Just dumb as dirt

[beaner2u]

Hello,

I was trying to work my way through the maze of FAQ questions, and help tutorials but, "I musta got lost somewhere along the way".

I am running an upgrade of XP4 Pro on a Windows 7 machine, all the needed speed, memory, and RAM. I have a somewhat dangerous level of knowledge about the edidting tools. I can crop, correct color, create little pionters, and insert 'Vector Text'; but I do not know how to place my text inside of a preset shape.

I would like to use one of the standard preset shapes for a 'text box', and I know how to move presets anywhere in my photos. I wish to do all work on raster levels.

1st. How do I select the fill color of a preset?
2nd. How do I place text inside a preset?

Please help a senior citizen.

Thanks, Roger Beno

[LeviFiction]

Vectors in PSP are not obvious in how they work or how to deal with them. It took me a good week of looking and reading before I felt confident enough to make my videos on the vector tools in PSP. And I'm still not sure i presented them properly.

So on to your questions.

1) Three ways:

a) Before placing the preset shape deselect the "Retain Style" check box on the tool options palette. Retain Style uses the Preset Shape's original colors. When it's deselected it'll use the stroke and fill settings from the materials palette.

b) If you select the object with the pick tool then pick the foreground (stroke) and background(fill) colors on the materials palette the shape will take on those colors.

c) From the materials palette double click on the preset shape object or right-click and select "Properties" you can select and change any vector option for the object that you want from the colors to the stroke style.


2)You can place text on a vector shape (preset or otherwise) in a number of ways.

a)One way is to make the text somewhere else and then drag it on top of the shape.

b)The other is to apply the text to the shape and then right-click on the text on the layers palette and choose the "Detach from vector object" or whatever it says.

c) But the easiest way is to hold down the Alt key before clicking to add the text. You'll notice as you move the cursor with the Alt key down that the "Text on curve" cursor symbol disappears or doesn't even show up. That lets you know it's simply adding the text to the image and not attaching it to a curve.

[beaner2u]

I mustta got lost again, no I'm just old, "I meant my other left"

Levi, thank you soo much for responding, but what I meant to say is, “My work is on the RASTER level” and that was my bad.

For Presets and Text, do the same rules still apply for RASTER level?

Roger,

[LeviFiction]

It's easier to do on a vector level, just convert the vectors to raster later.

But most of the information still applies. Turning off "Retain Styles" lets you set the stroke and fill of a preset shape before you set it down. And it's easiest to place text inside a shape by keeping it on its own layer and moving it where you want. Otherwise I have no idea what you're asking by "placing text inside the preset shape" technically the text will only be hovering over the inside area of the preset shape until you merge the two.

If you're asking how to get the text to follow the curve of the preset shape tool but do it on the inside of the shape instead of the outside that you need to do as a vector.

Now you can change the colors using any of the available tools. The bucket fill tool, for example, will replace any solid color quickly and easily when set to a match mode of RGB. Or you can use the Color Changer tool, or the change to target brush.