Adobe Photoshop CS2 On Demand [Electronic resources]

Isolating Image Pixels Using a Type Mask

One of the advantages to a mask is you can create type using any fill you desire. For example, you're doing an advertising piece for a real estate company in California, and you want something unique for the text, so you get an image of the plains, create a type mask with the words SUNSET and then use the image and mask to create a unique fill.

Isolate Image Pixels

Open a document containing the image you want to mask.

Select the

Layers palette , and then select the layer containing the image.

Select the

Horizontal Type Mask tool on the toolbox.

Click in the document window to place an insertion point, and then type.

As you type, Photoshop creates a mask in the size and shape of the current font.

IMPORTANT

If you want a lot of the image to show through the mask, use a large, thick mono-weight font, like Impact.

Use the editing tools on the mask to change its font, style, and size.

Did You Know? You can move the mask after you've converted it into a selection. Click any selection tool, and then drag from inside the selection. The selection area will move without modifying the actual image. In addition, you can use your arrow keys to gently nudge the selection left, right, up, or down.

Select the

Marquee tool on the toolbox, and then position the mask directly over the portion of the image you want inside the text.

Click the

Select menu, and then click

Inverse .

Press the Backspace (Win) or Delete (Mac) key to delete the inverse selection.

The Invert command reversed the selection and the deletion removed all the pixels outside the mask.

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