Add writing to photos using Photoshop

Whilst a picture may speak a thousand words, it can shout really loud if you combine it with words.

I love how a simple phrase when combined with a photograph can totally change the meaning of what you’re seeing – plus it’s useful if you’re trying to explain or point something out.

Using a tablet (or mouse) and your own penmanship

This will be a lot easier and slicker if you have a drawing tablet – there’s loads out there to choose from and they all seem pretty good to me – I have one of the Wacom Bamboo ones. Don’t be put off if you don’t have a drawing tablet though – you might feel a bit slow and clumsy using a mouse but it can be done.* If you get really stuck why not try using a handwriting font (see below).

• Open your photo – resize and do any tweaking that might be required - save this as a copy so you don’t accidentally scribble in a ‘forever’ way all over your lovely photo.
• Create a new layer, choose a suitable colour and brush – scribble around until you have just the right combination. The example below uses a 3px soft brush.
• Double check you’re on a separate layer and start writing!

*Tip for mouse users: try working at double the size you want your finished image to be – the downsizing will help smooth out jagged edges.

Using a font

• Open your photo – resize and do any tweaking that might be required.
• Create a new layer, select the ‘type’ tool, click on the image and start typing.
• Highlight the text with the text tool, then in the top navigation go to ‘Window’>’Character’ and choose your font, size, alignment etc
• Pick the colour you want to use from your swatches panel.

Some nice (and free) fonts to try:

• League Script Number One
• Museo Slab
• JoeHand
• Florence Regular

Mobile apps

There are some fabulous apps out there that make it really easy to add text to a photo – the example below was created using ‘Over’ on my iPhone but all the smartphones seem to have something similar.

• iPhone/iPad: Over
• Windows phone: Photograffiti
• Android: PicSay

So there you go. Looking back I’m not sure this even needed a tutorial – it’s a pretty straightforward technique but a good way of rescuing a photo which might otherwise be a bit bleh.

How about you, do you like to scribble on your photos?