The Type Tool - Continued (v.6.x)

Photoshop 6.0 Type Tool (continued)

You can accept you type and exit type editing mode one of three ways:

• Hit the Enter key on the numeric keypad.
• Click on any other tool in the toolbox.
• Click the checkmark on the options bar.

To exit type editing mode without adding the text you can press the Esc key or click the X on the options bar.

Once you've placed some text in your document, you will notice a new layer that contains the text. All type layers have a T in the thumbnail area of the layers palette. Double-clicking on the T thumbnail icon will return you to text editing mode with the text automatically selected for making changes. If you select the type tool and click on some existing type in the document, it will automatically activate the type layer and put you in type edit mode.

A type layer can be moved with the move tool and further manipulated in free transform mode. Unlike ordinary layers, when you transform a type layer, the text remains crisp and sharp. When scaling type in free transform mode, remember to hold down the Shift key while dragging a corner handle to maintain the type proportions. Of course, you can make your text taller or wider using free transform mode to distort the proportions.

When a type layer is active, you'll also find some additional options on the Type submenu of the Layer menu. You can create a work path from the text, convert the text to a shape, convert between horizontal and vertical type, change the anti-aliasing, convert line text to paragraph text and vice-versa, and warp text.

In Photoshop 6, when you want to paint on text or apply filters to it, the type has to be converted to pixels. This is called rasterizing or rendering the text. To rasterize text in Photoshop 6, you can right click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the type layer name in the layers palette and choose Rasterize Layer from the pop-up menu. You can also rasterize type by choosing Layer > Rasterize > Type. When you rasterize type in Photoshop, you lose the type editing and formatting options and it is no longer scalable. Before rendering a type layer, it's not a bad idea to make a duplicate of the layer first and hide the duplicate unrendered copy. This way, if you decide you need to make changes to the type, you will not have to recreate the type completely from scratch.

Here's a brief exercise that will demonstrate the differences between type layers and rendered type:

1. Create a new document 400x400 pixels and add some text approximately 72 points in size.
2. Duplicate the layer twice so you have three copies of the text and move the text so you can see each copy.
3. Render one of the layer copies.
4. Now free transform the rendered layer and scale it to fill the width of your document.
5. Now free transform the unrendered layer to about the same size. Notice how blurry the rendered layer is while the type layer remains crisp?
   
6. Now zoom in on the type layer and look closely at one of the curved letters. See how the edge pixels consist of varying colors? This is how the anti-alias smoothing effect is created.
   

When you use the type mask tool instead of the type layer tool, the options are the same, but when you click in your document the document fills with a mask overlay-just as if you were in Quick Mask mode. As you type, the text is punched out of the mask. When you accept the text, you end up with a type selection rather than a filled type layer. Once you have created a type selection, it functions just like any other selection.

When you create vertical type, the type is placed with the characters upright reading from the top down. The alignment buttons change in the type dialog screen to indicate vertical alignment options. If you want to create type that can be read by tilting your head sideways, you will need to create horizontal type and then use the free transform command to rotate the type as needed. Or you can select the text and choose rotate from the character palette's menu.

Continue on for an overview of the paragraph and character palettes and type warping in Photoshop 6.0.