How to Create Quick and Easy Cartoon Dialogue Balloons in Photoshop

Your freehand style may not lend itself to the pristine task of creating and lettering character dialogue boxes. Luckily, you can easily add them in Photoshop after you've scanned your original artwork.

Photoshop is a deep program filled with bells and whistles, and it can be difficult to locate and size dialogue balloons in each frame — often the balloons will be either too small or too big, which throws off the comic's visual balance. However, if you follow this tutorial you can avoid all the guesswork and quickly populate a strip with conversation balloons.

Things You'll Need

• Scanner

Instructions

1. Scan your artwork via Photoshop's "Import" command. Save your comics in an image mode that you prefer, preferably a high-resolution mode such as JPEG, PNG or TIFF.

2. Create two new layers. Press the "Shift," "Control" and the letter "N" keys together to quickly create each new layer. Layers are your best protection against making irreversible mistakes.

   Label each layer. "Layer 1" should be labeled "Balloon." "Layer 2" should be labeled "Dialogue," or whatever else you choose for character speech.

3. Select "Dialogue" in the Layers box. Press the letter "T" on your keypad. This activates the Text tool in Photoshop's vertical toolbar. Place the cursor in the location in the comic's frame where you'd like the character's dialogue text to begin. Type in your text.

4. Select the "Balloon" layer in the Layers box. Select the "Elliptical Marquee" tool in Photoshop's vertical toolbar (unless your dialogue is better suited in a rectangular balloon). Move the cursor to the approximate center of the dialogue. Hold down the "Alt" key and click-and-drag the ellipse shape until it encircles the dialogue to your personal preference. Note that if you're having difficulty encircling the dialogue, you can guesstimate the balloon's shape and move it into position around the dialogue by using the keypad's arrow keys.

5. Create the balloon's "stem." The stem will point the dialogue at a character of your choosing. Press the letter "L" to select the "Polygonal Lasso" tool in the vertical toolbar. Hold down the "Shift" key and draw a triangle-shaped stem that overlaps the balloon that you created.

6. Open the "Stroke" command box by selecting "Edit" from the horizontal top toolbar, then selecting "Stroke." In the command box, choose the pixel size of the balloon's line width, the line's color and the line's opacity. Click "OK."

7. Flatten the layers by selecting "Layer" from the top horizontal toolbar, then select "Flatten Image." Save your work.

References

• James Burns Design: Digital Lettering and Balloons

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish