Quick Tips: Top Text Tips in PS, PSE and PSP

This month we’ve asked three digital-scrapbooking teachers to share their top three text tips for their favorite program so you get three times the fun!

Photoshop Top Text Tips

by Jenn White from ScrappersWorkshop.com using Photoshop CS

1. To start a new text layer when you’re already using the Type tool, hold the Shift key and click somewhere else on your page. A new layer will be created and your previous layer will be committed, with no need to go to the Move tool in-between.

	2. Adjust the spacing between two letters by putting your cursor between them and holding down the ALT key. Then press the left or right arrows to increase or decrease the space between the letters.
	3. Make your font previews larger by changing your preferences! Go to Edit> Preferences> Type and from the drop down menu select Font Preview Size then you can choose how large you’d like your previews.

Photoshop Elements Top Text Tips

by Melissa Shanhun from Digital Scrapbooking HQ using Photoshop Elements 10

	1. Journal on the lines: Type all of your text. Line up the top line on one of the lines on the page. Drag your mouse (“scrub”) over the Leading tool icon
	until the text lines up on subsequent lines as shown in the image here.
	2. Instant alpha by clipping your paper to text: Create a title by using the Type tool and your favorite font. Place a paper on the layer above your title. Press Ctrl+G (Mac: Cmd+G) or go to the Menu Bar and choose Layer> Create Clipping Mask and you have an instant patterned-paper alpha. Add a small drop shadow.  Credit: Karen Lewis Designz, Fonts Modern No. 20 and my own handwriting font.

3. Fully justify your text (make it even on both left and right margins): Although the only options on the tool bar are Left, Center and Right, you can also fully justify your text by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J (Mac: Cmd+Shift+J)

Paint Shop Pro Top Text Tips

by Cassel from The Scrapbook Campus using PSP X4

	1. You can change the color, font and size attributes of individual characters or words simply by highlighting the segment you want to change, then changing the settings. Only the highlighted area will be affected.
	2. When you’re working with vertical text if you run out of room, simply reduce the Leading value and the interlines will shrink.
	3. To cut out a photo in the shape of text and be able to plan where specific spots or colors go, create the text as a selection so you can actually move it where you want it to be and “grab” the section you prefer.

About the guest authors:

Melissa Shanhun is the owner of Digital Scrapbooking HQ where she answers your digital-scrapbooking questions with video tutorials, one-on-one classes and free online workshops. Her work has been featured at The Daily Digi, Scrapbookgraphics and the Daily Scrapper. She’s currently on the team for Wendyzine Scraps and was published in the Real Life Scrapbooking Weekly Challenges: Time Capsule at Log Your Memory.

Cassel has been using Paint Shop Pro since version 7. She started by doing basic graphics and then discovered digital scrapbooking. Last year, she opened the Scrapbook Campus as a place to teach digital scrapbooking using Paintshop Pro, an inexpensive, powerful and underestimated graphic software.