Type, Shapes and Paths

Type, shape and path objects stay editable: you can change the font, size and color at any time, recolor shapes and adjust paths point by point. This chapter shows the type tools and type panels, the Shape tool, the pens and the Paths panel.

The type tools

The type group in the toolbar (T, cycle through with ⇧ T) contains four tools:

You change the direction of existing type with Type › Orientation › Horizontal or Vertical, or with the ⇅ button (Toggle Text Orientation) in the options bar.

Point type and paragraph type

• Point type: click on the canvas with the Type tool and start typing. The line gets as long as the text; you start new lines with Return.
• Paragraph type: drag out a frame. The text wraps automatically at the edge of the frame. Only paragraph type has Justify, Hyphenate and the choice of composer.
• Type on a path: if you click on a path with the Type tool (drawn with the Pen, see below), the type runs along that path.

Clicking an existing type layer places the insertion point in the text so you can keep writing.

Entering and editing type

Formatting applies to the highlighted characters if you have highlighted any – that way you can make individual words bold or colored. Without highlighting, the change applies to the whole type layer. If no type layer is active, the settings determine the look of the next new text; the text color is then the foreground color.

Type mask tools

With the two type mask tools you type as usual; when you commit, the text becomes a selection instead of a type layer. You can use this to cut a photo out in the shape of letters, for example, or to create a layer mask in the shape of type (see Selections).

Formatting characters

The most important character settings are in the Type tool's options bar, and all of them together are in the Character panel (Type › Character or Window › Text and Glyphs › Character). The Typography workspace shows the Character and Paragraph panels directly on the right.

OpenType features

Many fonts contain variants of their characters. In the Character panel you turn them on with a row of small buttons, and from the menu with Type › OpenType:

Next to these, in the Stylistic Sets list you turn the sets ss01 to ss20 on and off individually. Which features actually take effect depends on the font.

Variable fonts

With a variable font, sliders for its axes appear under Variable font – for example weight, width or optical size. The weight axis sets the stroke thickness continuously; the other axes carry the names the font gives them.

Anti-Aliasing

Type › Anti-Aliasing turns edge smoothing on or off for the active type layer. Without anti-aliasing, the letter edges stay pixel-hard, which can be useful for very small type in pixel graphics.

Paragraphs, hyphenation and composers

The Paragraph panel (Type › Paragraph) and the options bar offer the alignments Left, Centered, Right and – for paragraph type only – Justify.

For paragraph type, the Paragraph panel also contains:

• Hyphenate: breaks long words at the end of a line. You choose the language next to it: Interface Language, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch or Portuguese.
• Single-line Composer or Every-line Composer: the Single-line Composer breaks each line on its own. The Every-line Composer looks at the whole paragraph and distributes the line breaks so that the lines become more even – especially visible with justified text.

Character styles and paragraph styles

Styles are named sets of formatting that are saved with the document. They let you give several type layers a consistent look.

• Character Styles (Type › Character Styles): a click applies the style to the highlighted characters, or, without highlighting, to the whole type layer. [No Character Style] removes the highlighted characters' own formatting.
• Paragraph Styles (Type › Paragraph Styles): they contain alignment, leading and the character attributes, and always apply to the whole type layer.

In both panels, New creates a style from the formatting of the text at the insertion point (or from the settings in the options bar). Redefine copies the current formatting into the selected style, Delete removes it. You change the name in the field below the list.

Glyphs

The Glyphs panel (Type › Glyphs) shows all characters of the current font style. While you are typing in a text with the Type tool, clicking a character inserts it at the insertion point. With the search field you find a character directly or by its code (for example U+00E9 or e9). The characters you used last are shown at the top under Recently Used.

Warp Text

When a type layer is active or being edited, the Type tool's options bar shows the Warp Text… button. It opens a box with these settings:

• Style: None, Arc, Arc Lower, Arc Upper, Arch, Bulge, Shell Lower, Shell Upper, Flag, Wave, Fish, Rise, Fisheye, Inflate, Squeeze, Twist
• Horizontal or Vertical
• Bend, Horizontal Distortion and Vertical Distortion, each −100 % to 100 %

The warp stays editable: you can keep changing the text, and the style None removes the warp again.

Vertical type

With the Vertical Type tool, the characters are stacked one below the other. All character settings work as they do for horizontal type.

Rasterize Type Layer

Type › Rasterize Type Layer converts the type layer into a normal pixel layer. Afterwards you can paint on it, apply filters or distort it – but you can no longer edit the text. Free Transform, rotating and scaling also work without rasterizing; for distorting and for perspective you have to rasterize.

Match Font

Type › Match Font… recognizes the font in a photo or scan. To use it, draw a tight selection around the text with the Rectangular Marquee and choose the command. The cropped area is sent to OpenAI's image model, which names the font; Chromatelier then looks for matching fonts on your computer. The window shows Recognised and Similar fonts on this computer. Clicking a font sets it for the Type tool and the active type layer.

Shapes and shape layers

The Shape tool (U) draws rectangles, rounded rectangles, ellipses, polygons and stars, as well as lines. Drag the shape out on the canvas:

• ⇧ keeps the proportions (square, circle); for lines, the direction snaps in 45° steps.
• ⌥ draws from the center.

Shape tool options

New shapes get the foreground color as their fill color and the background color as their stroke color.

Changing shape layers afterwards

When a shape layer is active, the options bar doesn't show the defaults for new shapes but the settings of this shape: fill, stroke, width, position and line type change the layer immediately. Shapes drawn with the Shape tool also stay live shapes: under Selected shape: you change the radius of a rectangle, the number of sides and the star setting of a polygon, or the thickness of a line – and the shape is recalculated.

The outlines of a shape layer are a path. With Direct Selection (see below) you move individual anchor points; with the Pen you add more subpaths to the shape (with ⌥ they are subtracted, which creates holes).

Shape layers stay sharp when you scale them. To paint on a shape layer, convert it to pixels with Layer › Layer Content › Rasterize Layer.

Pens

With the pens (P, cycle through with ⇧ P) you draw paths made of anchor points and Bézier curves. They work on the path selected in the Paths panel, otherwise on the path of the active shape layer or the vector mask of the active layer. If there is none of these, a Work Path is created.

If you hold down ⌥, a new subpath starts as an area to subtract.

Path Selection and Direct Selection

• Path Selection (A, black arrow): click a subpath or drag a frame around it to select it; ⇧ adds to the selection. Dragging moves the selected subpaths, ⌫ deletes them.
• Direct Selection (⇧ A, white arrow): click anchor points or drag a frame around them. Drag points or their handles; with ⌥ you break the handles of a smooth point apart so that a corner is created. ⌫ deletes the selected points.

The Paths panel

The Paths panel (Window › Paths) lists the paths of the document. If a shape layer is active, its shape path appears in italics at the very top. The work path is also shown in italics.

• A click selects a path (a second click deselects it).
• Double-clicking the Work Path saves it as a permanent path; double-clicking a saved path renames it.

Vector masks

A vector mask hides parts of a layer with a path instead of pixels. You create one via Layer › Vector Mask: Reveal All, Hide All or Current Path (from the path selected in the Paths panel). Disable turns it off temporarily, Delete removes it. If the active layer has a vector mask, the Pen, Path Selection and Direct Selection edit its path. More on this in the chapter Layers.