Fireworks: Working with Different Text Effects

There are many options when it comes to working with the text in Fireworks. You can add many effects to your text to change the look of it. In this tutorial I will show you how to make different types of text in Fireworks.

Text with Patterns
Creating text with patterns is fairly simple and can give your text a cool looking effect. You can use the images supplied in fireworks or you can use your own images. So let’s begin. Open fireworks and create a new file. Then type in some text on the canvas. Go to your properties window and click on the color changer. (Note: Make sure your text is selected) Once your color changer window has popped up, instead of selecting a color, click the button at the bottom of your window that says “Fill Options”. A little box will appear, where it says solid, drop that box down and choose pattern. After you have selected pattern, another little box under that will appear. Choose the pattern that you want for your text. To insert your own image, scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select “other”. Locate the image on your computer when the files window opens and click ok when you have found the image you wish to use. Once you have selected your image, you will return to your canvas to see what it looks like. You can play around with the patterns, font, text size, and the outline color to get it to look the way you want it. Also you can play around with the two lines that controls the pattern in the text to change the look of the text. And that is how you apply patterns to your text.

Text with Textures
Creating text with the textured look will give you text a cool look and different type of look. To get started, create a new file and type some text on it. Make sure your text is selected. Go to your properties window and click the color fill button. When that window appears, select the color you want your text to be. Once you have chosen your color, look in the bottom of that window and drop down the box where it says “Texture”. That has your options of textures that you can use in your text. Choose the texture you like and you can move the percentege up or down to make your text darker or lighter. You can play around with the textures, colors, fonts, and text size to make some cool looking text.

Text with the Transparent Look
This text effect really stands out. This effect will give your text a glass looking effect and is really pretty. So let’s get started, first thing you need to do is create a new file. Once you have created your new file, paste the image of your choice on the canvas. Then type some text on the image. Now this is where it gets a little tricky. Once you have typed your text, go down to your properties window and click effects > Bevel and Emboss > Raised Emboss. Now you will see a box with width, contrast, softness, and angle options. You can play around with those options to get the effect you want. Be sure to uncheck “show object”. That will make your text transparent. The options I chose for the example images are:
Width – 3
Contrast – 100%
Softness – 0
Angle – 5

Text with Shadows
Using shadow with the text will make it look like it is coming at you. I think drop shadows are really cool. To get the drop shadow look, follow these simple steps. Type some text on your canvas. Go to the properties window and select effects > shadow and glow > drop shadow. The options window will appear. You can make the shadow look close to the text by dropping the “distance” to a lower number. The higher the number the further away the shadow is. You can also change the color of the shadow. You can make the shadow appear on the left side, right side, top, bottom, or middle by playing with the angle option. And that is all there is to creating text with a drop shadow.

Text with Different Colors
Making text with different colors inside is pretty simple and fun. Have you ever wondered how the top half would be one color and then the bottom half another color? Well let me show you how that is done. So go ahead and type you some text on your canvas. Make the text kind of big. In my example I use the font Broadway BT and font size is 40 and the font weight is bold. Once you have typed your text, in the properties window click the color fill button, then click fill options. Click the drop down box where it says solid. Choose the option Gradient, then in the drop down box below that choose the option Linear. Next click edit. This is where you will choose your colors for your text. In my example I have chosen red and black. In the edit box you will see two little crayon looking things, click them to choose your colors. Once you have chosen your colors, slide those two crayons in the middle, side by side. Almost on top of each other. Ok, now you have chosen your colors, now let’s work with making the bottom one color and the top one color. Click the text to exit the colors options. Now you will see a long line across your text. With your mouse, click the square end of the text and drag it towards the circle end. Make it about one inch long. Now take the circle end and drag it to the top of your text and center it. Place your mouse in the middle of the line, your cursor will turn into a half circle with an arrow. Drag your mouse so that the square end of the line is straight down.Now your line should be straight down with the circle at the top and the square at the bottom. You can shorten the line if you need to or make it longer. That is how you get the two colored text. To get multi-colored text, choose a different gradient.

That is just a few things that you can do with text. Play around with the different effects to get different types of text. The possibilities are endless when it comes to fireworks.