Bordering fonts tutorial!

Tired of seeing that fuzzy border around your text? Want a good solid one? Here's where you figure out how! If you've used the 'stroke width (pixels)' option before, you may have gotten smaller looking text, or at least a little more fuzzy looking. Look at the image below. Images marked with a '1' were bordered with the 'stroke width (pixels)' option on the Tool Options Palette. I'm going to show you how to create the fonts marked with a '2'.



Create a new image. Set your width to 300, height to 300, select the raster background option, check the transparent box, and make sure your color depth is set to 16 million colors. Select 'OK'.

Example

An image should appear with gray and white boxes all over it. This means you successfully made a transparent image.

Select the 'Text Tool' (picture to the left). Make sure your text is set to be created as 'Floating', the 'Anti-Alias' box is checked, and the 'Stroke Width (Pixels)' option is set at '0.00'.

Example

Select the 'Flood Fill Tool' (picture to the left). Select which color you'd like your new text border to be. Use the 'Materials Palette' to do so (the colorful box to your right in PSP8). Make sure you check the box that says 'All Tools' as well. This will keep the colors that you've selected from changing as you switch from tool to tool.



Once you've selected a color to use as your new text border, flood fill your transparent image with that color. I chose to use a dark blue.

Example

Reselect the 'Text Tool' (picture to the left). Select which font you want to use (font face), what size you want it to be, and which color you'd like the actual font (not the border) to be. Use the 'Materials Palette' again to select the color. Make sure you right-click the color you want to use though. This color should appear in the second color box, AKA the lower one. I chose to use 'Cheri', '28', and 'white'.

Example

Find a spot on the newly colored image and click it. A pop-up should appear. Input your text there then select 'OK'. The text should appear in the color, type, and size you selected. If not, go up to Edit> select 'Undo' and fix what ever mistake you made. Once everything's the way you want it, you should notice a dotted line running around your text. This is perfect, you're right where you should be.

Example

Go up to 'Selections> 'Modify'> and select 'Expand'.

Example

A pop-up should appear about the selection needing to be defloated. Ignore it and select 'OK'. A second pop-up should appear. It should have a box labelled as 'Number of Pixels' with a number in it, usually '1' if this is your first time using the function. Change this number to what ever you find suitable. I'll change mine to '3'. Select 'OK' once you've found your font border size. *Note: the higher the number, the larger the border*

Example

The dotted line should have moved farther away from the text you added. This means your border was successful! Copy it while the dotted line is moving and paste it as a selection to whatever image you want to use it on. Congrats! You've successfully made a perfect font border!

Remember: When manually making a font border, make sure you're doing everything on the same layer. Your border will not work if you added the font on one layer and the color on another. If you followed my tutorial perfectly, you should not have any problems with this.

If you have any questions regarding this tutorial or are unsure about something, feel free to contact me at dark_riku_765 on neopets.com