How to Add Text to an Image in Adobe Photoshop

It is fun and easy to add text to an image using Photoshop. You can make postcards, annotate travel photos or create an advertisement for your website or local newspaper.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Photoshop 6.0 or later running on a Mac or PC
• A copy of an image for editing

1. 
   Text tool bar

   Start Photoshop and open your image copy by selecting OPEN from the FILE drop down menu. The shortcut key is CONTROL + O. Select your file from the browse screen and click OK. Once the file is open, select the text tool (T) from the left hand tools palette and click on the image where you want to insert your text. You will see a cursor blinking at that point in the image and you can begin to type in text. Clicking on the image will also show the text tool bar at the top. Make sure that SHOW TOOLS and SHOW OPTIONS are selected under the WINDOWS tab on the drop down menus.

2. 
   Text Palette

   Clicking on the palette link will exhibit the character and paragraph palette. Changes can be made to font, color style and character spacing. It is helpful to specify your options before inserting text making sure that you can see it properly over the image background. If the background is black and you have black text selected, you may not see your typing.

3. 
   Color Palette

   Click on the color box and a color palette will be displayed allowing you to select the proper color for your text. Keep in mind that the color selection is crucial with a color photograph. Poor text color choices will dramatically change the overall image composition.

4. 
   Final Image

   Once you have placed the text, hit ENTER. You can then use the selection tool to move the text object. Hit enter again to make the change.

Tips & Warnings

• Always work with image copies. You may want the original later without the text.
• Don't make the text too large or it will dominate the image.
• Once you "flatten" the image or save it to a JPEG or another compressed file format the change is permanent.
• If you save the image as an Adobe Photoshop file, you can make changes later as long as the image has not been flattened.

Resources

• Adobe Photoshop

[momandpopoften]

on 8/1/2008 Great article!

[Hapworth]

on 7/29/2008 This is great.