Enhancing Your Layouts Part three: Strokes as Styles
Ruby Rynne

Photoshop

In this tutorial I will show you how to use the Photoshop Styles feature to add strokes (outlines) to your text or element, and an additional way to use styles to really enhance your page titles. You can make title wordart that looks like it came from a kit, but in whatever font and colour you like, and with whatever words you like!
Let’s open our layout again, with the title word Sisters just as plain text.

Instead of using the Stroke command to add the outline, we’ll use the Styles feature of Photoshop. With the text layers selected, click the fx icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

From the dialogue box that appears, select Stroke from the menu and set the options as follows:

I have used Size 16px, Position Outside, Blend Mode Normal, Opacity 100%, Fill Type Color and Color White. You can set the options to whatever you like in order to achieve the look you want.
The advantage to using this method is that the text layer is still editable and the stroke will follow whatever the text is. For example, I could change the word to Brother, and it would still have the stroke without me having to reapply it.
Before we close the style though, I will show you another effect you can add that will make your title look more professional and ‘graphic designed’. Select the Inner Glow checkbox:

I’ve used Inner Glow settings of Blend Mode Overlay, Opacity 50%, Noise 10%, Gradient (black to transparent), Technique Softer, Choke 3, Size 20. Note how I now have an attractive ‘soft outline’ on the inner, pink part of the text – much less ‘flat’ than the un-glowed text. And I can add a Drop Shadow as well just to complete the word art. Because I have an Outside Stroke, the shadow would not be visible at the default settings, so I will choose Distance 20 and Size 25, and click OK to complete my word art.

The text is still editable, so I can change the word and all the styles will change with it, automatically.
In the next tutorial, we will look at using the Rule of Thirds to balance the layout.
Supplies: Sisterology Page Kit by Ruby Rynne, photo courtesy of Photoshop Creative.

© 2009 Ruby Rynne