When you add type to an image, there are a lot of modifications that you can make to it. You can perform all of the standard changes, like setting a new font size or changing the font itself, in pretty much the same way as you would with your favourite word processor. As you have learned, these standard formatting options are available in the character palette, and in the options bar for the type tools.

 

Of course, Photoshop CS lets you do a lot more than change your type’s basic formatting options. For example, you will notice an icon consisting of a distorted T with a curved arrow under it in the right of the options bar.

 

If you click on this icon, you will see the following Warp Text dialog box.

 

 

If you click the small arrow next to the Style field, you will display a menu of options for warping your text.

 

You can warp vertical or horizontal text, by selecting the text layer that you want to modify, and then selecting the type of warp that you want to apply from the list.

 

The styles of warp available to you include:

 

 

The following illustration shows a few examples of the Warp effect on some simple text.

 

 

 

 

When you apply a warp effect, it is applied to the text layer that is currently active (remember, a text layer is created when you use the horizontal or vertical type tool.) This means that your entire sentence or paragraph (or whatever text is on the layer) will be warped. If you want to warp only select words, or use different warping styles for different words, you can do this by carefully creating individual layers for the different text and warping combinations.

 

Type that is warped can be edited in the usual way, and the warp effect will be automatically applied to the editing changes.

 

Since text is applied to an image via its own layer, the standard options in the layers palette allow you to apply a host of modifications and stylistic effects to the text. For example, to adjust the opacity of some given text, select the text layer in the Layers palette, and use the opacity slider to give the text a transparent effect.

 

 

You can also select the text layer in the layers palette, and use the layer style button at the bottom left of the palette to apply any number of stylistic effects to the text.

 

Here is the layer style menu.

 

 

You can apply any of the layer style effects to your text layer by clicking. The style effects that are applied to a layer can be removed easily by dragging them from the collapsible style list associated with the layer, down to the trash can in the lower right. You can also set each style to visible or invisible, just like a layer.

 

 

Here is a sample of a text layer with the Drop shadow and Outer Glow styles applied to it.