For my very first tutorial, I showed how to make a text path to journal on the inside of a shape. Today I’m going to show how to make a text path to add text around the outside (or inside) of a shape. It’s an easy way to add zing to your page.
The first step is to make the path for your text. In the tutorial on filling the inside of a shape with text I showed you how to make a path from a shape you already have on your page and how to change the size of the path (well, really how to change the size of the selection. If you want to make a text path using a shape that’s already defined in PS (like the custom shape we made last time), it’s even easier! Just make sure that ”paths” is selected, then click on an empty layer and drag to draw the path. If you want a path with a 1:1 aspect ratio (the same horizontal and vertical dimentions (square, circle, etc)), hold down the shift key when you’re drawing the path). You’ll end up with a light outline of the shape on the current layer and you can see the new path in the paths palette.
Once you have the path, simply select the text tool, click on the path, and start typing. You do want to make sure that you’re working with a new layer before you try to type. How do you know where to click to make sure you’ll be typing on the path? Good question – and I’ll have to describe it to you rather than show you because I can’t get a screen shot of what it looks like. When you’re using the type tool without a path, the cursor looks like a stylized “I” with dotted square brackets around it. You don’t want your cursor to look like this because that means you’re too far outside the path. When you move the cursor inside the path, you’ll get the stylized “I” with dotted parenthesis around it. You don’t want this either because this will fill your shape with text. If you’re right on the path, your cursor will look like a stylized “I” with a curved line through it. Click when you see that cursor and start typing.
I’m really not sure why the text starts on the opposite side of the path from where I click, but it does. There are a few things you can do at this point. If you want to edit the text, just click on the text and make the changes the way you would for regular text blocks. If you want to change the start point of the text, select the “path selection tool” then click on the path and move the start point to the point on the path where you want your text to start. And if you want your text on the inside rather than the outside of the path? Drag the cursor from the outside to the inside of the path. It’s that easy!
One thing to watch out for when you’re dragging the start point is that you’re also dragging the end point, too. It’s hard to see on the screen shots, but there’s an “X” under the start point and that’s the end point of the text path. If they get separated, the text path can do strange things. If this happens, undo, or “step backward” (“ctrl + alt + z” or “cmd + alt + z” on a mac) works wonders!
My best advice when learning about text paths? Play around with it and experiment. You can do all sorts of fun things and get really neat effects using text paths on your layout.
It’s fun to make text paths, but if you just want to use them (or scrap with PSE and can’t make them yourself), Penny has a seclection of fun text paths in her store.
