  Go to the book and look at Chapter 8.

Type tool options

In the options bar, set the following Type tool options:

Font Family Applies a font family to new or existing text.

Font Style Applies font styles, such as bold, to new or existing text.

Font Size Applies a font size to new or existing text.

Color menu Applies a color to new text or selected text.

Leading menu  Sets the space between lines of new or selected text.

Faux Bold  Applies a bold style to new or existing text. Use this option if your font doesn’t have a true bold style that you can select from the Font Style menu.

Faux Italic  Applies an italic style to new or existing text. Use this option if your font doesn’t have a true italic or oblique style that you can select from the Font Style menu.

Underline  Applies an underline to new text or selected existing text.

Strikethrough  Applies a line through new text or selected existing text.

Align Text Specifies text alignment. If text orientation is horizontal, lets you align text: left, center, or right. For vertical orientation text: top, center, or bottom.

Toggle Text Orientation  Changes vertical text to horizontal and horizontal text to vertical.

Warp text  Warps text on the selected layer.

Anti-aliased  Applies anti-aliasing to make text appear smoother.

Applying anti-aliasing

A. Anti-aliasing off

B. Anti-aliasing on

Text on Shape

You can add text to the shapes available in the Text on Shape tool.

1. Select the Text on Shape Tool . To quickly change the current text tool, press Alt/Option and click on the current tool.


Text on Shape

2. From the available shapes, select the shape on which you want to add text. Drag the cursor on the image to create the shape.

3. To add text to the image, hover the mouse over the path until the cursor icon changes to depict text mode. Click the point to add text.




Click and enter text

Modify text in the same way that you modify normal text.

4.  After adding text, click Commit. For some of the shapes the text has to be written inside. You can move the text around the path or by inside/outside by holding Cmd/Ctrl while clicking and dragging the mouse (The text appears in a small arrow). You can drag that cursor into a selected area, the text path is allowed inside/outside an area.

Text on Selection

Add text on the outline of a path created from a selection. When you commit a selection, the selection is converted to a path on which you can type text.

1.  Select the Text on Shape Tool . To quickly change the current text tool, press Alt/Option and click on the current tool.


Text On Selection



2.  Place the cursor on the object in the image and drag the cursor till you get your desired selection. You can adjust the size of your selection using the Offset slider.


Make Selection




When you confirm the selection, the selection is converted to a path.

3.  To add text to the image, hover the mouse over the path when cursor icon changes to depict text mode. Click the point to add text.


Add Text




After you add text, you can modify it like regular text.

4.  After you have completed adding text, click the Commit . Cancel to start your work flow again.

Text on Custom Path

You can draw and add text along the custom path.

1. Select the Text on Custom Path Tool . To quickly change the current text tool, press Alt/Option and click on the current tool.


Text On Custom Path


2. Draw a custom path over the image. You can commit/cancel the drawn path to redraw from the tool options bar.

3. To refine or redraw the path, click Modify in the tool options bar. Use the nodes that appear on the path to modify it.

4. After you have completed creating a path, click the mouse at any point along the path to add text. Modify text in the same way that you modify normal text.


Add Text


5. After adding text, click the Commit .

Create and use masked type

The Horizontal Type Mask tool and Vertical Type Mask tool create a selection in the shape of text. You can have fun with text selection borders by cutting text out of an image to show the background, or pasting the selected text into a new image. Experiment with different options to personalize your images and compositions.

Horizontal type mask used to create a filled selection.

1. Using the Expert mode, select the layer on which you want the selection to appear. For best results, don’t create the type selection border on a text layer.

2. Select the Horizontal Type Mask tool  or the Vertical Type Mask tool .

3. Select additional type options (See Type tool options), and enter your text.

The type selection border appears in the image on the active layer.