Typing On a Path
What better way to finish your Photoshop work than by adding text? Text lets you add witty remarks and character to your image, giving it a sense of completion—or, you could be accidentally generating the next big meme. Either way, here’s a few tips on how to lively up your photos, besides adding thought bubbles or diagonal text.
You’ll need to create a path for the text to follow; do this by selecting the pen tool and make sure that paths is selected in the options bar towards the top of the window. Go ahead and create yourself a fun little shape. You can pretty much shape it however you like, but make sure it has some sort of fluidity. Otherwise, the text could come out looking a bit awkward and illegible.
You can also type according to the outline of a preloaded Photoshop shape or manipulate the text box so that the end result looks like the shape itself. To do so, make sure you have the pen tool selected and click the shape you’d like for your text box (it can be anything: a square, a circle, a heart, or a custom shape). Make sure that it is selected and then point your cursor inside the box (your cursor will have the text symbol with a circle around it). Click and type.
Take note of the various cursor states. You can decide on a start-point by dragging the cursor either way—the choice is yours. When you’re finished, you can either click on the outside of the shape selection or click on the check mark on the right side of the options bar, towards the top of the window.
Typing text on a shape's path
Typing inside a shape
Quick Tip: You can make your own shapes for the text boxes if you have a very complex graphic. Simply select the pen tool, customize your shape (making sure all open ends are closed), and then right click “Define Custom Shape”. Give it an alias of your choice and accept the changes. It should be available at the end of the custom shapes list.
