Photoshop CS6 Essentials - Type Tool - XVII

Text color can be changed from options bar, character panel and also apply foreground or background colors through keyboard shortcuts. Changing colors will work for Horizontal and vertical text only, it does not work on type mask tools.

Essentials Index

Text Color

You can change the color before you type the text and also after commit text.

(fig 1.0)

Text color is available in the options bar and also from the character panel.

(fig 2.0)

Once you commit the text, selecting the text layer and changing the color from the options bar or from the character panel will change all the text.

(fig 3.0)

If you want to change only a word or a line, then you should go to edit mode and highlight the text and change the text color.

(fig 4.0)

Having multiple colors in a single text layer will leave a question mark in the text color.

(fig 5.0)

You can also apply colors from the swatches palette.

Select the text layer and selecting a color from the swatches palette will change only the foreground color. If you are using swatches palette you should be in the edit mode, this will change the text color and also it change the color in the options bar.

(fig 6.0)

Changing color in one place (foreground color, options bar, or character panel) will change in other places automatically.

(fig 7.0)

If you have a two different colors in the foreground and in the options bar, and if you create text, it will take the color from the options bar. If the options bar doesn't have any color (question mark) then it will apply the foreground color.

(fig 8.0)

Selecting text layer in the layer palette will display that text color in the options bar. If you have a multiple colors assigned to the text, the text color will display question mark.

(fig 9.0)

If you have other tool selected from the toolbar you can change the text color from the character panel.

(fig 10.0)

We saw earlier that selecting a type layer from the layers palette will change the color in the options bar. With that selected, creating a new type will apply the same color.

But if you select a text layer with multiple colors and create a new text will use the foreground color.

(fig 11.0)

You can also apply gradient to the text, not from the toolbar but from the layer style.

(fig 12.0)

You can use keyboard shortcut to apply foreground or background color for the selected text.

Holding Alt+Backspace (Win) or Option+Delete (Mac OS) will apply foreground color and Ctrl+Backspace (Win) or Command+Delete (Mac OS) will apply background color.

Windows / Mac Keyboard set

(fig 13.0)

Text color work only on Horizontal type tool and Vertical type tool, it does not work on Horizontal type mask tool and Vertical type mask tool.

Selecting any of the type mask tool will disable the text color in the options bar and also from the character panel.

(fig 14.0)

Next Essential >> Create Warped Text

Photoshop CS6 Essentials - Type Tool - XVI

Aligning type is available for all the type tools. It is available from the options bar and also from the paragraph panel.

Essentials Index

Alignment

As you can see below, alignment works best with paragraph type than point type.

(fig 1.0)

When working with point type, it is always good to decide the alignment option before you start to type anything. Three alignment options are available, left, right and center for horizontal type and top, center and bottom for vertical type tool.

You can see how the text shifts with the alignment option.

(fig 2.0)

The alignment option is marked by a dot in the baseline for Horizontal type . For left alignment the text flows from left to right and for the right alignment the text flows from right to left. Think of it like a water flow from a pipe.

The flow of the water is the flow of the text.
Left align: Right flow
Right align: Left flow
Center align: Flows in both direction

(fig 3.0)

In paragraph type everything sits inside the box, hence it works best with paragraph type.

(fig 4.0)

When you change the alignment after placing the insertion point, you can see the position change. This cannot be seen in a point type, but with paragraph you can see it clearly.

(fig 5.0)

The point type alignment can be seen in Type on path. Here (fig 6.0) i have placed the I-beam in the center for all three alignments, notice the starting and the ending point for every alignment option.

(fig 6.0)

If you notice the above image (fig 6.0) for center alignment, the distribution of starting and the ending point is not even. That is because the placement of the insertion point is not exactly in the center.

To learn more about Type on Path >> Type Tool Essential 05

(fig 6.1)

Horizontal has an alignment option of left, right and center and Vertical has top, bottom and center. This is the same for Horizontal mask type tool and vertical mask type tool.

(fig 7.0)

Changing alignment in one place will change in other. Unlike previous type tool essentials, this is available in the Paragraph panel and not in the Character panel.

(fig 8.0)

Alignment options work both in Edit mode and Commit text.

Commit text alignment does not work with Horizontal type mask tool and Vertical type mask tool, because in those tool types there is no type layer creates in the layers panel.

Learn more about Horizontal type mask tool and Vertical type mask tool >> Type Tool Essential 09

(fig 9.0)

Selecting all the text layer in the layers panel and changing alignment will change all.

(fig 10.0)

If you select other tools from the toolbar and not type tool, you can still access the alignment options from the paragraph panel.

(fig 11.0)

Alignment options work with all the type tools

Horizontal type tool
Vertical type tool
Horizontal type inside
Type inside path
Type outside path

Next Essential >> Text Color

Photoshop CS6 Essentials - Type Tool - XV

Along with font-family and font-style, anti-aliasing is also very important. The anti-aliasing method will render the text smoothly.

