Photoshop Tutorials: The Type Tool Part 2

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In the first part of this Photoshop tutorial about the type tool, we discussed the different options of the text tool namely: The Horizontal Type Tool, The Vertical Type Tool, The Horizontal Mask Tool, and The Vertical Mask Tool. We also discussed the different type layers which are the Point Type Layer and the Paragraph Type Layer. Now we will dig deep into the realms of the Type Tool.


Resizing and Transforming

Images and vector arts aren’t the only features you can resize and transform. This enables the text you have created to be enlarged, stretched, and even shrunk depending on how you want your text to fit in your project.

One good tip in creating your paragraph type layer is by doing the following:

  1. Select the Type Tool from the toolbar.
  2. Make sure to enable Paragraph Type Layer.
  3. And then drag one of the transform handles to resize the box.
  4. Doing this enables you to create a textbox in the size of your own liking.

Make sure to press Shift while dragging to keep the proportion and to avoid distortion to your textbox; Control/Command to scale the type, Control/Command on the center handle to skew the text, and Alt/Option to resize the box from its midpoint – Yes, you can do that to your texts as well.

General Character Formatting

Just like in any other Word programs, you can also modify how your text looks like; its size, its font type, its font, etc. It is somewhat similar to what you usually use but it has its differences. I will let you dig deeper into that by going through it by yourselves but let me give you a bit of a glimpse of what you should expect.

  • Baseline Shift – This is the fraction-like symbol in the character formatting; to give you a more concrete idea, it is the A a/(an arrow pointing upwards). This is great if you want your text to fit somewhere. Change the value to move the baseline of the text selected above or below the layer selected.
  • Font Variants and Text Decoration – You can capitalize all letters and convert it all to small letters. To do this, select the text you want to modify, and select the “TT” symbol from the character formatting options. You can also superscript, subscript, underline, and strikethrough.
  • Antialias – Anti-aliasing is an option that can make you produce smoother-edged text borders to blend in the background or the layer where you want it to be.

These are just some of the unique traits of text in Photoshop, go ahead and explore in order to properly know the handles.


Warping Text

Probably one of the reasons why some prefer Photoshop than any other typing tool is that it gives you the ability to warp text accurately. To do this, make sure that the text you want is selected and click the T over a curve facing downward to access the warp menu. A prompt will appear asking you specific points as to how you want your text to be.

Typing on Path

You can actually create text out of a path you made. To do this, draw a path using the Pen Tool to draw whatever path you like, then select the Type Tool and click anywhere on the path you just made. Type in and you will see that the cursor will follow the shape of the path you have drawn. Interesting, right?

Convert Type to Shape

You can actually get your text and convert it into a shape. This is done in order to make editing easier since you won’t have to go through a lot of trial-and-errors with the size of the font, font type, etc. To do this, go to Layer > Type > Convert to Shape. Doing this turns your type into a Layer Vector Mask which can be modified just like how we do on vector shapes.

The Type Mask Tool

This is defined as the feature that creates you text out of selections. Experiment as to what you can do with it and believe me, this will be your favorite. To do this, click and hold the Type Tool so that more options will appear. From there, select Horizontal Mask Tool or Vertical Mask Tool. By this, you will be able to create a selection with the shape.

The Type Tool is one of the most important and the most powerful tools in Photoshop, if you know how to use them properly, of course. You have now been endowed knowledge about the Type Tool. Practice it, make yourself familiar with it and have no problems about text in Photoshop anymore.

For more tutorials about Photoshop visit our Photoshop tutorial archives.


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