Type principals in Adobe Photoshop Class - 15 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]:

Welcome to this Blog.

Now as you start to get creative in Photoshop,

you may wish to add type to your compositions.

In Photoshop, we have the type tool.

Now Photoshop is not a powerful desktop publishing program

like Adobe InDesign where you can create complex

documents like brochures, books, and magazines.

In Photoshop, with all the creative capabilities,

you have a huge potential to be creative with type.

In Photoshop, common uses of type maybe for

T-shirt designs, posters, small fliers, book covers,

3D compositions and website designs.

In this tutorial, we are going

to be looking at the type tool.

We will be discussing the basic principles

of how it works, and then we will have a go

at creating some examples.

Now the best way to learn is by watching and doing.

So to help you, I have created this worksheet.

To follow along with this Blog, 

for this tutorial.

You will also need to download and install the fonts,

so you will load them correctly into Photoshop

to allow you to follow along.

in this Blog, and in quite some depth.

If you wish to skip ahead or back to any point

in the Blog, you can do so quite simple

Okay so, 

let's get into it.

So for this tutorial, I will be referencing

the character and paragraph panel.

If you do not see your character or paragraph 

panel,

you can come up to window , scroll down

and select them from the menu.

For the sake of this tutorial, I'm going to drag

them out of my panel set, so it's very clear for you to see

what I'm going to do here.

So these, are two panels used to modify type.

As we create type, we will be coming into these panels

and tweaking the various options inside

to get the effect we want.

In the character panel, we can see range of options,

and also in the paragraph panel.

So in my document here, we can see a variety

of type examples that can be created in 

Photoshop.

And if we look over in the layers panel,

inside the example area folder, we can see 

that each

of these type elements exist on their own 

layers.

Now if you look closely, you will notice in this

document, we have type layers.

When you work with raster image layers,

you will see the familiar image done now

that exists next to the name in the layers panel.

When you create type layers, you will notice 

instead

of a image thumbnail, we will have type icons.

This icon can be used to recognize a specific 

type

of layers you have in your composition.

As you build complex documents with multiple 

layers

or a C-files from others, this will help to

recognize the contents of your document at a glance.

So the type tool can be found in the menu towards

the bottom, and it's represented by a T icon.

We can also activate the type tool

by pressing the keyboard shortcut T.

By pressing T on the keyboard,

we can activate the type tool.

With the type tool active, you will notice

the mouse cursor change.

Now depending on where your mouse cursor is,

Photoshop will demonstrate a different cursor icon.

As we have learned previously on this course,

if you want to edit an image layer,

you first have to select a layer in the layers panel.

This is not the case with the type tool.

So if you hover your mouse cursor in an area

with no type, you will see a small box,

with a vertical line inside.

This is Photoshop communicating,

you are ready to click and create a new type element

in the canvas area.

If I click now, I can create a new type element.

Now, if I move my mouse cursor over some type

that already exists in the canvas area

you will see something slightly different.

When you move the cursor over a current type element,

Photoshop will recognize it's a type object,

and the mouse cursor will change to just a vertical line

without the box around it.

This is Photoshop communicating to you

that you can now click to edit this type.

So I'll click once, upon click we will click

in to the type and now we are

in the classic type editing mode.

Now I can click the cursor to various parts of the type

and select various parts, like so.

So now I am in the type editing mode,

I can now use the character type panel

to make any particular changes.

Now it's important to mention at this point that

not only can you use the character panel,

but you can also pay close attention

to the control panel at the top.

The control panel will also offer you common type options.

But not as many as there are in the character panel

or paragraph panel.

So over in the character panel,

we can see the font, font size, the leading,

the kerning, tracking and various other options.

In the paragraph panel, we can see

the current type alignment set.

Notice up in the control panel, we can also see

the font size and alignment.

Now another important thing to mention,

when you've clicked into the type,

and your in the edit mode, you will not be able

to use many of the keyboard shortcuts.

If you press any keyboard shortcut that

does not include command, the letter will be typed

into the type element instead of doing it's task.

So to move on and deselect the type,

we can do one of two things.

We can either come into the menu

and select another tool for example,

the move tool.

If I click this tool the type will become deselected.

So I'll press T to activate the type tool

and click back into the type again.

Though this time, to deselect the type,

I'm going to use these specific keyboard shortcut.

So when you're done editing your type,

you can press and hold Command and D, then press enter.

So by pressing and holding Command and D then enter,

you will instantly deselect the type,

go out of edit mode and be back with the type tool active.

Easy, should I wish I can now either create

a new type element or click into another.

So this time, I'm going to move my mouse cursor over

this block of type, my mouse cursor will change,

suggesting I can click into the type.

