Simply Digital Plus - Digital Tips

Ideas of How to Use and Personalize Word Art

Creative Uses for Word Art

Adding word art, a title, or a quote from our CDs or Page Paks is a quick and easy way to give meaning to your layouts with a touch of beauty. There are several ways to incorporate these eloquent words into your layout. They can be used as a title, placed on tags or other embellishments, placed on mats or even right on top of the photo. If you are creating cards, they can serve as wonderful greetings. Many are designed to wrap around the border of a page. Click here to see creative uses of word art by the CottageArts.net crew.

How to Personalize Word Art

Word Art is a wonderfully simple and easy way to give a layout a message, but sometimes it just might not be quite right. It may be the wrong color or size or might be on two lines and you want it on three. Below are various methods to modify it to fit your needs

Note: This tutorial uses screen shots and is written for Adobe Photoshop, although the steps are very similar to Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Word Art from Aspire Page Pak

1) Color It!

To change the color of a Title or word art, adjust it using the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Filter. To colorize a portion of a title or word art, select the portions of the word art you would like to change, by either using the Magic Wand Tool or the Lasso Selection Tool, and change the color to suit your layout by adjusting the Hue/Saturation (Adjust>Hue/Saturation).

Word Art from Simply Elegant CD

2) Cut It!

If a word art doesn't seem to fit into the space you have allotted for it, you can adjust the overall shape by cutting and pasting portions of it to a different location. Use the Lasso Tool to select words you want to move. Select the Move tool and reposition to your preferred location. Be sure to select only the words you want to move by zooming in and getting a closer view of exactly what is being selected.

Hope layout template from Simply Stated CD, Flowers from
Tangerine Splash Page Pak, word art from Simply Kids CD

3) Blend It!

By changing and experimenting with different layer blend modes, you can achieve vastly different effects. Some are awesome and some might not look quite right, so you have to try a few before you get one that is "the one" for each different layer.

You change the blend mode by having the layer selected you want to change and clicking on the blend mode drop down at the top of the layer palette. Each of the effects is how it will "blend" or mix with the layers below it. Experiment and try several.

Below I used Normal blend mode on the left and Color Burn on the layout on the right. You can see the color is richer and more saturated using the Color Burn mode. Sometimes you want that effect and sometimes you want 'subtle.'

4) Border It!

Add a border or a glow to your word art or title by double clicking on the layer to open the Layer Style dialog. Check either Stroke (to add a border) or Outer Glow (to add a glow). Each option will allow you to adjust the size, color, and opacity.

Layout template including word art from Simply Shabby CD and background from Simply Elegant CD.