The Text Tool is used to add raster or vector text to an image. Vector text is always placed on a vector layer and will remain editable as long as it remains on a Vector layer. Raster text is always placed on a Raster layer and once placed on a Raster layer cannot be edited. To create Text, click on the Text icon on the Tool Bar then click on your graphic with the mouse. This will open the Text Entry dialog Box illustrated below. Before you open the Text Entry dialog box, make sure the Tool Options palette is open since this box contains the control for the stroke width and the Line Style. You need to have the Tool Options palette open before you open the Text Entry dialog box because you can not open it while the Text Entry dialog box is open.
The Text tool in Paint Shop Pro 7, has an associated Options Palette (as illustrated below), unlike any previous versions. This Options palette contains two settings, Width and Line Style.
Width - The Width setting entered will be the width of the stroke setting.
Line Style - Paint Shop Pro 7 allows you to set various line styles for the stroke. This can result in some pretty weird or pretty creative text. The program comes with preset line styles and you can even create your own. Also, your text needs to be fat and fairly large for the line style to show. The following graphic illustrates a width of 1 and the line style set to "Opposing Arrowheads"
 If you do choose a Line Style other than the default, always go back to the Option Palette and immediately change the Line Style back to the default. Otherwise, the next time you use the text tool, you could have some surprising results! |
The following explains all the elements on the Text Tool Entry window:
Name
The name box contains a drop down list of fonts currently available to Paint Shop Pro. You can scroll through the list of names by clicking on the down arrow to activate the drop down list and then use the down arrow key on the keyboard. As you scroll through the available fonts, the Sample Text area will display the highlighted text in the currently selected font. You can also navigate the name box by clicking the cursor in the name box and then typing the name of the font. As you type, the selection will move to the next available font starting with the letters you have entered. Once you have located the font you wish to use, click on the font name with the mouse or use the down arrow to enter the font list and scroll down to the font name you want and hit enter.
Size
The Size box allows you to set the font size. You can either choose a size from the drop down box, or you can type any size you want in the window. Paint Shop Pro can handle very large text sizes with no difficulty.
Sample Text
The Sample Text box renders the text you have entered in the Text Entry box in the currently selected font. If you have not entered any text or you have not selected the text in the Text Entry box, the Sample Text will be rendered as "AaBb".
Kerning
Kerning is the distance between the characters of the font. When you choose a font with characters spaced close together, you can achieve better results by adjusting the kerning between the letters. To adjust the kerning, select the text and type a number in the "Kerning" box. You need to start with fairly large numbers to see the effect. Most fonts have a default kerning built into them. To activate the default kerning, click in the Auto Kern box. The following illustrates the font Anastasia without adjusting the Kerning, Kerning set to 50, and Kerning set to 100 (from left to right).
You can also adjust the Kerning between individual letters rather than the whole word. To adjust the Kerning between individual letters, first make sure the text does not currently contain a Kerning adjustment. To do this, highlight the entire word, enter 0 in the Kerning adjustment box and click the cursor in the text box. Then place the cursor between the letters you want to apply the kerning adjustment to and enter a number. Click in the text box again to apply the new kerning adjustment. The following illustrates kerning adjusted to 200 between the C and the O.
Leading
Leading is the distance between lines of text. Positive values add leading, while negative values reduce leading. Leading applies to text that spans more than one line. When you create text in the text box and hit enter to create a new line of text, the default Leading is determined by the size of the font. If you have a fairly large font size, you probably won't want the large spacing between the lines of text, or if you have a small font, you might want to increase the space between the lines. To add space between lines of text, select the text and enter a positive number in the Leading box. To decrease the spacing, enter a negative number. The following illustrates a 26 point font with normal leading, and with the leading set to -5.
Styles
Setting a style determines the color and/or pattern for the text and allows you to set a stroke and a fill for the text. The controls in the Style box work the same as the controls on the Color Picker. If you set a stroke style, the size of the stroke will be determined by the size you have entered in the Tool Options palette. Your Style choices are Color, Gradient, Fill and None.
Stroke - The Stroke setting will create a "stroked" outline on your text the width you set in the Text Tool Options Palette. Always set the Stroke to "None" for plain text. The following graphic illustrates a stroke width of 2 with a solid color fill.
Fill - The Fill setting will fill the text with the Style you have selected. The following graphic illustrates text with a pattern fill and a black stroke of 2.
Textures
Setting a texture will apply a texture to the text that will combine with any styles you set. Again, the controls for the Textures work the same as the controls on the Color Picker. Applying a texture to text, for the most part, doesn't make a lot of sense. The text will need to be very large for a texture fill to be noticeable and the stroke will also need to be large to be noticeable.
Enter Text Here
This is the box where you enter text. After setting the font, size, color, and various style options, just start typing. When you need to start a new line, hit the Enter key.. Always select all the text before you attempt to change the font, size, kerning, leading, etc. The quick and easy way to select all the type in the box is to type CTRL-A.
As you type text into this box, you can change the font or font size for each letter. Type a letter, then change the font and/or font size, then type another letter. Or, type the whole word and then highlight each letter to change the font and/or font size.
