Tips for Increasing Journaling Visibility

SUBJECT: Creating layer styles to increase the visibility of journaling on a digital scrapbooking layout

PROGRAM: PSCS3 (can be adapted for other versions of Photoshop)

If you’ve been digital scrapbooking for very long, you’ve been there – trying to journal on a photograph, paint stroke or other inconsistent background and your text seems to ‘disappear’ in places or gets completely lost.  Here are a couple of layers styles you can try to increase the visibility of your journaling.  I’ve put the samples on solid kraft backgrounds so you can see the effect clearly, but I often use one of these methods when I am trying to journal on a photo or paper of varying shades.

TIP 1: Add a Stroke

Adding a stroke places a line around the perimeter of your object.  When applied to text, this style thickens the letters.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke.

Use the following settings:

Size: 1 (you can increase this as desired)

Position: Center

Blend: Normal

Opacity: 100

Fill Type: Color

Color: Choose the same color as your text

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style.

TIP 2: Add an Outer Glow

Adding an outer glow creates a ‘halo’ of light around your text.  This is especially effective when your text is dark.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow.

Use the following settings:

Blend Mode: Screen

Opacity: 100

Noise: 0 (although you can play with this as desired)

Color: I usually stick with the default pale yellow, but you can play with white or other light, soft colors

Technique: Softer

Spread: 0

Size: 250

Contour: leave at the default

Range: 50

Jitter: 0

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style. If you want to make this effect subtler, lower the opacity slider.  If you want to create an even bolder effect, apply the style and then duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer).

TIP 3: Add a Color Burn

Adding a color burn drop shadow creates a darker around your text.  This is especially effective when your text is a light color.

To create this effect, make sure your text is the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers Palette.

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow.

Use the following settings:

Blend Mode: Color Burn

Opacity: 100

Angle: any

Distance: 0

Spread: 0

Size: 250

Contour: leave at the default setting

Noise: 0 (although you can play with this as desired)

Click ‘Ok’ to apply the layer style. If you want to make this effect subtler, lower the opacity slider.  If you want to create an even bolder effect, apply the style and then duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer).

Note: The font shown in the screen shots is DJB TweenyBopper by Darcy Baldwin, Sweet Shoppe Designs