The ability to work with text in Adobe Photoshop will be required not only for beginners in the field of graphic design, but also for ordinary users who want to quickly create a beautiful headline or post, prepare a postcard or design an inscription on a picture. In this application is available a lot of tools that will not be difficult to understand.
Adding text in Adobe Photoshop
Familiarity with the tools for working with text in Adobe Photoshop begins with opening or creating a new document. By default, it is filled with white color, but if you need to add text to an already ready picture, the background will be different. Next, you should click on the “Text” icon, which is located in the left corner on the toolbar. The hotkey (T) is also available for this purpose. Next, you should make a click on any part of the working area, after which a form for entering text with horizontal placement of characters will appear on the screen.
If you need to create a vertical text, you should right-click on the “Text” tool and select the desired option. Such methods are effective when preparing headings. But if you plan to write paragraphs, you can follow a different algorithm. If you left-click on the canvas with the activated “Text” tool and drag it, a frame for typing paragraphs will appear.
If you create a text layer from scratch, it will appear in the Layers panel. If it is not displayed, you should change the workspace settings, or click the F7 button and go to the “Window” – “Layers” menu. The panel should be left active, as you will have to deal with it often in the future.
Editing a text layer
Having figured out how to create a title and paragraph, you can move on to the next stage – editing the text layer in Adobe Photoshop. With the help of basic tools, you can quickly and effectively change the appearance of the text. Let’s try to create a title and a small paragraph, and place an image on the background. You should also additionally open the “Paragraph” menu, following this address: “Window” – “Symbol” – “Paragraph”.
These are the main windows for working with text formatting, where all the information is collected. In the “Symbol” section it is convenient to change and activate fonts, control the distance between letters and perform other manipulations. The “Paragraph” menu is intended for setting indents and alignment. And now let’s deal with each item in more detail.
Changing font and text size
To change fonts or text sizes, you should look for the “Move” item in the tools window (arrow icon).
If you can’t do this, you should make sure that the “Auto Select” item in the panel is checked. To control the size, you can also select the font size. To do this, activate the text layer, and then click on the “Text” tool (T). In the “Symbol” panel at the top, the necessary parameters will be available: to change the font size, you should specify a ready-made value or scroll with the mouse, watching the layer’s size change in real time.
Several standard tools are available for paragraph alignment. The icons display thumbnails of the alignment methods.
Changing text in Adobe Photoshop
In current versions of Adobe Photoshop, there are two main methods for modifying text:
- Click on the Move tool (V), and then click twice on the text.
- Select Text (T) and click on the text layer on the canvas.
Changing the color of the text
Now let’s try to change the color of the title. To do this, you should click on the item “Text”, select a layer in the layers panel, and click on the square with a hue at the top.
A color palette will appear on the screen – you can change the sliders, and as a result, the color of the text layer will change in real time. You can also specify a specific color value here if you want to get the exact hue.
If you need to change the color of a single letter, just select it with the Text tool. There are no difficulties at this stage. We select a part of the text, click on the color window and choose the necessary value.
Copying text
To copy a text layer, all you need to do is activate it on the canvas (making sure that “Auto Select” is active, press the Alt button and pull the mouse to the side. This will allow you to keep track of where the copy will be placed. Another proven and standard method is to use the combinations “Ctrl + C” + “Ctrl + V”. In this case, the text layer will be duplicated randomly.
Adding effects to the text
It’s no secret that Adobe Photoshop has a lot of effects available, including for text files. These include neon glow, volumetric letters, gradients, etc. Let’s take a look at a few of the main and most popular ones.
Stroke
To create a simple stroke, just double-click on the text layer in the panel and then select “Stroke”. Next, select the “Stroke” checkbox, choose its color, size, and position.
Outline
To get an outline, you should set the thickness and color of the stroke, and then turn the “Fill” value to zero. As a result, the inscription will retain only the outline.
Color Gradient
Another popular effect available in the “Layer Styles” menu is the text gradient.With its help, you can transform the text and make it more expressive.So, we need to go to the “Layer Styles” menu by double-clicking on the text layer and then selecting “Gradient Overlay”.
If you click on the gradient itself, the editor window will appear, where it is convenient to change different settings. If you move the sliders horizontally, the gradient will change. The resulting gradient can be easily saved to build up a whole collection of gradients.
You can also change the slope of the text by using the “Move” tool or by clicking on the Layers panel. Next, activate the “Edit” – “Transform” – “Tilt” window.