In this video, I’m going to show you how to type in a circle in Photoshop.
Hi.
Welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.
I’m Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I’m going to show you how to type text in a circular path in Photoshop.
Believe it or not, this is one of the most asked questions that I get in regards to text
in Photoshop, so I decided to make a video on it.
This is going to be a complete guide showing you how to type in a path.
Okay, let’s get started.
We’re going to work with this document that contains layers, a background layer, and a
simple design element.
Before we get started, I’m going to create guides.
Make sure that you have your rulers enabled.
If you don’t see your rulers, you can go into View, Rulers, or press Ctrl R, command
R on the Mac to enable or disable the rulers.
Then, click and drag to create a horizontal guide
and snap it to the center, and a vertical one as well.
If you don’t have snapping enabled, you can enable it by going into View and make
sure that Snap is checked.
Also, you can right click on the Rulers, and select Percent
and 50% on both the horizontal
and vertical axis will show the center,
so, that’s something that you can use as well.
Now that we have our guides, we can create the path where we’re going to type text
inside of the circle.
I’m going to select the Ellipse Tool, make sure that in the Options bar, you have Path
selected.
Then, I’m going to click right in the center point where the guides meet and drag out.
Then, I’m going to hold Alt to create a circle from the center.
That’s Option on the Mac, and have the Shift key to constrain that into a perfect circle.
I’m holding Alt and Shift and dragging out.
Then, I’m going to release once I get to this point, and I’m going to click on the
Horizontal Type Tool.
Make sure that white is my foreground color.
I can click anywhere on this path and start typing.
I can type Photoshop Training Channel.
Then, I can click on the check mark or press Enter, Return on the Mac to commit the changes.
Now, this is the part that can get a little confusing, but I’m going to go slow so that
you can understand the concepts.
I’m going to click on the Move Tool, and I’m going to show you what most people would
do in this situation to align the text.
They will probably press Ctrl T, Command T on the Mac,
move the pivot point to the
center, and click and drag to rotate the text.
While that certainly works, I don't think that’s the most efficient way to work.
You can actually click on the Path Selection Tool instead, and if you click on that path,
that will become your new start point.
Notice how I’m clicking the path, and that becomes a start point of the text.
Also, I should have pointed out that my text is aligned to the left.
Anyway, I’m going to go back into the Path Selection Tool.
I can click and set my start point, or I can click and drag this point, which sets my start
point.
My end point is here, so I’m going to click and drag the end point to the other side,
right there.
Then, drag my start point and drag it here because I want my text to fill the top half
of the circle.
If your text is too big, you can go back into the Type Tool, triple click to select all
the text, and just reduce the size of your text.
You can use the down arrow key on the keyboard to decrease the size of your text, or you
can use the up arrow key to increase it.
Now, my text fits within the top part of the circle.
I’m going to edit the text, so I’m just going to type tutorial so that I can show
you the next example.
The reason that it’s important to use a start and ending points is so that you can
align your text.
Let me show you what I mean by that.
Now that I have less text, you will be able to see what happens when I click on Align
Right.
The text aligns to the end point.
If I click Align Center, text centers between the starting point and end point.
Also, when I have Align Center enabled and select the Path Selection Tool, I can click
and drag the starting point, and you can actually see the center point.
Do you see that line close to the second P in Photoshop?
That is the center point.
That’s why I think that using the starting point and ending point
are more efficient than simply pressing Ctrl T, Command T to rotate the text.
I’m going to click on the Move Tool.
Now, I’m going to show you how to type text on the bottom half.
The easiest way to do it now that we have the top part of the text finalized is by pressing
Ctrl J, Command J on the Mac to duplicate.
I’m going to hide the original layer.
Then, I’m going to select the Path Selection Tool, and click and drag the starting point
to the other side, click and drag the end point to the other side right there.
Then, when I get to this side, I can simply click and drag inwards.
Notice how the text flips.
See how the text flips there?
I can click and drag my end point there, so now the text is here.
Then, I’m going to change the text, and I’ll just type by Jesus Ramirez.
There’s two methods for aligning the text, and I’m going to show you both methods.
What I’m going to do is I’m going to press Ctl J, Command J on the Mac so that I
can show you both methods.
Each method will be on one individual layer.
First, with the layer on the bottom,
you can simply enable both layers
and select the Path Selection Tool.
Make sure that the bottom half is selected,
and then press Ctrl T, Command T on the
Mac and click the Shift key, then Alt, click and drag out, and make sure that the path
matches the top part of the text.
See that there?
When you match it, just it Enter, Return on the Mac, and now the text matches.
The second method is by selecting the text layer and going into Window Character, and
adjusting the baseline of the text, so you can just click on the Input box and press
the down arrow key on the keyboard until the top part of the text matches the line.
You can use either method, whichever one works best for you.
What I’m going to do now is show you what to do just with a simple path.
I’m going to hide the layers and then press Ctrl semicolon.
Then, I’m simply going to click on the Pen Tool and just create a path.
The shape really doesn’t matter.
Then, click on the Type Tool,
the Horizontal Type Tool, and by the way, when you're working with a path
and it disappears, and you don’t see it, you can always find it
in the Paths panel.
You can enable it by going into Window and Paths.
Anyway, I’m just going to click on here on the path, and I’m going to start typing
Photoshop.
Notice two things.
Number one is that the
end point is righ here, which is why we can’t see the rest
of the text, so I’m just going to move that away to the other end.
We have the text aligned centered, which is why it moved there.
Second of all, the reason that the text is below, it’s because we were working in the
Character panel and we have the baseline set to -46,
so I can just type zero, hit Enter,
and the text moves above the line.
Now, I can keep typing in that path.
Photoshop Training Channel on YouTube.
You can see how the text follows that path.
Notice these problem areas here with the T and the R.
You can click in between the text
and hold Alt, Option on the Mac, and use the right arrow key.
I’m tapping on the arrow key on the keyboard to separate that text.
You could also do that in the circular path as well.
By the way, let me know in the comments below if you knew these techniques already.
Also, if you want to learn more about type and text,
then check out all my text tutorials here on YouTube.
I’m going to paste the link to that playlist so that you can check them out.
I have tutorials on recreating the Black Panther text effect, creating 3D chrome text, and
many more text effects that you can create in Photoshop.
If this is your first time at the Photoshop Training Channel, then don’t forget to click
on that Subscribe and Notification buttons.
Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you again in the next tutorial.