Essentials Index

Anti-aliasing method

Anti-aliasing will produces smooth edges in the corners. Smooth edges is created by adding more pixels to blend with the background.

(fig 1.0)

Sometimes you can get away with setting the method to 'None' and it is not noticeable from a distance.

(fig 2.0)

Adding more pixels mean adding more colors. Even if you have a flat black color text, it produces grey shades in the corner to make it smooth. You can see how many shades of grey is applied by opening the 'Save for Web' dialog box and set the optimized file format to GIF.

Notice the first image is set to none as the anti-aliasing method and i have set the colors to maximum of '256'. You can see only one color, i.e. the text color in the 'Color Table' (the white is the background color).
The second image anti-aliasing method is Sharp with 15 colors in the color table.

(fig 3.0)

The colors that appear in the color table is the pixels that blend to make a smooth text. The color table in the Save for Web dialog box pick up each pixels.

(fig 4.0)

There are total of five different ways you can select the anti-aliasing method.

(fig 5.0)

Each method has its own way of blending pixels. The image blow is a close-up shot of 'S' from the ALIASING text.

First one is set to None with no anti-aliasing is applied, which has a one color with jagged edges.
Second is set to Sharp, which has 47 colors with evenly blended pixels.
The rests are pretty much the same.

Notice the evenly distributed pixels in the anti-aliasing method: Sharp (2). Remember, adding more colors will increase the file size.

(fig 6.0)

The total number of pixels (colors) is nothing to do with the size of the text. Its how the pixels are blended in the corners with the background. Notice we have a three different options here with different anti-aliasing method.

(fig 7.0)

Adding gradient or more colors will increase the numbers.

(fig 7.1)

You can choose the anti-aliasing method in five different places.

Options bar
Character panel
Type Menu
Right-click Context menu
Text layer

(fig 8.0)

If you are not working in web, you can choose any anti-aliasing method you want. But working with web applying heavy anti-aliasing and compressing the file too much will leave a halo around the text.

Photoshop CS6 Essentials - Type Tool - XIV

Font size will increase or decrease the size in units. You can change the unit of measurement from the preferences dialog box and also type different unit, which photoshop converts automatically to the current unit of measurement.

Essentials Index

Font Size

The size of the font differs based on the resolution of the canvas.

(fig 1.0)

You can change the font size from the options bar or from the character panel. Changing in one place will automatically change in another, just like font family.

(fig 2.0)

If you have selected the type tool, you can change the size from options bar or character panel. If you have other tools selected, you can change the size from the character panel.

Make sure you have the Type layer is selected in the layers palette, before changing the font size.

(fig 3.0)

If you want to see the increase of the text size when you adjust the font size, highlight the text and use the keyboard arrow key to increase/decrease the font size.

(fig 4.0)

Scaling with transform control will also increase the font size. Hold the Ctrl (Win) Command (Mac OS) will display the transform box.

(fig 5.0)

Three ways you can increase the font size

Keyboard

Mouse Wheel

Scrubby Slider

Highlight the font size text and pressing the arrow key will increase/decrease in one unit. If you hold the shift key and pressing the arrow key will increase/decrease in ten units.

(fig 6.0)

Same like keyboard, by moving the wheel forward or backward will increase or decrease in one unit. Holding the shift key and scrolling in ten units.

(fig 7.0)

Just bringing the mouse cursor over the font size text (TT) will display the scrubby slider. Moving towards right will increase and left will decrease.

(fig 8.0)

If you keep the mouse cursor on the text, it will display the Insertion point. But if you hold Ctrl (Win) Command (Mac OS) will display the scrubby slider.

(fig 8.1)

You can also increase the size in decimals by holding the Alt (Win) Option (Mac OS). Holding the shift will increase in ten units.

(fig 8.2)

The number which displays on top of the list is the number which the user entered manually and also the number which is not available from the list. Typing an existing number will have a tick mark.

(fig 9.0)

You can change the exiting unit of measurement from Points to Pixels or Millimeters from the preferences dialog box.

(fig 10.0)

The changes will display next to the numbers in the dropdown list.

(fig 10.1)

You can use cm, in, px, mm, pica and points for unit of measurement. Even thought centimeter and pica are not available in the preferences dialog box, you can manually enter them after the numbers. It will converted automatically to the current unit of measurement.

Unit of Measurements equal to 1 inch

72 pt

96 px

25.4 mm

6 pica

2.5 cm

(Ex: If your preference is set to mm, typing 1 inch as a font size and pressing enter will automatically change to 25.4 mm)

(fig 11.0)

One postscript computer point is 72 points/inch. You can also change this to the traditional way, i.e. 72.27 points/inch. You can change this from the preferences dialog box.

(fig 12.0)

Even though 72 points per inch it says. 72 is including the spaces around the type and its starts from cap height at the top till the decender at the bottom.

Anatomy of Type	http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/contents/letter/
Measuring Type	http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/info2.html

Next Essential >> anti-aliasing method