mhwarner Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 I've searched here but haven't come up with an answer. If I've missed something please point me in the right direction.I have a project that requires me to enter large blocks of text on slides (actually just the text on a white background would be the contents of the slide). I already have an entire narrative in a text file and I need to add pieces of it to slides in between my pictures. Cutting/pasting into the PTE text box is a bit of a pain as there is no automatic word wrapping and line breaks must be entered manually to fit the format of the slide. The only thing I have come up with is to create .png files in Photoshop of the proper size with a white background and enter the text there or to enter it into a Word document and do screen captures and save to .png. (I'm thinking .png so I could take advantage of shadows in PTE or overlay the text on pictures if I decided to go that route later.) If anybody has a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it.Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Try converting your Word doc to Acrobat (PDF).Photoshop opens PDF and allows shadow etc.But all formatting would have to look right in Word / PDF.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Just tried - works very well!!Using a font like Arial helps as does using BOLD.Import the PDF into PS - duplicate BG Layer.Use Magic Wand (non-contiguous) to eliminate the WHITE. Turn off the BG layer.Apply shadow. Save for the WEB as PNG.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhwarner Posted June 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 Thanks for the suggestion, Dave. It's exactly what I needed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeL117 Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 HiPasting the text into a Photoshop text box would give you a better and, probably, quicker result as it would text wrap and have no background to deal with.ORPlace (not import or a normal open) the PDF into Photoshop or open as a smart object you do not need to remove the background as this should be transparent. Then either give the layer a Photoshop shadow or other effect or save as transparent PNG and add the drop shadow effect in PTEHope this makes senseMike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 Excellent suggestion Mike.The only question is why you didn't come in sooner?Thanks for posting.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xahu34 Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 ...Use Magic Wand (non-contiguous) to eliminate the WHITE. Turn off the BG layer...The magic wand method is not a good one. It produces artefacts: There will appear opaque, grey pixels along the borders of the letters (assuming that the letters are black) which should be semi-transparent.Regards,Xaver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpletts Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 The magic wand method is not a good one. It produces artefacts: There will appear opaque, grey pixels along the borders of the letters (assuming that the letters are black) which should be semi-transparent.Shrinking the selection by 1 pixel often helps to avoid the rough edges. Not too good for small type, though.David P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 See post number three.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhwarner Posted June 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 Thanks to all for the suggestions. Just thought I would post a follow-up with my actual solution. A straight solution in Photoshop does not seem to work as PS, like PTE, has no ability to automatically do text wrapping. What I have done instead is paste my text into MS Word and used its capabilities to modify font type and size, line spacing, centering and/or alignment, as well as to set page breaks as necessary. I have about 30 "pages". I then "printed" the document to PDF (using free open-source PDF Creator). Then I went into Photoshop and opened the PDF file (PS will only bring in one page of the PDF at a time and asks you to choose which pages -- which is somewhat of an annoyance)so it has to be done multiple times. The pages are actually imported with a transparent background so it was not necessary to remove the background. I then added my shadow layer style and "saved as" a .png file. I think this method gives a lot of flexibility with regard to the stylization of text because it is possible to alter the color, bevel, shadow, or whatever interesting effects you want. The basic (and of course the original Word doc) remain intact should you need to make future changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContaxMan Posted June 12, 2011 Report Share Posted June 12, 2011 A useful tip - good lateral thinking. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denwell Posted June 12, 2011 Report Share Posted June 12, 2011 Maybe we should suggest text wrapping to Igor, as a welcome addition to a future beta?It's certainly a chore both in PS and PTE to successfully 'split' a page of text to make it suitable for easy reading. Text justification would be valuable also.Is text wrapping a possibility? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.