So I go ahead and click once, and now I'm in the type

editing mode just like before.

But this time it's a little different.

What's different about this type,

is now I have a bounding box around my type.

Here I can see eight squares around the box.

Well this box represents the area

in which my type is contained.

With the type in editing mode,

if I move my mouse cursor over one

of these boxes on the bounding box,

I will see the mouse cursor change to arrows.

For example, I'll move my mouse over

the middle box on the right.

Now if I click and drag into the left

I can make the bounding box narrower.

If I release click the box will become narrow

and the type will reformat to fit inside like so.

If I click again and drag out wider,

upon release the type will reformat to fit inside again.

So in Photoshop you can have boundless type object

like the example above, or type into

a bounded box like the example here.

So to deselect a type I'll press and hold

Command and D and then press enter.

With the type deselected I'll move down to the next example.

Here we can see some vertical type.

In Photoshop should you wish,

you can create type that instead

o

f going across horizontally, it can go down vertically.

So I'll move my mouse cursor into the first example

and click to click into it.

I notice how the type can becomes selected.

So I'll deselect the type by pressing

and holding Command and D and then press enter.

This time I'll click into the vertical type

in the box, notice again we have a bounding box.

Which we can edit just like

the horizontal example should we wish.

So again I'll deselect the type.

So there are the basic principles

of how type exists in Photoshop.

So let's now take a look at how we can create type

over here on the right.

So before I begin, I'm now going to come into

the layers panel, toggle away the example area,

and toggle down the exercise are and click

on the folder which currently has no layers inside.

So when creating type in Photoshop,

it all comes down to what type element is.

Let's say the type is for a heading.

Perhaps just one or two lines.

So I'll make sure I have my type tool active,

or press T.

Now I can see my mouse cursor in a state,

ready to create a new type element.

Now before I click, I will want to pay close attention

to the character panel or the control panel.

Before I click, I may want to set my font and font size.

So I can choose the font one of two ways.

I can either click on the font drop down option,

and choose from all the fonts I currently

have installed on my computer.

Or if I already know the name,

I can simply type this into the box.

On this occasion, I'll click into the font name.

I'll type facile,

select facile sands.

and then I'll set the font size to 50.

I'll do this by clicking into the value

and typing 50 and then press enter.

So now I'll go ahead and click once in the canvas area.

Upon click, a type prompt will appear ready

for me to type in some texts.

So I'll go ahead and type in some text here.

Notice that we now have a new layer

i

n the layers panel with the type icon applied,

Nice.

So with my new type I can begin to make changes.

For example, I'll select it all with my mouse,

come into the character panel

and tweak the space between the letter,

the tracking.

Now I can do this by either typing

in a specific value in the box

or move my mouse cursor over the tracking symbol.

My mouse cursor will change to arrows,

and I can click and drag like so.

So for now, I'll set this to 50.

Okay, so now I want to add more type,

but this time under it.

So I'll click a the end of the type

to make sure that my text prompt is at the end,

and I'll press enter to move below

and I'll type in some more text.

So I'll quickly select all the type

by pressing Command + A.

With all the type selected,

I can now adjust the space between the lines.

The leading,

and I can do this just as I tweaked the tracking.

By clicking and dragging on the icon,

but this time for leading.

Easy.

So I'll deselect the type by pressing

and holding Command and D and then press enter.

Then I will press V to activate the move tool,

and I'll move it into a better position.

So currently I have this type object

and we can see that it is currently justified to the left.

So now I'm going to change this type

to be aligned to the center and change

the font size of the line below.

So I'll press T to activate the type tool

and I'll click into the type like so.

So I'll press Command + A again to select all.

Now, if we look in the paragraph panel,

we can see the alignment options.

If we look closely we can see the left align icon

is currently selected.

Now if I wish to change this,

I can click a new option.

But if we also look in the control panel,

we have this option here too.

So on this occasion,

I will come up to the control panel

and click the center align option here.

Upon click,

the type is now aligned to the center.

Easy.

So I'll deselect the type by pressing

and holding Command and D and then press enter.

Then I'll press V to activate the move tool,

and I'll move this type into a better position.

I'll press T and click back into the type,

and this time select all the type on the bottom row.

Instead of coming into the character panel this time,

I will come up into the control panel

and change the font size.

In this instance I'll click into the value

and type 30 and press enter.

Next I'll also change the font,

so in the font name I'll type league

and select League Spartan bold.

Next I'll change the tracking

but for this I'll need to come into the character panel.

So I'll push this up to about 800.

So now we have a large gap between the type here,

if I wish to change this I'll press Command + A

to select all the type.

I'll come into the character panel and tweak the leading.

