Types of text

What you should know is that, when you add text to an image, it is always placed on its own “text layer”.

In contrast to the “photo layers”, which are based on pixels, text layers are based on vector graphics.
This has several advantages.

A first advantage is that the edges of text will be purer for printing, a second advantage is that more layers of text are editible.

What you should also know is that, there are three types of text.
They are point text, paragraph text and path text.
Point Type is a horizontal or vertical line of text that begins at the point where you click in a picture. This we use this when we have one or a few words to add to our image.
Paragraph Text, we use when we want to type one or more paragraphs.
Path Type, we use when we want the entered text to run along a set path.

Point Type

Let me first start with the point type.

To add ‘Point Type’ text to an image, select the “Horizontal text” tool in the tool bar (2), and you click on the image.

This automatically adds a text layer to the “Layers” panel and inserts a blinking cursor in the picture. The text you type is automatically underlined. This does not mean that the text is underlined, this only indicates that the text box is active.
If you want to start a new line in the point text, click the Enter key on your keyboard.

A text layer is always accompanied by an icon with the letter T (1).

The only thing you have to do is, type the text (3).

As soon as you have typed some text, you can confirm it by clicking the “Commit any edits” button (4), or click the Enter key on your keyboard, or choosing any other tool in the toolbox, Photoshop will use the text, or at least a part of it, as the name for the text layer (5).

When the text tool is selected, we have some options in the options bar (6).
The same options, plus a few others, we also found in the “Character” panel (7).

Let me first discuss the various options.

Witk the first button, we determine the direction of the text, horizontal or vertical.

To the right, we find the font. Clicking on the downward pointing arrow gives a drop-down list of all the fonts installed on your computer. Click the font you want.

To its right we have the “Font Style”box. The options, eg bold, italics, etc., in this section depend on the chosen font.

Next box is the “Text size” box. In this section, we determine the size of the letters. You have the option to choose one from the drop-down list, or you have the ability to type in a value.

In addition, we have the “Anti-aliasing” box. Here we determine how “soft” the edge of the text should be.

• None: There is no anti-aliasing
• Sharp: The text is displayed as sharp as possible
• Crisp: The text is in very sharp display
• Strong: The text is displayed quite heavy
• Smooth: The text is displayed smoother

Then we have three icons with which we can change the alignment of the text. This seems obvious to me.
In addition we have the color picker. Clicking this, opens a dialog box where we can set the color.
And finally we have the buttons “Create Warped Text” and “Toggle the Character and Paragraph panels”.
Clicking the “Warp” button opens a dialog, where we find a number of preset styles on which we can rotate our text.

Plus a few other options with which we can adjust the distortion.
Try out all these. If you find anything to your liking, choose in the “Style” or choose “None” and your text is placed back in its original form.

Clicking on “Toggle the Character and Paragraph panels” opens or closes the “Character” and “Paragraph” panels. Which is a good idea when working with text.

When an image prevents to store the text layers, choose an extension that supports layers, for example “.psd”.
This way you always have the possibility to change your text layers.

If you just save it as, for example, jpg, which does not support layers, all layers will be merged and you can not change the text layers later.

Edit Text

While the text is on a text layer, we can edit it.
The first thing you do when you want to edit text is, select the layer where the text is located. Then select the Text tool in the tool bar.

If you want to edit all text in the text layer, you do nothing else to select.

If you choose a different font, you will see that the font will adapt to all text in the text layer.
Same for all other options in the options bar.
Tips!
When you click in the font box in the options bar, so the text with the font is colored blue, and you click the upward or downward pointing arrow keys on your keyboard, then the text will automatically adjust on the image.

I think this is the best way to choose a font.

The same can be done with the box “Text Style”.

For the text size, it is slightly more complicated.
For this you must first select all text in the text layer.
You do this by using the Text tool, click and drag to select the text.
Once the text is selected you can click in the text size box and adjust the size by using the arrow keys.

When text is selected, it is provided with a white background, as you can see in the image above (1).
To remove this background, click Ctrl + H on your keyboard (2).
Then place your cursor over the “T” in the options bar, and when it changes into a hand with two arrows, you press it and move it to left or right (3).
This way you get a clearer picture of the changes of your text.

If you want to change only a few letters and not the whole text, select only those you want to change.

If your changes for the text are ready, click the Enter key on your keyboard.

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