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Photoshop Type Effects

 Visual Encyclopedia

(Book with CD)

Roger Pring

Publisher: New Riders

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

I am a self confessed font-aholic. I’ve never seen a font I didn’t like. But a font is just a font if you aren’t getting the most out of it. Think about it.  We use type, text, the printed word, to communicate with each other, share knowledge, and express a wide range of feelings. Type can indicate happiness, motion, beauty, boldness, strength, just about any emotion can be expressed with the creative use of fonts.  We use it to sell things, to express sentiments in greeting cards, and for everyday communication. It’s the creative use of type we are looking at here. This book demonstrates how to create artistic, headline style text.

Before type existed, monks sat over desks writing books so that information could be shared. They didn’t write in a plain hand, they used fancy calligraphy and illustrations to make their pen and ink editions visually beautiful. We have come along way from hand written books, first to printing presses, and now we are designing printed matter and fancy text on a computer. There’s a big difference between artistic text and ordinary printed text. Plain text has its place for everyday use, but text that is enhanced and visually distinctive takes us to new heights and says so much more than its plain counterpart. Text is one of the most important ways we communicate. Flip through a magazine, your eye catches the fancy type, the drop cap at the beginning of an article, the dazzling type in an advertisement, a singular, graphically enhanced letter at the beginning of a paragraph, or in graphics on the internet . Graphics and text make any message you are trying to send have much more impact. How to create and use these type effects is a skill that we’d all like to have!

Photoshop now has made it easier to work with type and create the outstanding effects once only possible by using an illustration application and then bringing it over to Photoshop. This book shows you how to create these effects. A beautiful piece of artwork deserves a beautiful piece of text art. Following the examples in this book will teach you how to work with creatively enhanced text.

For example if I were creating an advertisement for cars and used the word “auto” in the ad, which one of these would get your attention? The first example is just plain black text. It’s not very exciting. The second example, from the book, is a reflective chrome effect. It certainly has more impact than the basic type does. The second example shows the image background reflected in the metallic text. The second one makes you think of driving, (or traveling) in a car, and seeing exotic places.  Buy or rent that shiny new convertible, climb in it, put the top down, let the wind blow through your hair, and drive! The first example is perfect for plain text, the second example makes you react to the word in a completely different manner. “Auto” takes on a life of its own.

The book is divided into two sections. In the first part there’s an overview of Photoshop’s abilities to handle type. We get a look at the toolbars and the tool palettes that affect the attributes of the text and some basics on what to do with them. The books says that “With a few provisos, what you see is what you get, and if you favor 1,296-point type horizontally scaled to 1000%, faux-bolded, set vertically with negative leading, and warped into a fish shape, then all you have to do is enter the text, hit the well-named Commit button, and your creativity will be instantly rewarded.” So I had to try it! If you can imagine the magnitude of that size text, you know that I had to size down everything to make it show up here and I discovered that the fish warp will not apply to faux-bolded type but that was just an off-the-cuff example, not a recipe for something to try!

Contents: First Section

The Fundamentals:

            Entering Text

            Type Manipulation

            Paths and Shapes

            Layers and Styles

            Choosing Type

            Looking for Clues

            Exercising Restraint      

Once I tried creating the fish-shaped text. I had to play with it a bit and add some effects. I took the fish-shaped text and attempted to draw in a head. First I added color effects and then I used Auto FX Gel Series to give the text a completely different look and applied their Sharkskin texture to it. (Fish on white background below)

After the introduction to the tool palettes the book then demonstrates some basic type manipulation. It shows text in various sizes, what happens when the font attributes are changed, how it would look in rotated, against a background, etc. After showing how basic type is affected it then gives examples of how the type is affected when a bold, large point type is changed by working with layers and adding fills to it. Layers are nearly unlimited and each can affect the outcome in a variety of ways. It takes you through multiple steps demonstrating what happens when each of the suggestions is applied to the text. It has many examples of stylish text and where to look for creative ideas and inspirations. The book suggests what type faces work well and which ones effects don’t turn out that well on. These sections are covered in short chapters, about 32 pages for the first section, and it has many examples of type effects and how the effects were created. It is explained with enough information to hold your attention without becoming boring, gives you details and how-to’s, and the layout is as visually interesting as the topic itself. (This is not a complaint about the length of the section. It’s a compliment on how much information was gained without having to read vast amounts of pages to get to the point.) It also cautions on what doesn’t work and when applying too many effects ruins artistic text. There’s a fine line between art and “ugh”!

The second section of the book, some 150 plus pages, takes you through steps in creating many type effects and even using third-party plug-ins. It also has several pages of Photoshop shortcuts at the end of the book.

Contents: Second Section (+ a few examples)

The examples names are those that the author has given to his designs. The CD that is included with the book has all of the designs shown in the book, with all of layers, step-by-step. You are given the Photoshop psd files to work with and so that you can see each step but you may not use his actual examples as your own. He teaches you how to create the designs and use what you have learned. I tried to create a few of his designs following the steps he provides and although the first few attempts weren’t exactly like the original, I came pretty close. It takes some time and practice to learn all that Photoshop is capable of. Its new added ability to manipulate type is terrific. Working with type faces is a fascinating subject and one will worth taking the time to master.  By following the examples given in this book, you will learn a lot about creating a variety of type effects and the processes involved in doing it. Practicing what you learn will sharpen your skills and help you to retain what you are learning.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with this book. It is beautiful to look at with all the color examples and full of ideas and information on how to take a more creative approach to creating type effects. I have always loved type, maybe it’s in the blood (my grandfather was a printer), maybe it’s just because there’s so many possibilities when working with type. I’m not sure. I am sure that anyone who works with this book will love it. Whether you are using it from the standpoint of a student wanting to learn how to create type effects or a teacher trying to teach students and inspire them, this book will fit the bill.

*This book along with many other excellent Photoshop books is available to members at a discount from New Riders. Visit their web site (www.newriders.com) to see the books listings and our web site (www.njpcug.org) for discount offers.

Photoshop Interface with Character Palette

 
Paragraph Palette

 More Examples from the Book: