Her Realm

Basic Text Effects

Here are a few text basics to help you with your icon making.

Something you should always do is utilize the anti-alias tool. It makes a world of difference with text (and shapes, lines, vectors, etc); without it, text almost always looks choppy and rough around the edges. So to achieve smooth text you should either have the anti-alias box checked for PSP 7 and below in the Text Tool Entry Box. Preview

For PSP8+ Select “Smooth” or “Sharp” from the “Anti-alias” drop down menu in the Text Tool Palette. The new versions of PSP have added the Sharp anti-alias so you can have an option in between extremely choppy or extremely smooth text. Sometimes this looks better than Smooth anti-alias as Smooth anti-alias can look blurry, occasionally. Preview

Basic text can have a border easily by using both the Foreground and Background colours. If you view the image, the blue is the Background and Fill colour meaning this will be the colour inside the text. The pink is the Foreground and stroke colour – stroke being the outline. If you select a colour for both background and foreground and make them both active (a solid circle in the first button beneath the colour boxes) you will have an outline. You can adjust the size of the outline by changing the “Stroke Width” in the Text Tool Palette. Preview

If you don’t want plain old solid coloured text you can add a textur to your colour. Click the text tool, the “A”, and type in your text. Choose your font and size from the Text Tool Palette. Now, if you look underneather the Foregound/Fill colour box (mine is bright pink) there are 3 buttons. Make sure the first is a solid circle and also click the second. Your text will go semi-transparent as a texture is applied. You can click the foreground box and you’ll see “Texture” in the top right corner. Click the arrow beside the texture box and you will see more textures to choose from. Click a texture and it will be applied and close the texture box. Click “Okay” in the materials property box and see your textured text. Preview

If you’d like your text to gradually fade from one colour to another, this is how. Click the text tool, the “A,” and enter your text. Adjust your font and size then click the first of the three boxes beneath the “Background/Fill” colour box. A little drop down menu appears – the middle selection is the gradient tool so select it. Froim there you can click the background box and choose a preset gradient or, if you’d like your own, select your gradient colours for the Foreground and Background and you can select the Foreground-background option in the gradient menu. You can change the angle of the gradient. I usually only use 0 or 90, 90 being the gradient becomes vertical, and adjust how many repeats you want. If you select invert the colours switch places. There are also different styles: Rectangular, Sunburst and Radial. If you use one of these you can edit the center and focal point to change the look of your gradient. Preview

Want to fill your text with a zolid pattern like zebra stripes or leopard spots? Here’s how. Select the text tool, the “A” and type in your text; select your font and size. Select the first box beneath the Background/Fill colour box and a drop down menu appears with 3 options. Select the bottom button, the pattern option. Click the Background/Fill colour box and the Materials Properties menu appears, with the Patterns tab up. Click the textures box to view your patterns and select the one you’d like. Often, I’ll crop a small portion of an icon and use that as a patterns. Adjust the sitze of the pattern under “Scale” and adjust the rotation under “Angle” Preview

Want a 3D or gel look that will really set your text apart? You want beveled text. Select the text tool, the “A,” and enter your text; set your font and size. In the text tool palette you can “Create AS:” either Floating or Vector text. Use vector if you’ll wish to further resize the text. Click “Apply” so your text appears and then select the “Effects” menu. From there select “3D Effects” and finally “Inner Bevel.” If you’re text is vector text an alert will ask to change it to a raster layer. Click “Yes.” If your text is raster, the menu will open right away. In the inner bevel menu you can select from a range of preset bevels as is, alter them or even create and save your own! There are many options so play around to see what you can find. Sometimes a bevel can be too dramatic and make the text difficult to read to be careful! Preview

Click the text button, the “A”, enter your text and choose your font and size. You can either create it as floating or vector. Vector works well if you want to further resize it to an in between size or larger than 72. Click “Apply” and your text appears on the image. Next click the “Effects” menu and select ’3D Effects.” From that menu select “Drop Shadow.” If your text was created as a selection, the shadow menu will come up automatically but if it is a vector an alert will come up saying you need to change to a raster layer. If that happens, click yes. Once your shadow menu appears you can change the vertical and horizontal offets (where the shadow will appear), colour, opacity and blur (less blur is a more solid shadow while more blur is a more softer shadow). Click “Okay” and your text is shadowed. Preview

This is pretty easy to do once you understand layers a bit. Click the text tool, the “A,” and enter your text; specefy your font and size then click “Apply” so your text appears. You can “Create as:” either Floating or Vector. Resize your text if you wish to do so. If your text is “Floating” deselect by going to the “Selections” menu and clicking “Select None” (or hit CTRL + D). Your text will be in either its own raster or vector layer. Make sure that layer is selected in your layers pallette and either slide the opacity bar above it to a lower number or double click on the layer and manually enter a number. Preview