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Filled Text



Dyan Cross - Captain's First Mate
Digital Deck Crewmember


Happy New Year! Here's hoping you can get at least a few days into the New Year without breaking ALL your resolutions!



I wanted to do a few tutorials on text effects, and this month we're going to fill text with an image. This is a great way to match your text to a photo or image in your card or layout. If you do your layouts digitally, then you can just place the filled text right into your on-screen layout. But, even if you do traditional paper scrapbooking, you can print out the filled text and get wonderful results.

I use Paint Shop Pro 10, but the same principles apply in most graphics programs. This technique works best with "fat" fonts - fonts with thick strokes that will show the filled image well.



One of the easiest ways to "fill" text is to make a selection from your photo, or image.
  1. Open a New Image. (the size depends on the finished size you need. It is always better to make it larger than you think, since you can reduce the size without any distortion, while you cannot make things much larger without them becoming fuzzy.

  2. Fill with the color of your choice (Click the Fill tool, make your foreground the color you want, and left click once on your new image.)

  3. Add a layer (Layers > New Raster Layer)

  4. Now open the image you want to fill your text with (I'm using some lace paper that I created digitally).

  5. Click your Text Tool. Choose the font you want (I'm using Broadway), the size you want (mine is 36 point), and make sure Create As Selection is choosen.

  6. Click once on your "fill" image and you will see an outline of your text with "marching ants" around it.









  7. Copy that selection (Ctrl+C or Edit > Copy)

  8. Paste the selection into your New Image (the one you filled with the color of choice) (Ctrl+V, or Edit > Paste)

  9. Add a drop shadow (Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow), using these settings











  10. And here's your finished filled text




This time we're going to actually fill our text with an image, rather than selecting a portion of our image.
  1. Open a New Image and fill with the background color of your choice

  2. Click your Text Tool. Choose the font you want (I'm using Arial Black), the size you want (mine is 36 point), and make sure Create As Vector is chosen. Set your foreground color to black and your background color to none (this will give you an outline of your letter)

  3. Click once on your New Image and your outline will appear with the Vector box around it. Click on the center to move the text into the proper place

  4. Choose the Magic Wand tool and click on the inside of the first letter. Hold down the Shift key, and click on the inside of each of the remaining letters. (This will select the inside of each letter so you can fill it with your image)

  5. Open the image you want to use as a fill (the image I choose was a very large map and the image was not as clear as I wanted when I filled my text, so I selected just a portion of my map to use)

    Choose the selection tool and draw a rectangle around the portion you want. Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste as a New Image (Ctrl+V)




  6. In the box under your foreground color, there are three choices - solid color, gradient, and pattern . Click the pattern, then double-click in the foreground box to open the pattern dialog box. (Make sure the Pattern Tab is choosen (1). There is an image in the Current Pattern Box and a small arrow to the right - click the arrow to display the list of patterns.

    All the images that you have open on your screen are available to be used as patterns. You will notice that my map is Image 19 (2), and there is an Image 19 available in the pattern box (2a). Click the Image 19 to select that pattern and click the OK button. (If your pattern is too large, you can change the size by reducing the Scale (3))

  7. Open your Layer Pallette and click on your Background Layer to make it active (you should have two layers - your background layer with the solid background, and a vector layer with your text)







  8. Click your Fill Tool, make sure your Foreground is set as the pattern, and click once inside any of the letters to fill all the letters with the pattern

  9. Add a drop shadow (see Item 9 in the top section of this article). A dialog box may come up saying "The target must be promoted to a full layer." This is because the text is still on a vector layer and must be changed to a raster layer to add a drop shadow. Click the OK button.

  10. Hit Ctrl+D to Deselect the text and your image is complete.






Here's a digital layout I did, filling the word "Paris" with the map image. The photo is of my grandparents, and I know they were never in Paris, but through the wonders of technology, I can fulfill a dream!

The Paris images were photos that I changed to sepia, and layered, reducing the opacity to varying amounts, and "disolving" the Eiffel Tower layer into the Arch.









When printing letters for a layout or card, you can cut around each individual letter, print on a transparency, or place the letters on a complimentary-colored box like I did with both the Vintage and Travel images, and cut around the box.

Your choice of fills is endless - scan your paper and match your letters exactly to your layout, or fill your letters with the design on your daughter's dress. You can fill with hearts for Valentine's Day, Bunnies for Easter, and so forth.

Please stop by next month for more text effects!

Dyan Cross
dyancross@ssreflections.com
Captain's First Mate
Digital Deck Crewmember
Reflections Publishing Group, LLC


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***Disclaimers - While individual techniques may vary, always follow product manufacturers' directions and cautions for safety and best results.




Ranger



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