Shell's Tutorials

Text Tool

For this tutorial you will need Paint Shop Pro 7

This tutorial is going to show the different features of the text tool

Open PSP and go to File > New

Alternatively you can click on the New Canvas icon

When the new window opens use the following settings

Click OK

This is a big canvas but I prefer to make my canvas big then crop later

Click on the Text Tool

You will get this box

OK, first we're going to create the text as a vector layer

Make sure Antialias and Vector are checked

Type your text in the box

Now, to make changes to the text you need to left click at the end of the text and keeping the mouse button pressed, drag your mouse over the text

The text will be highlighted blue

Now you can change the size of your text

Click on the drop down arrow at the side of the Size box and click on the size you would like

Click on the drop down arrow at the side of the name (font) box and choose your font

OK, now for the best part, choosing the colours, gradients or patterns :o)

The colour in the stroke box will determine the outline colour of your text

On the stroke box there is a little arrow, if you click the arrow, a small window will open. From this window you can choose whether you want to use a solid colour, gradient, pattern or null (null means no colour selected)

We're going to choose solid colour for our first text

SOLID COLOUR (Paintbrush)

Click in the middle of the stroke box

The colour palette will open

Choose your colour and click OK

Do the same for the Fill box

Click OK on your text entry box

Your text will now be on your new canvas

Your text will have a box around it and on the box are little squares, these are called nodes.

If you hold your mouse over the top middle node it will turn into a double headed arrow. Left click when it's the double headed arrow and keeping the mouse button pressed, drag the node up

Do the same on the side nodes

This stretches your text to the size you want

When you have the text the right size go to the layer palette

You will have 2 layers, the top one will be the text layer

Right click on the top layer and go to Convert to raster layer

We don't want 2 layers so go to Layers > Merge Visible OR you can right click on the top layer again and go to Merge > Merge Visible

Time now to get rid of all that extra canvas

The easiest way I find is to click on the copy icon

Now, if you want to keep the background of your text transparent open Animation Shop and click on the Paste As New Animation icon

Your text will now be open in Animation Shop and it will automatically be cropped :o)

Save your text and your solid stroke and fill text is done :o)

Ok, we're now going to use a gradient stroke colour and a gradient fill colour

Open new canvas, same size as before

Click on your text tool and click anywhere on your new canvas

When your text entry box opens, type in your text.

Choose your size and font

Now click on the arrow on the stroke box and choose gradient

Click in the middle of the stroke box and a new window will open

Click on the drop down arrow (see arrow on screenshot) and a menu will open up

Click on the gradient you want to use

Do the same for the Fill box, you can use the same gradient or a different one, the choice is yours!

When you've chosen the gradients you want to use click OK on your text entry box

Your text will now be on your canvas

As before, you can stretch your text to any size you like

Merge Visible your layers by going to layers > Merge > Merge Visible or right clicking on layer 2 in your layer palette and choosing merge visible

Click on your Copy icon

Open Animation shop and click on the Paste As New Animation icon

Save your text

Now we're going to use a pattern

Remember, you don't have to have both the stroke and fill box set to pattern, you can have mixtures of solid colours, gradients and patterns

You can also change the width of the stroke line, go to your tool options box and change the width

For the next text I'm going to do a solid stroke and a pattern fill

Choose your stroke and fill colours

Now, instead of creating the text as a vector layer we're going to check the floating box

Click on and your text will now be on your canvas. It will have marching ants around it

If you move your mouse over your text it will change from the text tool to the mover tool, as soon as move your mouse off of your text it will be the text tool again

Move your text where you want it and go to Selections > Select None

Now copy and paste the text into animation as we did before and save

Here is the text with a thicker stroke line

OK we're going to do one more

This time we're not going to have a stroke colour

Open a new canvas and with your text tool, click on the canvas

When the text entry box opens choose your text size and font

Click on the arrow on the stroke box and choose Null

It's up to you whether you want floating or vector checked. It depends on whether you want to stretch your text or not.

Choose a colour, pattern or gradient in your fill box and click ok

Your text will now be on your canvas

I find it's better to use just the fill on script font's because the result is a lot nicer

Copy and paste your text into Animation Shop and save

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial