Back to Titanic: Making Waves: Copal's Queue: Text in Images

Today in Titanic History - with Searching

Today in
Titanic History
Thursday, April 17, 2025

1891 - 2nd class survivor Miss Maude Sincock was born to Francis "Frank" Sincock (plumber) and Melinda Sincock in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

1917 - Lookout and survivor Mr Archie Jewell died in a shipwreck in the SS Donegal at the age of 28. The SS Donegal was torpedoed by a German submarine without warning 19 miles south of the Dean Light Vessel in the English Channel and sank.

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Text in Images

Sometime during your graphic-making you'll be adding text to an image. I've tried to do many different effects with text and they will always add finishing beauty to a well composed graphic. Before I get into just adding the text, I will always suggest that you consider the text along with your image. One of the greatest flaws I see is text over faces and key parts of pictures, especially on buttons. Since you have mastered making collages (thanks to my feathering help in the "Making graphics pop" series, right?), it'll be easy to add text.

With Photoshop 5, you need to select the type tool: http://back-to-titanic.com/waves/copal/jul00_1-tool.jpg

Click the "I" cursor that appears onto the image. A dialog box will appear and you can choose any font, size, and more:
http://back-to-titanic.com/waves/copal/jul00_2-dialog.jpg

But what are these other options? The color will be the foreground color and you can change it by double-clicking on the colored box in the dialog box. "Leading" is the amount between each line of text, quite like double-spacing a word document. "Tracking" is the amount of space between each letter on the same line. When you have an unusual space to fill with text in your collage, "Tracking" can make it seem like your text was made to fit there. Remember negative numbers can be used too, so you aren't limited to the default Tracking each font gives you. "Baseline" determines whether you want certain letters higher than others.

I always leave "Auto-Kerning" and "Anti-aliasing" checked because they both help in keeping the text clean. Kerning is Photoshop's way of keeping different sized letters equally spaced. You see, a letter like "i" is thinner than w, so "Auto-Kerning" makes sure that it doesn't look strange and flows evenly. I explained "Anti-aliasing" in a previous article, and it essentially smoothes curves.

The changes will only apply to the highlighted text. The only thing that can't be different within the same layer of text is the color. You'll have to just make two layers of text. While the dialog box is up you can move the text. (You can also move it with the "Mover" tool

Once you've finished your text and click "OK" edit the text by clicking on the "T" in the text's layer:
http://back-to-titanic.com/waves/copal/jul00_3-edit.jpg

More on text and effects will appear in the August issue. Have questions? Just write to copal@back-to-titanic.com.

NOTE: This time around I've included URLs to images to help you understand what I'm talking about. I hope it helped and I'll be using it in the future. You might wonder how I got the screenshots, and it's quite easy. Bring up the window you want to capture (even if it's not in Photoshop) and hit the "Print Screen" button. If you want to capture just the selected window, press Alt+"Print Screen".

Making Waves

corey's interviews
history with kelly
copal's queue
site of the month
the flub report
wallpapers/quotes
graphic sets
characters
scenes
downloads
rare pictures
facts
books
columns

Copal's Queue
introduction
thumbnails
seamless bg
frames
webrings
yahoo
graphics pop
graphics pop ii
loading
diamond bg
striped bg
text
transparent gifs
seamless frames
guides
transforming
mouseovers
tables
cleaning up
flyout window
image maps
programs i love
actions
cropping

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