Curved Text Tutorial
One of my non LJ friends asked me how I did the curved text on this picture, but I thought I'd go ahead and post the tut here as well. Hopefully it will help some one else too :)
Done in PS CS2. Won't translate to anything lower than PSCS.
This one won't be exactely like the example as I didn't save the psd, but it'll be the same technique.
Okay after I have my picture done...colored and cropped like I wanted, I added a new layer and select my freeform pen tool.
Starting where I want my text to begin, I draw a line to where I want it to end. In this case, I went around his arm and shoulder.
Now select your text tool, but DON'T make a new layer. With your font, size, and color selected at the beginning of your line, start typing in your text.
Now I go to my layer that I made my line on and hide it my clicking on that little eye icon thing. Yopu should still be able to see the line that you drew on your text layer.
Now if you're happy with how your text looks, you can go to layer>>rasterize>>type. Otherwise if you want to change the size, font, or anything make sure that you do that first. It usually takes me a few tries to get an outcome that I'm happy with.
There's tons more that you can do...you just have to play around with the shapes...one other thing that I do a lot is make circled text using the ellipse tool.
It's basically the same as I described soing above. On a new layer, make your shape...hold down the shift key at the same time if you want to have a perfect circle. Then again take your text tool and click to start typing in your text.
Oh, one other thing I do a lot is like I did on this icon.
This was done using the warp tool and if I remember right...PS 7 doesn't have that though unfortunately.
Again, same basic steps. On a new layer, I used the line tool to make a diagonal line for the text and then added my text as described above. Once I was happy with the size and everything, I rasterized the layer. Then I went to edit>>free transform and then clicked on the warp tool to activate that. now on the top right and bottom left corners of the warp box, I want to pull my text out and up(more up than out though) to make it curve. Then on the other two corners, I want to pull those into the text(if that makes any sense! lol) to get soemthing like this:
There's so much that you can do. Your imagination is the limit really. You just have to sit and do some experimenting. I had a rare free afternoon one day when my kids were at my mom's and I bet I sat here for at least 5 hours just putzing around with different shapes and stuff. The ones that I've shown here are just a couple of my favorites.
Any ??, give me a yell and I'll answer them the best I can :)
Done in PS CS2. Won't translate to anything lower than PSCS.
This one won't be exactely like the example as I didn't save the psd, but it'll be the same technique.
Okay after I have my picture done...colored and cropped like I wanted, I added a new layer and select my freeform pen tool.
Starting where I want my text to begin, I draw a line to where I want it to end. In this case, I went around his arm and shoulder.
Now select your text tool, but DON'T make a new layer. With your font, size, and color selected at the beginning of your line, start typing in your text.
Now I go to my layer that I made my line on and hide it my clicking on that little eye icon thing. Yopu should still be able to see the line that you drew on your text layer.
Now if you're happy with how your text looks, you can go to layer>>rasterize>>type. Otherwise if you want to change the size, font, or anything make sure that you do that first. It usually takes me a few tries to get an outcome that I'm happy with.
There's tons more that you can do...you just have to play around with the shapes...one other thing that I do a lot is make circled text using the ellipse tool.
It's basically the same as I described soing above. On a new layer, make your shape...hold down the shift key at the same time if you want to have a perfect circle. Then again take your text tool and click to start typing in your text.
Oh, one other thing I do a lot is like I did on this icon.
This was done using the warp tool and if I remember right...PS 7 doesn't have that though unfortunately.
Again, same basic steps. On a new layer, I used the line tool to make a diagonal line for the text and then added my text as described above. Once I was happy with the size and everything, I rasterized the layer. Then I went to edit>>free transform and then clicked on the warp tool to activate that. now on the top right and bottom left corners of the warp box, I want to pull my text out and up(more up than out though) to make it curve. Then on the other two corners, I want to pull those into the text(if that makes any sense! lol) to get soemthing like this:
There's so much that you can do. Your imagination is the limit really. You just have to sit and do some experimenting. I had a rare free afternoon one day when my kids were at my mom's and I bet I sat here for at least 5 hours just putzing around with different shapes and stuff. The ones that I've shown here are just a couple of my favorites.
Any ??, give me a yell and I'll answer them the best I can :)