Text Effects

The text effects in Paint Shop Pro explain and support the images that have been placed on the background.

They can be anything from a simple headline to a long block of descriptive text that can be modified and presented in many different and unique ways.

It really is amazing how many text effects are available so let's just get at it ...

Working With Text

When the Text Tool text effects text tool

is selected then there is a large option bar presented at the top of the screen.

This is the left half ...

These are the general options - Font, size and units, embellishments (Bold, Italics, Underline and Strikethrough - does anyone use Strikethrough?) and the alignment.

They are pretty much standard in any word processing program making them easy to use and understand in Paint Shop Pro.

The right half of the option bar has some interesting options ...

Direction - the normal text flow is from left to right and then onto the next line. There are two additional options here - vertical and left as well as vertical and right.

Anti-Alias - anti-aliasing eliminates the "jaggies" on your text. There are three settings - Off, Sharp (some jaggies are eliminated) and Smooth (applies a strong amount of edge smoothing).

Stroke Width - if the text is outlined with a different color from the actual text then the stroke width is how thick a stroke is applied - yikes! Here is an example ...


Font 26 Points Stroke Width 8 Pixels	Font 26 Points Stroke Width 2 Pixels

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Create As:

There are three choices here - Vector, Selection and Floating.

Vector - is used in most instances simply because it is the most versatile type of text. It can be edited at any time. For example, you can change the words, font type, style, and alignment.

Vector Text

You can do things like this with text on a Vector layer ...

Neat, huh?

And you can do a whole lot more to the text on a vector layer besides skewing it around ...

	Font - Cartoon Stroke - Black Gradient - Rainbow Drop Shadow
	Font - Cartoon Stroke - Almost Black Pattern - Fabric 02 Drop Shadow
	Font Cartoon Stroke - Dark Green Texture - Grass Color Fill - Green Drop Shadow

The combinations are really enormous and now you are wondering how to achieve all these really neat text effects, aren't you?

Materials Palette

text effects materials palette All of these text effects were done within the Materials Palette after the Vector text was created.

The settings for the bottom text effect (above) are still visible in the palette.

This is where you can set the foreground and background colors, Gradients, Patterns and Textures.

If this little palette is not visible then got to Palettes > Materials or press F6 - and leave it visible in all of your work.

Creating Text

This is easy - select the Text Tool and click where you want to place the text.

This will bring up the Text Entry box - where the text is typed.

With the text highlighted the text characteristics can be changed ...

Font
Font Size
Font Style
Alignment
Direction
Anti-Aliasing
Stroke Width
Layer Type
Line Style

As changes are made to the text (Font, etc) in the text entry box the changes can be seen live on your document so make sure to drag the text entry box to one side of the screen.

Now comes the really fun part - working with the Materials Palette. text effects materials pallete

Once the Font and size and style and all that is set click on the Background and Fill properties (that is the one outlined in red - the bottom one).

This will bring up this screen where you can do a lot of really great things ...

There are three main parts to the expanded Materials Palette ... Style (Color, Gradient and Pattern), Texture, and Current and Previous Color.

This is how to use the Styles ...

If you want to fill the Vector Text with Color then choose a color and click OK. If you don't like the results then click the Background and Fill properties again, select a different color and click OK again. You can do this for hours!

If you want to fill the Vector Text with a Gradient then click on the Gradient Tab, choose a Gradient from the drop list and click OK. If you don't think the Gradient is right the click the Background and Fill properties again, select a new Gradient, change the Styles (Linear, Rectangular, Sunburst or Radial), click OK and inspect your new text effect. You can spend a lot of quality time on this one as well - so many choices!

If you want to fill the Vector Text with a Pattern then click on the Pattern Tab, choose a Pattern from the drop list and click OK. The patterns can also be modified over and over again until you are satisfied with the jaw dropping text effect you have created.

So far, so good ...

Now - see that little Texture check box? Put a check mark in it and now all of the Textures available in Paint Shop Pro can be applied to the Colors, the Gradients and the Patterns.

When you are satisfied with the results click Apply at the bottom of the Text Entry box.

With the Text Tool active you can ...

edit the text you just entered
resize the text
move the text around the background
rotate the text on the background

If you grab the Pick Tool - text effect pick tool

- the Vector Text can be modified in a number of different ways, such as ...

moving the text around the screen
re-size the text vertically or horizontally
rotate the text on the background
shear the text
edit the Outline size and line style

These adjustments are done grabbing the little handles (the little red highlighted ones) and dragging them around the screen as well as spinning the text.

That's pretty much it for Vector Text. Have fun and make some awesome text effects!

Raster Text

Raster text is created by choosing "Floating" in the Create As: dialogue. Raster text cannot be modified after it has been applied.

All of the Color, Gradients and Patterns (as well as Textures) can be applied to the Floating (Raster) text.

Once you click the Apply button no more text editing can be done but the text can still be moved about. To lock the text in place just right click on the text layer and select Defloat.

Text as a Selection

If you choose to create text as a Selection in the Create As: menu then you get yourself a selection.

Now you can paint the selection and if it is on an image background the selection will pick up parts of the image.

Here is an interesting image - a colorful knitted hat ...

The colors and texture would like really great in text, don't you think?

The first thing is to spin the hat 90 degrees (Image > Rotate Right) so the text will run across a lot of different colors and then get the Text Tool.

Set the Create As: menu to Selection, click somewhere on the image and enter some text, just like this ...

When the Apply button is clicked then all you will see is the selection on the image - like this ...

The next step is Selection > Promote Selection To Layer.

This creates a new raster layer layer containing only the text selection. Turn off the background layer and take a look. Here is the text from the hat ...

Now there are some possibilities with the text on its own layer ...

The text can be moved around the screen with the Pick Tool.
The text can be re-sized with the Pick Tool.
The Background layer can be deleted (right click the Background Layer and choose Delete) and the text layer saved as a .pspimage to preserve the transparency. This can then be opened, selected, copied and pasted into a new image where it can be moved and resized.

And here it is ...

There are a lot of really great text effects available in Paint Shop Pro. The thing to do is just start trying them out to see how they work for your projects.

If you would like to take the really colorful and pretty text you have created and put it on a curve - any curve - then click here ...