Naps Rule! (Help needed!)

DJ-S1

I cobbled this poster together of my son Jason yawning and crashing; I'm going to print it big and give it to my wife.:D



Now for the help. I HATE TEXT IN PHOTOSHOP! How can I make really nice looking text for this poster? Do I need Illustrator or something?

Also, any suggestions for changing the title would be great -

Thanks!

hamster

Nice looking text would be anything besides comic sans. He's a cutie!

ShepsMom

These are just too cute! Love it

Andy

DJ-S1 wrote:

I cobbled this poster together of my son Jason yawning and crashing; I'm going to print it big and give it to my wife.:D



Now for the help. I HATE TEXT IN PHOTOSHOP! How can I make really nice looking text for this poster? Do I need Illustrator or something?

Also, any suggestions for changing the title would be great -

Thanks!

Decide on your text, and make this file available for people to get in the original version. We'll help, sure!

Oh and yah, Naps Rule!!!!!!!

Swartzy

What a great series
I love those expressions! Nicely captured! Naps do indeed rule!

pyrtek

DJ-S1 wrote:

How can I make really nice looking text for this poster?

White text on a white background suggests itself. Seriously, why the need for
text? It's fantastic without it.

DJ-S1 wrote:

Also, any suggestions for changing the title would be great

Anything without the word "rule" in it would be an improvement.

DJ-S1

hamster wrote:

Nice looking text would be anything besides comic sans. He's a cutie!

Thanks, he is very expressive! Comic Sans was not my intent, but everything else looked even more like a$$, to quote a friend. What do you suggest?

DJ-S1

pyrtek wrote:

White text on a white background suggests itself. Seriously, why the need for text? It's fantastic without it.

White rabbit in a blizzard, eh? That's a good point, I'll have to try that. Thanks!

~Jan~

I love those shots! ADORABLE!! Personally, I'm more of a 3 across storyboard person. Larger photos, but only 3 of them.

DJ-S1

Andy wrote:

Decide on your text, and make this file available for people to get in the original version. We'll help, sure!

Thanks Andy (nice self portrait BTW). Are you suggesting that something other the PS is needed to do text properly? Or just some technique in PS?

If/when I decide on a title, I'll repost. I think I'll try it plain like Pyrtek suggested tonight.

DJ-S1

~Jan~ wrote:

I love those shots! ADORABLE!! Personally, I'm more of a 3 across storyboard person. Larger photos, but only 3 of them.

Thanks Jan! I completely agree. I tried several times to do just that, but I kept coming back to these 6. (Actualy, there are several more shots in the series!) It's probably just because I'm the Daddy that I can't pick just 3!

DJ-S1

Marina and Swartzy - Didn't mean to leave you guys out, thanks for looking and for the comments.

Clickr_Grl

Great shots! Beautiful baby! here's my little input...maybe you can create your text in word and then copy and paste into PS? I've never tried it, but here's a great site to get free fonts http://www.1001fonts.com/index.html
Maybe something that looks like a child's handwriting?
As far as the title, What about "Naptime" or "Crashing out" or "What a Day" ??? dunno, just Ideas.... I like the idea of text on the bottom. makes it look store bought!

DJ-S1

Thanks for the suggestions and the link- looks promising.

Awais Yaqub

very cute photos

Llywellyn

I'm not quite sure I understand the dilemma. I'm assuming PS in this case means Photoshop, which references the same fonts you have accessible in Word or any other word processing program. The problem isn't in PS, it's in the fonts installed on the computer. To solve that, well, Clickr_Grl just gave you a great link for it.

As for what font to choose (if any...I, too, think the images speak for themselves), it depends on what you're going for in the end. Cutesy or classy? Cutesy would rely on a more casual font (perhaps not a handwriting style, but mostly likely sans serif). Classy would have more straight lines and most likely be serif. One of my fave classy fonts is Baskerville Old Face, usually in small caps or all caps (but not overwhelmingly large in point size, as caps can so easily go from classy to screaming in your face). I often increase the kerning as well.

Typography aside, for potential titles, consider some evocative words beyond "nap," like "lullaby," "dream," "cradle," etc. Heck, even "Sweet Dreams" could work for a cute accompaniment.

Very cute idea, and wonderful captures. I'm sure your wife will love it regardless of what (if anything) you add to the bottom of the poster.

DJ-S1

Thank you, Awais -

Llywellyn - thanks for all the info. I guess my problem is that I think Photoshop tends to make fonts look "cheesy", not professional. I don't know much about it, but I had always thought this was because it is a raster program, not vector like Illustrator. I'm likely to be completely wrong about all of this! (Wouldn't be the first time)

I was trying for a handwritten look, and that's as close as I got - I have a bunch of fonts on my machine but none of them looked good. Maybe that's because a title isn't really needed here!

It was nice to hear the advice of a graphics pro, thanks!

theinlawjosie

This may not be what you are looking for, but if you go to the blending options for your text layer(s) and play around with the shadows, glows, strokes, etc., you can come up with some pretty neat looking text. Also if you google freeware fonts you will find all sorts of sites with tons of free fonts. Hope this helps!:D

theinlawjosie

theinlawjosie wrote:

This may not be what you are looking for, but if you go to the blending options for your text layer(s) and play around with the shadows, glows, strokes, etc., you can come up with some pretty neat looking text. Also if you google freeware fonts you will find all sorts of sites with tons of free fonts. Hope this helps!:D

By the way, this is an extremely cute series of an adorable baby!

gpphotos

andy is such a photography nerd that he takes photos of himself while sleeping! i'd like to know what technique you used for that!

(seriously...it looks like his arm is going out of the frame and is holding the camera haha)

DJ-S1

Thanks Shane, I just may try that too -

Llywellyn

DJ-S1 wrote:

Llywellyn - thanks for all the info. I guess my problem is that I think Photoshop tends to make fonts look "cheesy", not professional. I don't know much about it, but I had always thought this was because it is a raster program, not vector like Illustrator. I'm likely to be completely wrong about all of this! (Wouldn't be the first time)

Oh, gotcha! Nope, you're spot on about this, but there IS a way around it. I've had my PS settings like this for so long, I just completely forgot!

On your character palette, double-click on the tab until you get the full shebang of options showing on the palette. In the lower right-hand corner you should see a drop-down menu with the following options: None, Sharp, Crisp, Strong, Smooth. PS defaults to "None," which results in the crapiness you're seeing. I usually keep mine on "Crisp" as I've found it makes the text look, well, crisp. (If I recall correctly, this drop-down is the same in PS 7.0 and up, but I could be wrong.)

Play around with 'em all if you haven't already. Hoppefully you find a setting that makes the text look pleasing to you.

evoryware

I think what Andy's suggesting is he or someone will help you add nice looking text to the file if you link the original.