propeller

Senin, 27 Februari 2012

How to put text on a curve

Have you ever wanted to have your text follow a curve or path?
It's really quite easy to do in Photoshop and I'm going to show you how.
There are a couple of ways to have your text follow a path.
One way is to create a path with Photoshop's Pen tool as seen in this photo. Select the pen tool from the Photoshop menu and click anchor points along the curve you want to post your text on. When you've finished creating your curve select the Text tool.

With the Text tool selected you'll notice that the cursor changes from a straight line to a curved line. Move your cursor to the beginning of your curve until the cursor changes to this curved line as shown in the animation. This is critical or your text won't stick to the curve.
Start typing your text and it will follow the curve you just created with the Pen tool. If your text runs off the curve because the curve is too short or the text font is too large you can edit the font size and color as desired until it fits your curve perfectly. If you want to perfect your curved text even more, open the Character panel from the Windows menu. Here you can edit the spacing of your words and letters by adjusting the kerning and tracking until your curved text is perfect!
Photoshop comes with numerous shapes that work just as well as a custom path you create too. Select the custom shape tool from the menu. Here you can select any shape you want or even select from the additional shapes loaded in the Custom Menu shapes. After you've added your shape you can use the text tool to follow the curves of the shape you just added.

Senin, 20 Februari 2012

Free photo organizer

Since I'm a Photoshop user, I have folders all over my computer with photographs. I'm always looking for a better way to stay organized.
You might want to try Windows Live Photo Gallery. It can import photos directly from your camera. Photos can be easily sorted by type or date.
There is also a tagging option so they are very easy to search.

It even comes with a tool to burn your photos directly to a CD.

It's simple and the best part about it is that of course, it's FREE!
You can download it directly at the following site:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-photo-gallery-get-started

And of course for Mac users, there's nothing like iPhoto. 
Enjoy!