This week I posed a question on my SnickerdoodleDesigns Facebook page: “When you get an alpha set, do you prefer individual PNG files for each letter, an alpha sheet, or both?” The response was overwhelming in favor of individual PNG files; however, there were some who prefer Sheets, and still others who prefer receiving both PNG files and sheets.
Some stated they didn’t know how to use alpha sheets; so today let’s take a look at several ways of doing that.
Here is an alpha sheet from House Rules, which is part of our newly-released Family Coordinated Collection at theStudio!
Our goal is to get just one letter from the alpha sheet to our layout. Let’s take a look at a few tips and tricks on how to accomplish that.
Transfer Method 1: Select and Move
- Have your alpha sheet and layout side-by-side on your Photoshop canvas.
- Using your favorite selection method, select one letter on the alpha sheet.
- Active the Move tool in the Tool Bar by clicking on it.
- Click back on the letter you have selected, and drag it onto your layout. This will copy your selected letter, and will not delete it from your alpha sheet.
Favorite selection methods could include using one of the Marquee tools, the Lasso tools, or the Pen tool.
I like to apply a 10-pixel stroke around the letters on an alpha sheet before selecting them; this makes the letter boundaries easily visible, reducing the possibility of accidentally cutting off any part of the letter. I do this by applying a Stroke Photoshop Style I created for this purpose, but any Stroke Style will work just fine.
If you like making selections with the Rectangular Marquee tool, and have Snap To selected (Top Menu Bar: View > Snap To > Grid), (both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements), when you make your letter selection, the Marquee Tool will snap to the grid. This make the selection process just a tad bit easier.
How to place a grid on your alpha sheet:
- In Photoshop CC: In the top Menu Bar: View > Extras
- In Photoshop Elements 13: In the top Menu Bar: View > Grid
Side Note: If you don’t like the default Grid settings (color, spacing), you may set your own preferences:
- In Photoshop CC: In the top Menu Bar: Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grids, & Slices. Then in the Grid section, make your choices.
- In Photoshop Elements 13: In the top Menu Bar: Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grids
Keyboard Shortcut: To make the Grid quickly visible or invisible, use the keyboard shortcut: Control + H
Once you have the desired letters positioned on your layout, just turn off the stroke by clicking on the visibility eyeball in the layers panel.
Transfer Method 2: Copy and Paste
- Have your alpha sheet and layout side-by-side on your Photoshop canvas.
- Using your favorite selection method, select one letter on the alpha sheet.
- Go the the top menu bar: Edit > Copy (or use the keyboard shortcut: Control + C)
- Move your cursor into your layout and, again going to the top menu bar: Edit > Paste (or keyboard shortcut: Control + V)
That’s it! That’s how simple it is.
An interesting point was brought up in the Facebook post, and that was how much hard drive space individual PNGs utilize vs how much space an alpha sheet utilizes. I decided to find out, using this particular House Rules Alpha. The uppercase individual PNGs totaled 29.0 MB and the same alphas on an alpha sheet took up 19.1 MB of space. Very interesting! But I felt we needed at least a second test. I checked another alpha set in the House Rules Alpha pack, the In-Lights set. The individual PNGs totaled 29 MB and the sheet totaled 6.1 MB. That’s quite an impressive savings with the Sheets!
So you decide! What is your preferred method of getting alphas to your layouts; and which do you prefer, PNGs or alpha sheets? Either way… alphas are great to use when creating page titles, to use as monograms, to tuck into clusters for extra interest, to use in word art graphics… and the list goes on!
This adorable House Rules layout was created by Kabra. I love her “Yum” title!
If you are now inspired to work with alphas, use the Alpha Filter in both our Personal Use and Commercial Use stores to find what suits your needs.
Special thanks to Zach, the son of A-manda Creation, for being a sport and posing for the picture above, late at night, when I desperately needed it!
If you are a visual learner, you can view this tutorial on SnickerdoodleDesigns You Tube Channel and on theStudio’s YouTube Channel.
Please head over to YouTube and take a minute to Follow both channels. Each Channel will have some exclusive videos, so by following both channels, you will be sure not to miss a thing!
Another fabulous tutorial, I have always used the copy paste so it was very interesting to see another method, thank you.
Thanks, Faith, for your feedback!
Hi, Karen!
I commented under the video!
Thank you so much!
Su
thanks so much for another excellent tutorial, Karen! now I know sheets save so much space, i’m keeping them if I have a choice!
I really like this tutorial and now knowing what a difference there is with the alpha sheet and individual alpha letters as to how much space each use on my hard drive. I always appreciate your giving us the PDF file too. Thank you ever so much.
Thank you so much 🙂
How awesome I am only just getting around to many of the tutorials, thank you all for taking the time to do these they are very useful. Keep up the amazing work