Using Clipping Masks in Photoshop

The Introduction chapter sets the stage for the whole course. Your trainer, Angie Taylor, will introduce some of the typographic concepts that will be covered in the following lessons. She'll also share the story of what inspired her to become a graphic designer.

This chapter examines the fundamentals of typography, looking at the history of type and how it influences the terminology we use to describe the anatomy of type.

This chapter focuses on typefaces. It begins by examining the categories of typefaces and then compares some examples from each of the categories so that you are better able to recognize the differences between them. You'll also discover how certain characteristics and cultural associations can influence the meaning of a particular typeface.

Typefaces usually include several fonts with different weights and characteristics. In this chapter you'll learn about these and the differences and similarities in size, weight, line, and detail that you should be aware of when choosing fonts. We'll also look at special characters that are included in fonts, such as ligatures.

The space between letters, words, and lines of text is just as important as the characters themselves. In this chapter we'll start thinking of negative space as a shape and look at ways of adjusting this space to balance text correctly.

Most Adobe design and video applications have similar typographic controls. In this chapter we'll look at the different tools that are available for editing your text and apply some of the concepts we've discussed in earlier chapters.

This chapter focuses on the (somewhat limited) text features available Adobe Photoshop. You'll also learn about some complementary features like layer styles that you can use to personalize your design and add pizzazz to your text.

Illustrator is Angie's favorite application for designing text, and here's why. In this chapter you'll get a ton of creative tips on ways to take a standard, classic font like Helvetica and customize it to get a variety of different looks.

In this chapter we'll focus on creating text for your motion graphic designs. You'll see how After Effects handles text imported from Photoshop, how to make text move along a specified path, and how to apply effects. We'll also look at the multitude of text animation presets that you can apply to your text.