Why is my text overlapping in photoshop

With the selection in place, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New , and then choose Layer via Copy. Nothing will appear to have happened in the document window, but if we look again in the Layers panel, we see that the selected area has been copied onto a new layer "Layer 1" between the text layer and the Background layer. We can see the area that's been copied by looking in the new layer's preview thumbnail to the left of the layer name:.

This will temporarily hide all layers except Layer 1 in the document window, showing us what's on the layer. In my case, only the top half of the baseball player appears. The checkerboard pattern surrounding him is Photoshop's way of representing transparency, meaning there's nothing else on the layer.

Click on the text layer's visibility icon in the Layers panel, which will turn the text back on in the document window. For the moment, it will still appear in front of the image, but we'll fix that next:. To move the text into the center of the document, click and drag inside the Free Transform box. In the Layers panel , the text appears on a new Type layer above the Background layer :.

We need to convert our letters into shapes. Back in the Layers panel, the Type layer is now a Shape layer, which means that our text is no longer editable:. And in the document, we see path outlines around the letters, letting us know that the text is in fact a shape:. Related: How to draw shapes in Photoshop. To overlap the letters and blend their colors together, we need to place each letter on a separate layer.

Grab the Path Selection Tool the black arrow tool from the Toolbar:. This will make it easier to select individual letters. In Photoshop CS6, this option is not available, but you'll still be able to select the letters just as easily:. Back in the document window, click anywhere on the white background to deselect the letters. Then, click on the first letter on the left to select it. A path outline will reappear around just that one letter:.

To move this one letter to its own layer, go up to the Layer menu, choose New , and then choose Shape Layer via Cut make sure you choose Cut and not Copy. It won't look like anything has happened, but in the Layers panel, we now see that the first letter has been moved to its own Shape layer above the original:.

To move the remaining letters to their own separate layers, click on a letter with the Path Selection Tool to select it in Photoshop CS6, you'll need to double-click.

Continue moving through the letters one at a time from left to right until each one is on a separate layer. When you reach the final letter on the right, you can just leave it because it will be the only letter remaining on the original Shape layer:.

In a moment, we're going to change the color of each letter and move the letters closer together so that they overlap. Since we want the colors in the overlapping areas to blend together, we need to change the blend mode for each Shape layer.

Photoshop lets us quickly change the blend mode for multiple layers at once. Click on the top layer in the Layers panel to select it. Then, to select the other Shape layers as well, press and hold your Shift key and click on the original Shape layer directly above the Background layer:. Change the blend mode in the upper left of the Layers panel from Normal to Multiply.

We'll see the effect of the Multiply blend mode once we start overlapping the letters:. I rmember when it happened to me it made me crazy!!! Well okay, craziER. I am so grateful I found this thread! FOUR years later and still very relevant. I have PSE11 and suddenly what did I do??!! My fancy fonts Magnolia Sky, Bromello, etc.

Basic fonts like Arial and Times New Roman have far too much space between each letter. The Kerning is off. Searching the internet usually a treasure-trove of info! Then clicked on the down arrow that is next to the 4 small lines over to the upper right in the tool options window. It worked! Thank you!!! You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Paste as plain text instead. I hit enter expecting a new line farther down but its right under it.

So say I want to make a list of text but I have to hit enter multiple times to do so. Any way to fix this? You are prompted to delete the current settings.

The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop. Note: Using the keyboard shortcut, preference files for custom shortcuts, workspaces, and color settings will also be reset to default. You're welcome. Welcome to the Community! Skip Take tour. Adobe Support Community. Turn on suggestions. Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type. Showing results for.