Wednesday Tips/Tutorials

Filling and Offsetting Outline Word Art Letters with Patterned Paper

Create a new document the color and size of your choice, then open a piece of digital paper.
Open a PNG outlined word art image and drag it onto your new document.
With the word art layer selected, get the Magic Wand tool.
Select the Add to Selection icon and tick Contiguous in the Options bar.
Click inside each of the letters. Marching ants will surround each of the selected sections.

Ctrl Click (Mac: Cmd click) the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers Panel. This places a new transparent layer below the text layer.

Now open a piece of digital paper and press Ctrl A Ctrl C (Mac Cmd A Cmd C) to select all of the paper and copy it.

Now switch back to the word art document and choose either:
• Photoshop: Edit > Paste Into or Edit > Paste Special > Paste Into
• Elements: Edit > Paste Into Selection

This fills your letters with patterned paper with the “fill” on its own layer.

Rather have a solid color? No problem! Select the patterned paper “fill” layer and choose Edit > Fill from the Menu bar.
Tick the “Preserve Transparency” box. From the Contents section, choose Color, then use the color picker to grab a color you like. Click OK to fill the layer with color.

If you like the offset alphabet look, you can switch to the Move tool and drag the outline layer to move it slightly away from the color or patterned paper layer.