I’m going about this all backwards today. Mea culpa! I was working on (and finished LOL) a layout for another tutorial, when I got an email about a new free font. Those of you that follow me know that I cannot pass up fonts, especially free fonts!

The best part? The new free font has glyphs! I looooooooooooooove glyphs! And now I’m saying glyph-glyph-glyph over & over in my head. I may have had too much coffee this morning. Quick repeat, what is a glyph?

1 : an ornamental vertical groove especially in a Doric frieze
2 : a symbolic figure or a character (as in the Mayan system of writing) usually incised or carved in relief
3 : a symbol (such as a curved arrow on a road sign) that conveys information nonverbally

For the rest of us, it’s the swirly extra parts of a font. It’s what makes a regular font a FUN font! Today the font I’m drooling over is Edhan Martine by Sealounge Studio (aka Saiful Anwar). Free this week at Design Cuts.

I love fonts, and I’m impatient. I had to use this one immediately. I took my finished layout, and gave it a quick flip.

  • Image->Image Rotation–>Flip Canvas Horizontally

Today I’m working in Adobe Photoshop, most of this Quick Tip works in Adobe Elements as well.

I replaced the papers and a handful of elements to very quickly get a new look. I’m working with the daily free prizes from our LAD: Road Trip. I’m also using some of the additional packs that are given out to our LAD: SUPERsize Club members. If you are not a member, they are for sale in the store:

 

I deliberately left a blank spot above the main photo so I could add a journal card & journaling. In my experience, journaling is best done before the journal card is rotated & placed just so.

I’m using the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a box centered in my journal card.

Once it’s as perfect as I can get it:

  • Right-click
  • Choose: Make Work Path

Click OK on the pop-up box.

Now that you have a Path, you can click in that box and journal within those bounds.

  • Click on the Text Tool
  • Click on your new Path within your workspace

My photoshop adds a bunch of Latin. I find it a great placeholder while I choose my font & color.

  • Font = Edhan Martine
  • Color = #185556

Once I’m happy, I update the text box with my own journaling.

What I’m not happy with is how close to border my text is. I can easily resize my text path by selecting the Bounding box.

  • Click on any of the small squares of your Bounding box
  • This pops up the Bounding box menu in your top menu
  • Resize using the percent (%) option
  • Make sure you have the linked (🔗) symbol clicked ON

I also want to add a title, with some glyphs, so I’m scooting my text down a tad using the Move Tool.

I’m adding my title text as a separate, moveable, scalable, text box in the same font.

It’s bigger & bolder, and now I want to add my glyphs. If your Glyph Panel is not visible:

  • Click on Window in the top menu
  • Scroll down & click on Glyphs

You may need to move your Glyph Panel where it’s easiest for you to use & see. Mine is next to my Layers Panel.

  • I’ve adjusted my workspace
  • I’ve adjusted the size of my glyphs

I’ve added several glyphs to my title. For detailed help on glyphing, please see:

I’m happy & I’m done! Happy glyphing all!