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Working with Digital Alphabets and Letters Using Adobe Photoshop Elements
(As seen on pages 74-77 in the Summer 2010 issue.)

by Sandy Drieschner

Alphabet embellishments are often what completes your scrapbook page. The same is true with digital scrapbooking! Text, word art, and alphabet pieces take a simple page to spectacular.

You can find literally thousands of premade digital alphabets online. Check out many of the digital scrapbooking online stores and type “alphabet” in the store search menu to see what you can find. Digital alphabets are not usually given away for free but may be included in a free kit. Create digital letters using a font and the text tool in a graphics program and then add effects to the letters.

This article will show you how to use a premade alphabet to create a digital title, how to print out that digital title to use on a traditional paper page, and then how to create your own, using a premade digital background paper. It is that easy!!!!

Check out the online video tutorial for this article below. Follow the step-by-step instructions on how to do all the techniques described in this article. Learn how to create the sample letters shown in the “Summer Air Time” layout as well as some bonus techniques.

Let’s get started!

Figure 1

Figure 2

Create an Alphabet Title for a Digital Page
You will need a premade digital alphabet for this. A digital alphabet will come as separate letters (with each one a separate .png file) or a full page with many digital letters included (together in a single .png file). Most alphabets are sold as separate letters. See Figures 1 and 2 for samples of separated alphabets. Figure 1 and 2 created by Designer Traci Reed.

Open up Photoshop Elements. Create a new file 12" × 12"/300 ppi and transparent background. Go to File>Open to choose a digital background. Using the move tool and your left mouse button, drag the background over to your working layout. Do the same steps for opening and moving your photos and other elements onto your page. Once you are ready to put a title on your page, go to File>Open to open up a premade digital letter onto your workspace. Then move it onto your layout. Note: each letter will become a separate layer when you bring it onto your layout. You can move and resize each letter individually or you can join letters together to move and resize as a group.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figures 3 and 4 show a sample layout while adding single letters to create the title AIR. Digital letters created by Designer Traci Reed.

Create a Digital Title to Print and Cut Out
(real scissors needed)
Did you know that if you purchase digital elements, you can use them for paper scrapbooking too? You don’t need a super fancy printer to do it either!
Purchase matte finish photo paper or cardstock. (Buy 8.5" × 11" if your printer prints this size.) Digital alphabets now also come in what is called printables. A great website to find printables is www.scrapnfonts.com

There is also a really simple way to create a printable sheet using a digital alphabet of single files. In your workspace of Photoshop Elements, open all the letters that you want to print on the 8.5" × 11" paper (Figure 5). Digital letters created by Amy Edwards of www.scrapbook-bytes.com

Figure 5

Then click on File>Print multiple photos. This will open your Photoshop Organizer and create a print menu for printing what is open in your workspace. See Figure 6.

Figure 6

Select “Contact sheet” as type of print. You can adjust the number of columns, which will change the number of images on each sheet. This will adjust the size of each image. Uncheck each of the text label boxes, so you do not have excess text on the page. Click “Print.”

After the letters are printed, use scissors to cut them out. Then paste them on your traditional pages. Once you are finished printing, easily close out each letter open on your workspace by clicking on File>Close All.

Scraps of Info
Using digital images this way allows you to get the most out of your products: reprint many, many times!

Create a Digital Alpha from a Premade Digital Paper
Open a premade digital paper onto your workspace in Photoshop Elements. Using the text tool, choose a font that you like. Select a colour for the text that is different from your paper, so that you can see it easily on your paper. Make the font size quite large (around 100) for a title.

Click anywhere on the digital background paper and look for your cursor. Type the letter or letters that you want to make (Figure 7). Font used is Stencil.

Figure 7

The next step is to select the text you just created. Hold the control key and left mouse button down on the T box in the layers window to select just the text area. You should now see a flashing dash area around the letter. Next, click on the background paper layer and Ctrl C or File>Copy. Then you can Edit>Paste onto the layout that you are working on, or you can create a new file (approx 2" × 2"/300 ppi and transparent background) and then Edit>Paste. To save this 2" × 2" image as a letter to use repeatedly, click File>Save As and choose .png format. Then, without changing any settings, click OK when the .png option comes up.

Repeat for all letters to get a complete alphabet out of your digital paper.

Variation 1: To outline a letter with colour, create your letter first and then place it on a separate image or onto your working layout. While still on the letter layer, go to Edit>Stroke. Then change the colour and the size of the outline. You may have to undo and redo this step a few times until you get the size you like. See Figures 8 and 9 for letter not stroked and stroked.

Figure 8

Figure 9

Variation 2: Shape with letter cut out (kind of like a stencil alpha). Using a premade digital background paper and your text tool, create a letter the same as above. The letter will be on the top layer and your paper will be on the bottom layer. Making sure that you are on the text layer, hold your Crtl key down while you left mouse click on the T in the Layers window to select the outline of the letter. Now make the paper layer active, and hit “Delete” on your keyboard. Hide your letter layer by clicking off the eye beside the layer in the Layers window. You should now see a transparent space on the paper where the letter was.

Use the rectangular marquee tool to draw out a selection square or rectangle around that empty space. While still on the paper layer, hold down Ctrl C or Edit>Copy and then paste onto your working layout or a new image, as explained earlier. See Figures 10 and 11 for the working image and the completed letter. Figure 12 shows the same stencil letter with a stroke feature.

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

There are so many ways to play with digital letters and alphabets! The options are—as always—endless with digital.

Summer Air Time –
Digital Layout
Sandy Drieschner
Coquitlam, British Columbia

SUPPLIES: Digital papers designed by Doreen Stolz. Cork Alpha and other digital elements designed by Traci Reed. Letters A & R done using stencil font. Other fonts used: LD quill, LD modern, and LD modern mix.