What is the Type Tool?

The Type tool lets you add text to your image. You can format the text in many ways, including font, size, style, color, alignment, horizontal or vertical orientation, kerning, leading, tracking, indenting, line spacing, and more. You can even stretch and warp the shape of the text in varied and interesting ways!

How do I use the Type Tool?

To use the Type tool:

1) Select the Type Tool from the toolbox.

2) Set the desired type options in the Options Bar:

From the Options Bar, you can specify horizontal or vertical orientation, font, style, size, anti-aliasing, alignment, text color, and text warp options.

To make other text and/or paragraph changes, use the Character and Paragraph palettes. If those palettes are not showing, click the Palettes button on the Options Bar. The Character and Paragraph palettes will normally appear within the same window.

The Character palette allows you to specify kerning, leading, tracking, baseline shift, and vertical and horizontal expanding/contracting:

The Paragraph palette lets you specify text alignment, indentation, paragraph spacing, and hyphenation:

3) Click on the image roughly where you would like your text to appear (you can move it later). When the image is clicked when the Type tool is selected, Photoshop automatically adds a new text layer to the image:

4) Type the text.

5) To accept the text, press the Enter or Return key, or click OK () in the Options Bar. Press the Esc key, or click Cancel () in the Options Bar to cancel.

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All rights reserved. This material may not be used without written permission.
Contact Dr. Mary Nicholson at mjnich@bloomu.edu