Available from Extensis, PhotoGraphics extends the text capabilities in Photoshop. Originally a plugin within Extensis PhotoTools, PhotoGraphics has now matured into its very own plugin. Released in the first quarter of 1999, PhotoGraphics has brought many long awaited text editing features to Photoshop. You can now place text in any shape you want as it follows paths you define. Circles, ovals, crooked lines, angles, etc. can all have text applied to them. You can choose text color, spacing, leading, kerning, style, etc. and once created, you can save the text as a PhotoGraphics file (*.xdf extension) for later use in other projects. PhotoGraphics even has layers! Just like Photoshop, you can create various layers, place separate text, and apply individual text FX without it affecting other text all within the plugin itself. When applying the text to the image, it becomes 'rendered' to only a single Photoshop layer (PhotoGraphics layers do not transfer over as multiple layers) and is no longer editable text, however, it will save the last text you did so you can re-edit and replace, create a new or add to the existing Photoshop layer. Also, you can bring back your *.xdf PhotoGraphics file you saved and rework it!
Text placement is superb. If you didn't have the text origin set just right, you can move it by dragging the text origin triangle to a new origin location. You can also scale your text, create a new Photoshop layer from within the plugin as you apply your text, erase existing FX on a Photoshop layer and replace it with new FX, or just add the FX to an existing layer. The text editor dialog box is similar to ones in illustration programs such as Illustrator, CorelDraw or PageMaker. Italics, bold, super- and sub-script, underlining, colors and degree of anti-aliasing are available options. You can change all text to caps or lower case at one time.
The variety of shapes for the text to follow are cirlces, ovals, polygons, straight lines and user-definable. The built in shapes have changeable parameters to achieve the desired FX. The layers palette is very much like Photoshop's including its own hidden, drop down menu accessible from the little triangle. This is a well thought out plugin that extends to a great degree the ability to edit text from within Photoshop. It will not edit Photoshop's type layer, but you won't need to when you see what this plugin can do for text.
Examples:
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Here's the most wanted text FX on the planet. |
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And you can place text in oval shapes. |
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Colors can be mixed, and here is shown a polygonal shape. You can change the number of sides from 3 to 20, and select Star shapes also. Text styles can be mixed along the same line also. |
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The square look. Rectangles are available, too. Rounded corners is an available option. |
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By using multiple layers within PhotoGraphics, you can create text like this. In the oval example above, the text wraps around the entire oval, hence becoming upside down at the bottom of the oval. By creating a new layer, and then duplicating the oval, I can then select that upside down text, flip it, so it now reads right side up as it does here. |
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