[tramahound]

I’ve recently got Photoshop 7 to try and learn how to use it, and I’m a bit confused with its complexities. I’ve been reading tutorials and visiting message boards, but can't really find some simple bits of info that would allow me to do what I want.
I have a bmp image that is rather small (187x86pixels) which I want to add some text to. I found a tutorial on how to create text that looks like it came from a label gun ( http://www.grafx-design.com/05photo.html ) and I get it looking the way I want, but I can't manage to simply merge the two items. In order to make the text according to the tutorial I use a separate file all together and wish to somehow copy/paste that into the original bmp image. However, in order to have the text look nice I have to make it at a much larger size. If I do it small like the original image I want to merge it with it ends up looking pixilated and very bad. How do I add the text from the larger file to the smaller one and resize it to whatever size I need while keeping it sharp and maintaining its quality? Can somebody drop me some hints please?! Thanks

[phobos]

If you have a small bitmap and resize it you will get an image that's too pixelated.And that's very normal.
I bet you are talking about resizing the picture not the text.If you build your text on a large file and then paste it on the small one you will never see blockiness.I can't quite understand your question. You can't resize a small image to a large one and have a decent sharp image.Photoshop isn't a vector package like illustrator.For sharpness use unsharp mask on you filters menu.
Why don't you try and build a pattern with your bmp if it is some sort of background that can work that way.This way you will not get the blockiness
cause you will have a large background
Again I can't understand your question.I just throw possible answers.Be more specific.That way we could be more of a help.

[tramahound]

hmmm, yeah, it is kind of hard to understand/explain. ok, i have this picture/screen capture i took of an old sega master system game. it's just a simple, small picture (for some reason when you take screen captures from this one emulator it only saves them at 248x192x8bpp). well, i would like to simply add my name to this image, but in the plastic looking fonts described in the tutorial above. if i make the font at a small size like 6-8pt it looks really bad and pixelated after applying all the effects (it looks perfect when done at a large font size like 48-72pt though). so, if i make it in a big font and try to paste it into the small image it remains huge and covers the entire original image! do you understand any better now or did i just spit out the same gibberish only using different words? any other help you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[jholmes]

Any font is going to look pixelated at that size.
You'll need either the image resolution to be greater (more dpi) or the size of your image to be larger. If you're using this for a screen or web image your stuck with the resolution - it's 72 dpi and you'll have to make the image larger.
If you are printing it out you can increase the size or the resolution of the image in Photoshop - Convert it to cmyk mode if color or grayscale if it's B&W and then use the Image Size commands to increase the size or rez - it won't be as crisp, but PS has pretty good interpolation to make up the difference.

Once it's larger, your font should smooth out.

[tramahound]

cool, thanks for the info. now for the simple dodo question whose answer eludes me
how do i merge the text and the picture? when i try to do the text on a seperate layer and click the boxes next to each layer so i can view them both at the same time i can only see the text layer. if i mess with the text layer's opacity i can eventually see the picture under it, but it contains the lighting and blur effects that i've applied to the text which i do NOT want applied to the picture...
know what i mean? thanks again

[Too Much Coffee Woman]

to merge layers, go to the layers options (triangle on the upper right of the layers pallette) and click on merge or flatten. if you flatten, you can save it into any file format you wish

or you can find the same commands on the "layer" section on the top

when you're ready to save....make a copy of the .psd (native photoshop file) so that you can go back and edit it.

i reccommend peachpit press's Photoshop 6 book and i'm sure the 7 will be just as good

[tramahound]

thanks, i really appreciate the help. i'll try it later tonight when i get home from work.

[andi*pandi]

hmmm...
sounds like he either doesn't know how to scale the text layer down small enough to see the graphic beneath, or there is some kind of white/other background blocking the nether layer.

while on the text layer, hit apple-t to transform, hold shift down, click on corner box, and scale in...

if there's white background, hit W for magic wand, click in unwanted area, and delete.