So the last thing I'm going to do

is change the color of the type on the top row.

S

o I'll carefully select the type on the top row,

then come over to the menu.

I'll double click on the foreground color

and change this to a red.

Upon selecting red,

the color of the selected type will change.

Once I'm happy I'll deselect the type

by pressing and holding Command and D and then press enter.

Now a handy tip to keep in mind,

so I have this type element here,

Though what if I wanted to make

the entire type object smaller

or perhaps larger.

Well all we have to do is press Command and T.

This will then activate free transform.

With the bounding box around,

we can then use the standard technique

by pressing and holding shift on the keyboard.

If I click and drag on one of the corner points,

I'll be able to scale up or down like so.

Once happy I'll press enter

and he type will now change size.

Now what if I want to create another type object

in the document that I intend

to have the same font and size.

But with the move tool active,

by pressing and holding ALT on the keyboard

I can click and drag over.

Upon release,

I will quickly duplicate the type object.

This will create a brand new layer in

the layers panel which,

I will be able to click into with

the type tool and modify the text like so.

Very simple.

So that's the basics of how to create a new type element.

Tweak the font, font size, the alignment,

leading and color.

So next we are going to look at another scenario

of how we may use type.

Now should you find yourself using large amounts of type,

a paragraph of type perhaps.

Then there is a technique you should keep in mind.

So for this example you will need to open up

the instructions document in the project folder.

With this open be sure to select all the copy

in the example area.

With the type selected I'll press Command + C to copy

and then come back into Photoshop.

So with the type tool active,

t

his time instead of clicking once to create

a type object I'm going to click and drag.

Now as I click and drag you will see an outline appear.

Now this is the type box we are about to create.

So I'll drag out like so, and upon release

we will have a new box.

And notice inside the text box we have the type prompt

ready to enter in some type.

But before this, I'm going to make sure

my font settings are correct.

S

o over in the character panel

I'm going to set my font to league spartan.

Font size to seven points,

I'm going to click on the leading tab and set this to auto.

Make sure tracking is set to zero,

I'll click into the font color

and set this to black.

I'll make sure my type is set to left aligned

in the paragraph panel,

and then I'm going to press Command + V to paste.

Upon pasting we will now carry the type

we just copied from the text document

into Photoshop and into the type box.

Perfect.

As demonstrated earlier if I wish to control the width

of the box I can simply click on the points

around the bounding box and drag like so.

Now once the type is inside the box,

we can apply all the same formatting functions as earlier.

So with all the type selected we can alter the leading,

the tracking the alignment, and color.

If I wish to create a line break in the type

I'll simply click where I wish to break,

and press and hold shift and press enter.

If I wish to create a paragraph break

I'll just simply press enter.

So I'll deselect the type by pressing

and holding the Command and D and then press enter.

Then I'll press V to activate the move tool

and I'll move this type box into a better position.

Easy.

So next I'll demonstrate the vertical type tool.

Now should you wish to create some vertical type,

all you need to do is come over into the menu,

click and hold on the type tool

and select the vertical type tool.

This works exactly the same as the horizontal type tool.

Let's say we want to create a simple type element.

I'll click once where I'd like to start.

First I'll make sure my font is set up ready.

So I'm going to set my font to facile sands,

font size to 20 points.

I'm going to click on the leading tab

and set this to auto.

I'll make sure that my tracking is set to zero,

and then I'll begin to type.

I'll deselect the type by pressing

and holding Command and D and then press enter.

Then I'll press V to activate the move tool

and I'll move it into a better position.

On this occasion I'll click back into the type,

select the first word,

come to the control panel and change the color to orange.

Then select the last word and change that to a green color.

If I wish to change the size of the text quickly,

I'll press and hold Command and D

then press enter to deselect the type.

I'll press Command + T and with

the free transform bounding box,

I can scale up and down swiftly.

Great.

So I'll come back to my instructions document.

Again I'll copy the example type.

Back in Photoshop with the vertical type tool still active,

this time I'll click and drag a type box like so.

Before I type,

I'm going to set my font to league spartan,

font size to seven points.

I'm going to click on the leading tab and set this to auto.

I'll make sure my tracking is set to zero,

this time I'll click into color

and set this to a dark purple.

And then I'll press Command + V to paste.

And all the type is pasted in,

for this example I'll just select all the type

and select top a line up in the control panel.

So that's the fundamentals of type in Adobe Photoshop.

Be sure to experiment with the type tool

and get to grips with it

as we will be using type more

in future Blog of this course.

In the next Blogger we will be looking

at layer styles and how we can begin

to add visual style and color effects

to our elements in our composition.

See you in the next Blogger.