Text+Tools+&+Layer+Style

There are many various effects that can be used on text to heighten its appearance or fit it to the image you are creating. Some of the large assortment of effects will be explained in this section.

When creating text using the text tool, have you ever thought about how this tool knows the spacing you want between letters? This is an option in Photoshop and can be changed to fit your liking with a few simple clicks. The option is referred to as proportioning or kerning, and ultimately sets the spacing between every single letter. To set the proportioning, first select the text you want to change while using the text type tool. Then go to the drop-down “Window” menu and select the “Character” choice. This brings up a small window that allows you to change the text settings. An alternate way to open this window is to click the “Toggle character and paragraph palettes” button, which is located on the font menu bar to the left of the “Cancel” button. The next step is to decide on the spacing of the text characters to want to alter, and in the pop-up window (make sure the characters tab is selected) click the drop-down arrow in the kerning area to pick the spacing you want. Once you have changed the spacing, click the commit button to make your changes.





Another option available when changing your text is moving a select amount of characters up or down on the text line for a visual effect. This is useful when wanting to create a large first letter in your text without having the letter drop below the text line. This is called changing the baseline shift. To change the baseline shift, open the character pop-up window by going to the drop-down “Window” menu and selecting “Character”. Make sure the character tab is chosen, and click the white typing area with a capital “a” and a lowercase “a” to the left of the area. The next step is to select the text you want to move up or down and type in the point value that you want to move it (type a negative sign before the numbers if you want it moved downwards). After you are satisfied with your text, close the pop-up window and click the “commit” button to make your changes to the text.

In certain situation, you may want your text to stick out from the rest of the image, or maybe add a certain effect to make it look more visually appealing. In Photoshop there are multiple effects available to put on text that heighten the appearance. To change the layer style of text, first click the text type tool and type or select the text you want to modify. Then go to the Layer drop-down menu, hover your mouse over “layer style”, then click on blending options (or the special effect you want to use).Another way to get to this pop-up box is to click the second button from the left on the bottom of the layers palette. Once the pop-up box is opened, multiple effects can be put on the selected text at once. To add the desired effect to your text, click the checkbox next to the option and change the options for that effect to what you want. Click “OK” to close the pop-up “Layer Style” window, and once you are satisfied with the text, click the “Commit” button to make your changes.

To open the Layer Styles, Go to the Layer drop-down Menu and go to Blending Options

Once the Layer Style options are open, you can use many different effects to change the appearance of your image.