Insert Text Layer

To add a text layer

1. Click on Text tool icon to open the Insert Text window.
2. Modify the text properties as required, and then press OK button.

Insert Text Window

The Insert Text window is divided in four sections:

Main section

It's located on the upper left corner of the Insert text window. You can specify the font face, style and size. You can also set the fill and stroke color by clicking on the color boxes.

You can modify the fill and stroke transparency as well as the text rotation by entering a value into the textboxes or moving the sliders.

Drawing mode section

You can use the stroke width slider to modify the text stroke width. You can emboss or raise the text as an aditional effect.

Shadow section

To add a shadow effect on your text, click the Enable check box. Use the sliders to modify shadow properties such as its position, intensity and direction.

Text shape section

The text shape section allows you to create text special effect by changing the shape of your text layer. You must check the Enable check box to enable text shape special effect.

To select a predefined text shape, simply select one of the three pre-defined text shapes from the Shapes drop down menu.

You can also create your own text shape by modifying the control line. Your text shape is determined by the control line curvature. To modify the control line curvature, first select one of the two control line types, i.e. Bezier Line or Curve Line.

Bezier Line

Each line point on a Bezier line has its own control point. By moving its control point using the Control Point movement slider, you will be able to modify the control line curvature. Use the Select Point arrow/slider to trace the point selector along the control line and to select the line point's control point you want to move.

Use the Selected Point Movement slider to move a line point itself without moving its control point.

Remember, Control Point Movement creates curvy control line while Selected Point Movement creates sharp corners for the control line.

Curve Line

On the other hand, Curve line has no control point, so moving the Control Point Movement slider will not change the control line. The curvature of the line is determine by the position of the line points alone. Curve Line is useful when you want to produce less curvy text shape.

Inserting New Line Points

To insert a new line point, use the Select Point arrow/slider, and then click on Insert Point button which is also the Delete Point button when an existing line point is currently selected. The newly inserted line point will have its own control point for you to control by selecting Bezier line.

To help you understand how this section works, play around with the setting and see the resulting shape.

Notes:

1. If you want to re-edit a text layer property, simply double click on that text layer.
2. Text layers can't be resized by dragging the text layer conner such as when resizing an image layer.
3. You won't be able to move the first and last line points along the X-axis (using the Selected Point movement)