Text Path Graphics Tutorial
Hi guys! So after making a few recent graphics using text paths I realized that not everyone might know how to do this and might want to learn. It’s really much simpler than it looks.
First, what is a text path? It’s a way to make your text follow any direction you want, and it can look really cool in graphics. Here are some examples: one, two, three, four.
What you will need: photoshop, the pen tool, the text tool, a graphic to apply text to
For the sake of simplicity I’m just going to use a colored still as my “graphic” because this tutorial isn’t about the graphic, it’s about the text! From what I’ve seen, there are two styles of text path: silhouette text paths and freeform text paths.
1. Silhouette Text Paths - text paths that follow the outline of a person (examples one, two, and three)
These text paths tend to be more popular in graphics from what I’ve seen. The first thing you’re going to need to make this text path is a person’s outline to follow. I’m going to be using this still for this tutorial. Now, I’m going to color it all pretty to represent the “graphic” you want to apply a text path too. It now looks like this:
Now you’re going to need to adjust the settings on your text tool in preparation for your path. Select the text tool and make sure that you’ve selected the font you want to use and the size (I’m going to use Calibri in size 16pt), change the color to the color you want to use (I’m using white), and, most importantly, your text must be left-aligned. If it’s not, this won’t work. My text topbar looks like this:
Now you’re going to select the pen tool. This is a really useful and somewhat complicated tool, especially for cutting people out of stills, but right now we’re going to use it to make a path. The way the pen tool works is that every time you click, you make a point. The points automatically connect. The difference between the pen tool and the lasso tool, however, is that with the pen tool you can make curves. You make a curve by making an initial point, and then when you make your second point, you click and drag until the curve looks how you want it to. It’s much easier to understand if you play around with it a little, so I encourage you to make paths in an empty photoshop canvas to get the hang of the pen tool.
Now, whatever path we make with the pen tool is the path our text is going to follow. For a silhouette text path, we want the text to follow the outline of Amy, so we make our path follow her outline. This is what my path looks like:
Once you have a path you like, you’re going to select your text tool again, and hover over the first point in your path (in my case, it’s the point near Amy’s shoulder). When your text tool is selected normally, it looks like a cursor with a box around it, but when you hover over the path, it should look like a cursor with a wavy line through it. This means you’ve done it correctly. Once the text tool changes, click and you should get the blinking line that means that you can start typing. Your text should follow the line of text. When you’re done, you should have the text sitting on the path line. Don’t worry about that. When you save your graphic, it won’t show up. My graphic now looks like this:
Text paths are tricky and don’t always turn out how you want them on the first try. Feel free to experiment with them until you get the look you want.
2. Freeform Text Paths - text paths that don’t follow any outline (example four)
I’m going to use the same image as above to demonstrate a freeform text path. They’re pretty much the same concept, except this text path won’t follow Amy’s outline. Follow all of the steps the same way up until you form your actual path. Now, my path looks like this:
And when I apply text it looks like this:
And that’s it! That’s how you apply text paths to graphics. Happy creating!
