Inserting a text box into photo

BD
Posted By
Bill_Dickason
Apr 15, 2004
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3688
Replies
9
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Closed
This should be easy, but I don’t understand layers.
I have pictures of wildflowers. I want to add the name within the photo. I would like to do this with black lettering within a white, rectangular box. The white box should cover a portion of the wildflower photo and the black lettering should be on top of it. I would want to make the text and box one unit that could be moved around or removed altogether if desired later.
If this described elsewhere, please point me in the right direction. Thanks.
Related Tags
box insert text

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CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 15, 2004
Bill, here’s one way to do what you’re looking for:
1. Open your image in Elements
2. Go to the Color Picker near the bottom of the Toolbox and make your foreground color white. If you first hit the default overlapping black and white squares, followed by the double-headed arrow, that should get you there.
3. Go up the toolbox to the Shape tool and select the rectangle shape. With your mouse, draw a box of the size you want in approximately the location you want (we will preserve the ability to move the rectangle).
4. Go back to the Color Picker and hit the double-arrow again to make the
foreground color black.
5. Go to the Text tool. Select your font and size, then click inside the white rectangle you made in step 3 and start typing text. When you have what you want, click on the check mark on the Text tool toolbar.
6. Now look at the Layers palette. You should have 3 layers: the
original, the shape layer, and the text layer. Click on the Text layer to make it active, then select the Move tool (4-pointed arrow). With this active, you can move the text around within the rectangle until you have it right where you want it. If you don’t think you’ll want to move or revise the text anymore, you can do a Layer>Merge Down to ‘lock’ the text to the rectangle. If you do that, you’ll have two layers left.
7. If you want to move the rectangle/text around, make the combined layer
active and use the Move tool to get it where you want it. If you’re sure that’s where you want it and you don’t want to preserve the layers, do another Layer>Merge Down or a Layer>Flatten Image.

Sounds like a lot, but it’s really easy – give it a try!

Chuck
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 16, 2004
Along with Chuck’s advice, if you’re going to be doing a lot of these, Bill, a fast keyboard shortcut for the colors is to press D (for default) to make the color choices black and white, then pressing X will switch background and foreground colors as needed.
BD
Bill_Dickason
Apr 16, 2004
Thanks Chuck and Barbara.
I am disappointed that so many steps are involved.
Lining things up, etc., for hundreds of pictures is a daunting task. Seems like there should be the capability to simply insert a text box, select the background and font colors, type in the text, drag corner to size, and then drag where it is desired.
I would think this would be a common need to put labels directly on a picture.
P
pikka
Apr 16, 2004
On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 14:22:00 -0700,
wrote:

This should be easy, but I don’t understand layers.
I have pictures of wildflowers. I want to add the name within the photo. I would like to do this with black lettering within a white, rectangular box. The white box should cover a portion of the wildflower photo and the black lettering should be on top of it. I would want to make the text and box one unit that could be moved around or removed altogether if desired later.
If this described elsewhere, please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

I am doing something similar and no doubt share a like
problem – not understanding layers.

I scan a document.
Save the document in PNG format.
Open in Photoshop and edit the image.
Save as completed PNG.

Change background colour to black.
Then, using the TYPE tool.

LC in the area I want text inserted.
Text layer appears (pink overlay).
Select text options for font, size.
Type text.
Use the "commit" action by LC’n either another tool or the OK toggle.
A ‘mirage’ type text appears where I want the true text. (indicates the text is in another layer to the image???) Save the completed image as PDF format.

On opening the image in Acrobat (reader) the image is fine but the text added is not seen.

Where am I going awry…please?????

pikka
BH
Beth_Haney
Apr 16, 2004
There is a way you can speed it up. Create a small white box as its own image file. File>New, choose a size (1 inch by 2 inches?), set the resolution to match that of the pictures you want to label, or something close. Set the background color to white.

Once you have your box made, save it as "Text Box" or something easy to remember. Open the next image you want to label and open your "text box" file, too. With both open on your desktop, choose the Move tool and drag the "text box" image on top of the picture. Still using the Move tool, position it wherever you want it on the image. Now select the Text tool and type in your caption.

You can just leave that little ‘text box" image open on your desktop and add it to each picture. Each time you use it, it’s just being copied so the original will remain available as many times as you need to use it. If it’s too big for a specific image, use the Move tool to make it smaller, which is done by clicking on a corner and pushing – or pulling on a corner if you want it bigger.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 16, 2004
Beth, great suggestion!
BH
Beth_Haney
Apr 16, 2004
Thank you, Chuck, but I think he gave up and left!! Now he’ll never know how smart I am. 🙁
P
pikka
Apr 16, 2004
On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 21:57:20 +0930, pikka
wrote:

– – – – – – -edit for content- – – – – –
On opening the image in Acrobat (reader) the image is fine but the text added is not seen.

Where am I going awry…please?????

pikka

…please do not all rush around ,, I have solved the
problem.
Toggle text mask works.

Byeeee

pikka
MS
Mark_Sand
Apr 18, 2004
Bill,
Here’s a modification to Chuck’s step 6, to allow for more flexibility. Instead of merging the text and shape layers, instead link the layers: with either layer selected, click the small box to the left of the icon of the other layer. The link symbol (chain link) will appear in the box. From now on when you select either layer you are actually selecting both, so they can be modified as a unit (moved, resized, etc). The advantage of linking is that you can change the text (font, size, color, location) whenever you want and the text will remain linked to the shape.
Mark

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