Add Text to a Photo with the Type Tool – Classic Day 11

How to Add Type to Your Photos

Adding text to a photo is easy; adding text that looks like it belongs takes a little more care. In this lesson you will tour the type controls in Photoshop, choose fonts and weights that work together, align multiple lines of text so everything is perfectly centered, and use a layer mask to slide a headline behind your subject for a magazine-cover effect.

Create and Format Type

1. Add a Text Layer

   Press T for the Horizontal Type Tool (click and hold the icon to see the vertical and mask variants, which you will rarely need). Click on the canvas, type a short title such as a magazine name, and click the checkmark in the Options bar. Every piece of type gets its own layer.

2. Open the Type Controls

   In recent versions of Photoshop the Properties panel holds Character, Paragraph and Type Options together. In older versions open the Character and Paragraph panels from the Window menu.

3. Choose a Font and Weight

   Pick a font family from the font menu. Creative Cloud subscribers can click More from Adobe Fonts to add thousands more, which sync straight into Photoshop. A family with many weights, from hairline to black, gives you the most flexibility.

4. Set Spacing, Not Stretching

   Use Tracking to tighten or loosen the space between letters and Leading for the space between lines. Avoid the vertical and horizontal scale fields; stretched letterforms rarely look good. Faux bold, faux italic, all caps and underline options live here too.

5. Size and Tighten the Title

   Drag left or right on the font size icon to scrub the size up until the title is large, then set tracking to a negative value so the letters sit close together. You can also press Ctrl/Cmd + T and scale a type layer like any other.

Put the Title Behind Your Subject

6. Select the Background

   Hide the type layer. On a simple background, press W for the Magic Wand and Shift-click a few times around the background until it is all selected without touching the subject.

7. Load the Selection as a Mask

   Turn the type layer back on, select it and click Add Layer Mask. The title is now hidden wherever the subject is, so it appears to sit behind them.

8. Unlink the Mask

   Click the chain icon between the type thumbnail and its mask. Now you can move or scale the text freely while the mask stays put, and the title always stays behind the subject. Keep enough of the letters visible that the word can still be read.

Add and Align More Text

9. Add a Tagline

   Press T, click lower on the canvas and type a tagline. Reduce the size, set the paragraph alignment to Center, and give it positive tracking so it reads as a lighter, more open line.

10. Center It on the Document

    Press Ctrl/Cmd + A to select all, switch to the Move Tool (V) and use the alignment buttons in the Options bar. Align horizontal centers, and vertical centers if you want it dead center. Alignment always refers to the active selection.

11. Move Without Drifting

    Deselect, then hold Shift while dragging so the text moves only straight up or down and keeps its horizontal alignment. The arrow keys nudge in small steps.

12. Add a Third Line in a Lighter Weight

    Type a subtitle beneath the tagline. Instead of choosing a different font, pick a lighter weight of the same family. Mixing weights within one family almost always looks cohesive; mixing two unrelated fonts rarely does.

Make Thin Type Readable

13. Add a Color Bar

    Add a Solid Color fill layer beneath the text, press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert its mask, draw a marquee across the bottom of the image and press Shift + Delete to fill that area of the mask with white. Double-click the swatch and choose a dark tone already present in the photo, such as a deep brown, rather than pure black.

14. Lower the Opacity

    Reduce the fill layer’s opacity slightly so the photo shows through while the type stays legible. Bump the subtitle up from hairline to a slightly heavier weight if it is still hard to read.

15. Center Both Lines Inside the Bar

    Select both type layers, select all and align their horizontal centers, then use the arrow keys to set the gap between them. Group the two lines with Ctrl/Cmd + G so they behave as one.

16. Align to the Bar Itself

    Ctrl/Cmd-click the fill layer’s mask thumbnail to load the bar as a selection (Ctrl/Cmd-clicking any layer or mask turns it into a selection, which is also why the type mask tools are rarely needed). With the text group selected, align vertical and horizontal centers. The text is now perfectly centered in the bar.

Key Takeaways

• Use the Properties or Character panel for font, weight, size, tracking and leading; avoid stretching letters.
• Load a background selection into the type layer’s mask, then unlink the mask, to put text behind a subject.
• Make a selection first, then use the Move Tool’s alignment buttons.
• Pair weights within one font family instead of mixing unrelated fonts.
• A semi-transparent bar in a color pulled from the photo keeps thin type readable.

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