Aligning and sizing individual .png files

amyj716 · 08-27-2009, 03:53 PM

Hi everyone -- I'll try to explain the best I can today -- having a "brain-fart" kind of day! I'm still somewhat of a newbie, and still trying to understand the "little things".

I'm inserting individual .png alpha files into my layout, and I want to make them all the same size, as well as be straight.

I swear I saw somewhere that there's an easy way to do this in Elements 7 -- eyeballing it is too hard.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Amy

guitargirl · 08-27-2009, 04:33 PM

When I do alphas, I put all the letters I need on the layout. Then I select them all in the layers palette by control-clicking on each one. Now you can resize them all at once. To make them straight, PSE has alignment tools. I'm not sure where they are in 7 - in 5 they are at the top when I'm using the move tool. I just "Align bottom" and they are all in a straight line! Hope that helps!

*Kathleen* · 08-27-2009, 05:18 PM

Hi, Amy. The alpha files, are they from the same alpha? And how are you inserting them into the document?

I like to use File > Place to add things to a single document. All the letters would then be placed in the middle of the document, and you could move/nudge them to spread them out appropriately.

You can use the "align" feature, but there are some characters in some type styles that doesn't work with (a lower case g for example), and you usually just have to eyeball those. You can turn on the grid (press Ctrl+') and zoom in so you have a straight line to get them set on.

Also as Lisa mentioned, you can ctrl+click the individual layers to select them all and move as a group.

If you need additional explanation on any of this, just ask!

guitargirl · 08-27-2009, 08:45 PM

Thanks, Kathleen - I usually use all caps with alphas, so I forgot about the ones that hang down! LOL

amyj716 · 08-31-2009, 10:11 AM

Thanks, ladies!

I'm dragging and dropping, and haven't used "place"...I don't know the difference, I guess.

I thought there was a more "automatic" way of aligning each individual letter file, but maybe I'm mistaken.

All answers were helpful! Thanks!

Amy

*Kathleen* · 08-31-2009, 10:59 AM

The difference between dragging and place is just different ways to get things into one document. Items that are placed come in as a smart object, so if you want to edit it at all, you will need to simplify it. If you hold the shift key while dragging from the photo bin, the paper or element will be centered in the document. This should get pretty close to aligning, although not perfect. You will need to move the letter left to right (use the nudge feature by pressing the left/right arrows so you don't change the top to bottom position), and adjust any characters that have parts above/below the baseline.

*Kathleen* · 08-31-2009, 11:00 AM

Slight typo above ... place brings things in as a smart object, so it will need to be rasterized/simplified if you want to edit it.