5.23 Tutorial: Text On/In a Shape

Hi Everyone! Happy Thursday… I’m so glad it’s almost Friday! It’s starting to get warmer here, though we’ve seemed to skip Spring a little – we jumped from 60’s to 80’s in days… and I’m already tempted to turn on my air conditioning! That’s early for me in the Northeast!

Ok… onto the tutorial! Text On/In a Shape is fun! I love being able to write within a shape or around a shape in Photoshop. It’s one of my favorite features. I’m going to show you how to do this… easily. Here goes… For my layout , I used Chelle’s Toadally Add On kit – it is a fun one, and much more versatile than you might think! Here is what I’m starting with. I’ve used the shape tool to make my paper layers.

Now, I’m going to duplicate one of my shape layers and use that as a basis for making a path for text. You can duplicate a layer by right clicking on it, and choosing Duplicate Layer. Here is what my Layer’s Palette looks like.

Once I have my shape in my Layers Palette, I chose that layer and double click on it. You should get the marching ants around your shape.

At this point, you will want to pull up your Paths. You can find this in the menu bar under Window > Paths. Mine is set to be open with my Layers Palette, like this:

Click on the small lines and triangle in the top right corner, and choose “Make Work Path.”

Next pop up with be about Tolerance. A lower tolerance number will create a path with many fixed points, and the path will be very precise to the shape that is sele.cted (your marching ants). The bad side of a lower tolerance can cause too many problems with your text fitting into the shape evenly, and may look a bit garbled. A higher tolerance number will create a path with fewer fixed points, and the path will be smoother.

Choose the Type Tool.

If you click within the shape a cursor will appear, and look as if two parenthesis are surrounding it. This just means that the text will be INSIDE the shape. Depending on your shape, this might take a little playtime figuring the size and spacing of your text.

If you click on the shapes edges, you will see a cursor with almost a tilda going through it. One tip when working on the edges with text. Take a peek at your setting in the Paragraph Tab, so that you know if you are typing centered, left edge or right edge. Click at the point where you want to start typing, and the text will go around the whole outside of the shape.

Once you have entered your text, and clicked the checkmark, you will want to find the shape in your Layers Palette. Click on the little eye and turn off that layer’s visibility. Now your text is stand alone.