Jump to content

Journaling


marva

Recommended Posts

Hi Marva,

 

Basically, with a layout open that you want your journaling to appear on, just click on the Text Tool. It's on the left side tool bar, fairly near the bottom. With the Text Tool selected, go to your layout and you'll see the cursor has turned into an insertion type crosshair and a small A. Click anywhere on the layout where you want the journaling to begin.

 

After you click where you want to being, a Text Entry Box will appear. This is where you type your journaling, But before you type anything, you need to select your foreground (stroke for text) and background (fill for text) colors in the Materials Palette. There are other options you can select. These will be in the Tool Option Bar above your layout. Here you can select font, font size, font style, alignment, direction, stroke width, etc. Be sure you have anti-alias checked - either sharp or smooth - whichever you prefer. When you have all these things selected, just begin typing. If you don't like the color, or want to change something at this point, simply highlight your text, make changes and continue typing.

 

When you are finished typing, click on Apply. As soon as you do this, you'll see your text surrounded by a box with the Move Tool. You can move it wherever you wish. You can also resize by grabbing the corners. You will notice that your journaling is now in your layer palette as a Vector layer. There is a (+) sign in front of the Vector Layer. Clicking on this will reveal the actual text layer. You'll see the Text Tool A on this layer. If you would like to edit your text, right-click on this text layer and select Edit Text from the menu that appears.

 

You'll see that the Text Entry Box will appear again and all of your text will be highlighted. You can now make any changes you'd like and click on Apply when satisfied.

 

This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Trust me! After you've done it a couple of times, you won't even have to think about it any longer.

 

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The text tool looks like an A almost all the way down at the bottom. One other thing Sara didn't say is make sure you make a new layer for your journaling text otherwise when you do a ctrl-D to deselect the marching ants it will go onto the layer you put it on. Example: If you click on the text tool and then click on the background layer (paper) of your layout and then type and then deselect the text...when you want to move it, you can't because it will also move the background paper layer. So its safer to make a new layer and then type your journaling on the new layer. I am hoping you know how to create a new layer because right now without opening PSPxi my memory is just not there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi there Sarah in VA. Thank you for your generous input. I think that I got everything that you said. Will you forgive me if I ask why about the part on foreground/background colors. I do want the text to be brown in color. Oh yes, while I'm bending your ear, why am I having a problem creating a new image for the size that I want. Width/Height: 12,000. Resolution: 300.000. Color depth: 16 million colors (24 bit). Thank you, I'm sure I'll be back with more silly questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi there Sarah in VA. Thank you for your generous input. I think that I got everything that you said. Will you forgive me if I ask why about the part on foreground/background colors. I do want the text to be brown in color. Oh yes, while I'm bending your ear, why am I having a problem creating a new image for the size that I want. Width/Height: 12,000. Resolution: 300.000. Color depth: 16 million colors (24 bit). Thank you, I'm sure I'll be back with more silly questions.

 

 

The way PSP works, you must select the tool first (in this case the Text Tool) and then select your colors from the Materials Palette. I may not be understanding your question, however. If you want the text to be brown, once you've clicked on the Text Tool, click once in the foreground color (top box) to bring up the Materials Palette dialog box. Select your color and click ok. Repeat the process for the background color (lower box). This way the stroke, and the fill will be the same color. For added interest, you could select two different colors and then play around with the stroke width for different effects. You can also switch the positions by clicking on the little swoopy (swap) arrow between the colors.

 

As far as your next question about creating a new image - do you mean a width and height of 12 inches? 12,000 pixels would be terribly large. To make a raster, or a vector layer, you need to select the first option RGB 8 bits/channel. (This was called "16 million colors (24bit)" in PSP 9, and was the best that was available in that program.) It has been replaced with RGB 8 bits/channel.

 

And maybe this is something else that has changed, but whenever I click the text tool on the layout, it always creates its own vector layer. No matter where I am in the layer stack, it will create a new vector layer just above. But just to be on the safe side, I always click the New Layer icon in the layer palette and chose a New Vector Layer - this way, I get to name the layer from the beginning. Really helps keep things straight if I'm doing a lot of separate vector layers. Which is the way I like to work.

 

HTH answer your questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to add confusion, when I'm doing a single-color text, I turn off (make transparent) the foreground color and use the background color only. I find it easier to get a nice looking font without the stroke (outline).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another comment. If your journaling is lengthy, make sure you use the "vector" setting so that you can correct typos without losing formatting.

 

Although the text tool remembers your last entry (if set to remember), you lose formatting if you had multiple settings in your text if you use "selection" or "floating" instead of "vector".

 

For example, if you BOLD a few words in the journaling and leave the rest normal, when you reopen the text tool, either everything will be BOLD or everything will be normal. Same with size, font, etc. changes within the text. When you reopen the text tool, everything is set the same.

 

Vector text will hold its formatting and is easily resizable and rotate-able.

 

 

(Edited because I'm using DH's computer and the keyboard is funky and I saved the file by accident when 1/2 way done)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh WOW!!! You guys are just too terrific, You understood my ramblings. I didn't know that the RGB 8 was 16 million. Explains why I get the script error message. Duh!! As soon as I get the ribs off the grill, I'll try again. I truly appreciate you all. I'll be back. Happy 4th of July.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...