Adding some text

18. Now, let's start putting some type on our image. Get the Text tool from the Tool bar. Click inside the gradient bar, at the left side. In the dialog box that appears, type in "(650) 555-5555 - dept@med.stanford.edu" With your text selected, change the settings to look like these ones: >> Font: Arial Bold; Size: 16 pixels; Leading: 16 pixels; Tracking: 10; Baseline: 0; Anti-Alias: Crisp; set the color to White by clicking on the color chip and picking White. Click "OK" to set the text. Move the text so that it is centered horizontally and vertically inside the bar. You can either use the Move tool, or the keyboard arrows to do this.

Version Note: The Edit Text dialog box has been eliminated from newer versions of Photoshop. You still create new text by getting the Text Tool, then clicking on the canvas, but can type your text directly onto the canvas. To edit an existing piece of text, you make sure the text layer is selected, get the Text Tool, then click anywhere on the text. You can then select and change the text. Type controls, font, bold, italic, alignment, color, etc are now found in a small toolbar or palette at or near the top of the window.

<< Here's a look at what we've got, so far.

19. Let's add some more type. With the Text tool, click next to the tower. Type into the dialog box: "welcome to (return) the department of", then:

• Select all of the text, and set Size to 14 pixels and Leading to 16 pixels.
  
  
• Set Tracking to 0.
  
  
• Change the color to Black.
  
  
• Select the bottom line of text. Set Size to 18 pixels.
  
  
• Click "OK" to set the type.
  
  
• Move the text close to the tower, about the middle.

20. OK, now the last piece of type. Click on top of the tower somewhere with the text tool. Type the word "Departmentology" into the dialog box. Select the type and change Font to "Times Bold," Size to 36 pixels, and the Color to a nice bright Red. Click "OK" to set the type. Move it up under the other text. Your image should now look roughly like this (right).

21. Let's add some sizzle to our main piece of type with a couple of special effects. With the "Departmentology" layer selected in the Layers palette, pull down the Layer menu to "Effects >" and over to the "Drop Shadow" submenu. The dialog box that appears controls the settings of the drop shadow. You can play with these settings later, to change how far the drop shadow falls from the item, how sharp or fuzzy the shadow is, what color it is, etc. For now, let's just change the "Opacity" setting to 50%, for a little lighter shadow.

22. One more effect … Pull the Layer menu to "Effects >" and over to the "Bevel and Emboss" submenu. There are more controls in this dialog box, which again you can play with later to see how it affects your effect. For now, let's take it as it is and click "OK."

Version Note: To get layer effects in later versions, use Layer > Layer Style > [select style] Once a style is selected, you can use any style from within a single dialog box. You can also save and apply style sets from within this dialog box.

Save your file.

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