header

Keyboard Symbols:

a/o = Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac)

c/c = Control (Windows) or Command (Mac)

Sign me up for FREE Digital Scrapper newsletter

Completely new to Adobe® Photoshop® Elements? Haven't watched my CD yet? Click here for a quick orientation to the Elements desktop, tools, and palettes.

To see additional tutorials visit our archives.

 

025 Design With Type

This tutorial works exactly the same in Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

You can use type as part of your design to spice up your pages. Here are a couple of examples using the “Warped Text” option.

 

 

Select the Horizontal Type tool and choose your font, size, and color in the Options Bar. Click once on your document to create an insertion point. Then type the first half of a sentence. Click on the check mark in the Options Bar to accept your type.

 

Click on the “Warped Text” icon in the Options Bar.

 
 

When the dialog box comes up, choose flag from the menu at the top. Move the “Bend” slider until you have a nice curve as shown. Leave the Horizontal and Vertical Distortion sliders at “0.”

 
 
 Click again on your document and type the second half of the phrase. Apply the same Warp Text settings. You can leave your text separated like this for a playful look . . .  
 

. . . or, for a different effect, you can click on your Move tool (top right tool) and move the second line so that it lines up with the first. The Wave style only makes one wave, but by making two phrases and putting them together, you get more than one wave.

 
 

Helpful Hint: When you’re moving something thin, like type, it sometimes helps to uncheck “Auto Select Layer” in the Options Bar. That way you won’t accidentally click on the layer behind the type and select it instead. Once you’re done moving the type, you can recheck “Auto Select Layer.”

 

 
 

Here’s a layout using this technique. In this case, however, I typed three phrases on three separate layers and used a much larger font for the phrase on the first layer. I also used a smaller “Bend” setting in “Warped Text” for the larger type.

 
 

To create the decorative semicircle of type in the collage pictured below, I typed a long line of text repeating the same phrase over and over.

Then I clicked on “Warped Text,” chose “Arch” from the menu, and used the settings shown here to bend the type.

 
 

I used white type to complement the colors on my page. To change the color of your type, make sure you have the Type tool selected. In the Layers palette, click on the type layer you want changed. Then click on the color box in the Options Bar. Choose the color you want and click okay.

I teach the collage technique used on this page in Volume 2 of the Scrapper’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Photoshop Elements.

 

*Adobe® Photoshop® Tips

If you own Adobe Photoshop CS or later, you have another choice for creating circular type. You’ll get less type distortion by doing it this way.

 

 Choose the Ellipse tool from the Shapes tool flyout menu, and click on the “Paths” icon in the Options Bar.
 Click and drag a circle on your document the size you want your circle of type to be. Hold shift while you drag if you want to constrain the ellipse to a perfect circle.
 Click on your Type tool and move your I-beam next to the circle until it changes to an I-beam with a curved line. Then click to make your insertion point and begin to type.

Helpful Hint: Typing this way can be slower than typing on a normal line. To speed things up, try typing a plain line of text first. Then highlight the text and choose Edit > Copy. After you’ve drawn your circle path, insert your I-beam where you want the text to start and choose Edit > Paste.

 

Sign me up for FREE Digital Scrapper newsletter

Go to top

 

 

© 2004 Scrapper's Guide. All rights reserved