Linking Layers & Text Editing: Part I

To get the rulers go to View: Rulers and this will bring up a ruler border around the document. Or you can use the shortcut of Ctrl R to toggle on and off the Rulers.

In this tutorial you see another PhotoshopDesign.NET tutorial .psd of mine. Open a .psd file of yours (or use this one from the psd.net ipsdirectory when you sign up for the PSDer on the link). Now link some of the layers together as shown.

When you have a layer highlighted in the layers palette you can link other layers to it by going to that particular layers link box and clicking it.

Now when you select (highlight) either of the layers you can see that they are linked to each other.  Now move them with the moVe tool and you see how they are together..in harmony

Unlink by clicking on the box again. You'll only see any link bars when you have a layer highlighted (selected in the palette) that has other layers linked to it.

Try linking another layer to these

Go to the history palette and undo your moves. History is lost when you close out a file so be careful that you save it where you want it to be.

Now grab your Text tool (T) on the toolbar. Text editing is not that hard and is similar to other software programs. It's good typography that people get paid bucks for and is something that you can continue to learn and improve on.

A little text here and there can be the perfect touchup to your everyday photos.

Whatever color you have in your color picker as the foreground color will be the initial color of your text. If you have a lighter background then make sure you generally start out with black as your foreground color as shown.

Type in some text in the text editing field.   You can highlight the text editing field by dragging across it with the mouse (when you are in the editing field).

You can change the color of your text a few ways but most commonly from the the color picker at the bottom of the tools palette. Just click on it once to bring up the color picker where you can choose another color.

When you have chosen another color, press OK and then the text will be changed to that new color.

Remember that you will have to highlight the text in the editing field to make changes such as color and font size. You can change the font size from the options bar at the top or from the Character palette.

Pressing the change text orientation box quickly toggles your text from horizontal to vertical.

The type mask (not shown here) simply creates a 'selection' of the font and text that you type in (from there you can add drop shadows, fills, etc.).

You can choose the Characters palette from the Windows menu or toggle it when on the text tool as shown.