Shoppe Tips and Tricks (creative text wrapping)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Hi all! It’s Kylie here with a little tutorial on a creative way to wrap your journaling text.

For those who currently use Photoshop CS you may already be familiar with work paths. Today, I will be highlighting one way to use this very valuable tool.  For Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro or other scrapbooking program users, the function for creating a text path is ‘more than likely’ not available. However, don’t be discouraged, all is not lost! :o) There are a variety of text paths/shapes available for purchase for some of these programs (definitely PSE, for the others they may be a bit harder to find). You simply drag and drop the pre-made text path templates onto your layout and then update the text as you wish. Some of these handy products can be also be used by Photoshop CS users as a quick and easy alternative to creating your own paths and shapes. You can find some HERE, or – do a google search for more :o)

 Okay…let’s begin the tutorial. We are starting off with a layout I created after reading Lu’s fabulous Color Study post on Monday. I’d layered some elements around my photograph in the centre of the page and wanted to add some journaling in a creative way. Wanting the text to hug the centre circle nice and tightly was my main intention.

1^st Step:  At the very beginning we need to add a new layer. (Menu options: Layer –> New –> Layer…  & click OK, or Shift+Ctrl+N) I called this layer “New Layer” just for the purpose of this tutorial. Now we are ready to create our work path. The work path will hold the eventual text. For my layout I wanted to create a rectangular box. So, for this, we choose the Rectangle Tool from the Tools palette (#1.). Please note that this is a shape tool and not a marquee tool which happens to be located higher up on the tools palette. (For your particular layout you may wish to create a circle, another shape or even something free-form and will therefore select as required.) After selecting the Rectangle Tool, the options toolbar will update itself with the appropriate selections. Click on “Paths” (#2.) and then “Add to path area (+)” (#3.). You will notice the cursor is now a ‘plus’ symbol with a subscript ‘plus’ symbol. Position your cursor, click the mouse and draw the shaped path required.

2^nd Step: If we were to add the text at this stage the text would flow over, or under – depending on the layer order, the centre elements. I want the text to wrap around the right side of the elements. To do this I am going to change the shape of the rectangle by using the Ellipse tool. Right click on the currently selected Rectangle Tool and choose Ellipse Tool (#1.). Now to the options toolbar: leave the “Path” option as it is (#2.) – we already selected that in step 1 and there is no need to change this option. Now move up the toolbar and select the “Subtract from path area (-)” (#3). You will notice the cursor is now a ‘plus’ symbol with a subscript ‘minus’ symbol. Position your cursor, click the mouse and draw the shaped path required. This will “cut-out” part of the previously created rectangular shape.  However, this change does not show up on screen. If you wish, you can click on “Paths” in the Layers palette to view the newly created work path shape.

3^rd Step: Let’s add some text. Click on the Type Tool from the Tools palette (#1.). After selecting the Type Tool, the options toolbar will update itself with the appropriate text selections. Choose the font, size, color etc that you would like to use (#2.).  Now move your cursor over the rectangular work path and you will notice that it will change from a dotted-square I-bar to a bracketed I-bar. Now click in the shape and add your text and accept it (click green check mark on options toolbar).

The “New Layer” will now show as a text layer. To hide the work path outline simply click on another layer in the Layers palette. And ta-dah! – text wrapped the way you want it!! :o)

This just one of the many ways you can play with text and work paths. So have fun and experiment, experiment, experiment!! See you all again soon! :o)

KylieTips and Tricks, Uncategorized 13 Comments