Text Alignment and Styles - The B I U and A represent Bold, Italic, Underlined and Strike-through. The remaining three symbols represent Alignment choices. The first is left aligned, the second is centered and the third is right aligned. For the most part, how you designate the alignment of text before you place it on a graphic is not important since you can easily move text once you have placed it on a graphic. But, if you are placing more than one line of text, the alignment comes in handy. Text alignment starts at the base of the font on its horizontal axis. Keep this in mind when you are placing fonts with a large size setting. If you place text and it ends up off the graphic, just grab the text graphic and drag it where you want it.
Standard Text
The Standard Text button is a shortcut to creating text with just a fill and no stroke. If you click on the box with a stroke set and a fill set, the program will turn off everything except for the fill Style. But, the program will also reset the Color Picker's Styles and Textures if you have the lock set on the Color Picker. It also resets the Background Color Swatch at the top of the color picker to the color you have set in the text tool. If you don't want to reset the color picker, set the stroke style on the text tool to null.
Create As
You can create new text as Vector, as a Selection or Floating with Antialias on or off. Always create text with "Antialias" checked. Antialias smoothes the text edges and will yield a much more professional result. About the only time you don't want to antialias text is when you are creating very small text.
Vector Text - Vector text will be placed in a graphic on a vector layer. If you are currently on a raster layer when you place vector text, the program will create a new vector text layer. Vector text will appear with guides and handles that can immediately be used to manipulate and resize the text. Vector text can also be converted to a vector shape to allow for more extensive manipulation of the text. Vector text can be edited after you have placed it in a graphic as long as it remains on a vector layer. You can proportionally resize vector text by right clicking on a corner handle and pulling out or pushing in. Once you have placed vector text, you can manipulate its shape as follows:
To move vector text, grab the center handle and drag. The cursor will look turn into a "cross hair" as illustrated below:
To deform vector text in a horizontal direction, pull out or push in the middle handle on the left or on the right as illustrated below:
To deform vector text in a vertical direction, pull up or push down top or bottom middle handle as illustrated below:
To resize vector text, push in or pull out on the handle in the lower right corner. Right click on the handle and pull out or push inwards to resize text proportionally as illustrated below:
To rotate vector text, grab the middle handle to the right of the center node as illustrated below. Pull the text in the direction you want to rotate it.
To slant vector text, hold down the CTRL key, click on the center top or bottom handle, and pull to the right or left as illustrated below.
Converting Vector Text to an Object
If you convert vector text to a Vector Object, you can deformation the text further or you can change the properties of the text.. To do this, click on the Object Selector tool 
, and then click on your vector text to activate it. Right click on the vector text and choose "Convert Text to Curves". Choose "As a Single Shape" to convert all the characters in the text to one single shape. or "As Character Shapes" to convert each letter in the text to a separate object. Keep in mind that once you convert your text to curves, you will no longer be allowed to edit the text to change the font. It will permanently become a vector object. If you want to experiment with text, you might want to duplicate your vector text layer and experiment on the duplicated layer.
- Text Converted to a Single Shape - When you convert text to a Vector Single Shape you can deform the text or change its properties by clicking on the Properties box in the Object Selector Tool Options Palette. This will bring up the Vector Properties box. Please see Chapter X, Page X for a complete explanation of this box. Any edits made to the properties of text as a single shape will be made across the text. The graphic below illustrates a gradient applied to text converted to a single shape. You will note that the gradient starts with the first letter and ends with the last letter.
- Text Converted to Character Shapes - When you convert text to character shapes, each letter of the font becomes an individual vector object that can be manipulated on its own or in conjunction with the other character shapes in the word. The graphic below illustrates the same gradient applied to text converted to character shapes. You will note that each letter contains the entire gradient.
 Perfectly Spaced Text
You can use kerning to space the letters in your text or you can convert the text to Character Shapes and move each letter individually. You will find that moving each letter individually will give you more control over text spacing than kerning. To move each letter, click on a letter with the Object Selector tool active, hold down the Shift key and hit an arrow key in the direction you want to move the letter. |
Floating (Raster) Text - When you choose to place text as floating, the text will be placed directly on the currently active raster layer. If you are on an active Vector layer when you place Raster text, you will be asked if you want to "defloat" the text to the nearest Raster layer when you deselect the text. This may not be what you want to happen. If not, right click on the layer that says "floating selection" and choose "Promote to Layer". This will place the text on its own transparent raster layer. I recommend you always create a new layer for raster text. When raster text is on a new transparent layer, you can apply Paint Shop Pro effects to the text without selecting the text, and you will have much more control over moving the text. You can also select the text and save the selection to an Alpha channel. This will allow you to change text effects by loading the text selection and flood filling with a different color or texture and/or applying a filter or effect.
Selection - When you place text as a "Selection", you will be placing a selection of the text rather than the actual text This can be handy if you want make a text selection of part of a picture or a pattern. You can move the text selection by clicking on the Mover tool then right-click and drag.
Another good use for placing text as a selection is for creating a text effect on a background. If you place text as a selection on a photograph, you can then apply any of Paint Shop Pro's filters to the text selection and the filters will be rendered on the photograph. You can achieve some very interesting text effects by placing a text selection on a graphic and then applying any of the various filters available.
Note: When you have the Proof feature turned on in the Text Entry box and you choose Selection, the text on the graphic will render with any currently set styles and/or textures. But, when you place the text, it will place as the text selection.
Proof
Clicking on the eye in the Proof box will render the text on your graphic as it is currently configured. Clicking on the down arrow will lock the Proof box so that you will always see the text rendered on your graphic as configured.