Part 9. Using Type

Task

1. How to Add Type to an Image

2. How to Create 3D Text

3. How to Create Typographic Style Sheets

4. How to Build Filtered Text Effects

5. How to Warp Text

There was a time when using text in Photoshop was a pretty bad idea. In the pre-version 2.5 days, there were no layers, History brushes, or multiple undos, so when you placed text on an image, it was there permanently. Kerning or leading was out of the question and heaven forbid if you had a typo! Unless you were very brave or very stupid, text was the domain of illustration and layout programs.

This began to change as Adobe added layers with version 3. Then an enhanced text tool, vertical type, and kerning controls hit the scene. One of the biggest enhancements has been Photoshop's capability to keep text as an editable item at all times. When text was placed as a bitmap, if you misspelled the word, you were out of luck. With editable text, however, you just reopen the dialog box and make the correction.

The tasks in this part profile the primary features for working with type in Photoshop. As a general rule, you still will not want to set large amounts of type in Photoshop (the bitmap nature of the program will hurt readability when compared with vector-based or text-based applications). Keep your use of text to headlines and a few paragraphs, and you'll find that Photoshop's text capabilities are a full-featured option that was well worth the wait.