I’m trying to figure out how to shape font in a particular way.

[SW1977]

First of all, I’d like to say thanks in advance for your time. This is my first post in here, so I apologize if I’m asking for help in the wrong section. I’ve been using PS for a few years now, but if I’m being honest, I still feel like I’m always still learning. I wanted to mention that I don’t have Adobe Illustrator. I know that is often recommended when it comes to jobs like this. I hope to learn illustrator at one point, but for now PS is the only one I’m familiar with.

This is why I came here for help. I was asked by my nephew’s little league team if I could help out with their shirts. They knew I had PS, and I have made them a few “easier” designs in the past using PS. They wanted to use this style to make a shirt for each individual player, so where you see the name “outsider” it would instead say the players last name. I have tried going into the text warp option, but I’m not having any success making the names look like the picture.

I tried a few days ago, and if I remember correctly, I think I tried the arc or arch feature, curved the top part, saved it as a smart object, then tried to curve the bottom somehow. I instantly knew I was doing it all wrong. The text just looked curved at the top and bottom, but it wasn’t symmetrical to go along the baseball seams. If anyone in here can walk me through some suggestions it would mean the world to me.

 

[Rich54]

• This is optional, but I found that it helps achieving symmetry if you temporarily activate the grid for some guidelines. Go to View>Show>Grid.
• Then I took your image and temporarily reduced the opacity way down, so that I could see the baseball seams and also clearly see the gridlines.

• On a new layer, use the text tool to write your text.
• Make the text large enough so that the outside letters are pretty much the size you eventually want them. For the moment, the middle letters are too tall.
• Like this:

• Convert the text layer to a Smart Object. The command is Layer>Smart Object>Convert to Smart Object.
• Now go to Edit>Transform>Warp. This command does not work on a normal text layer, but it does work on a Smart Object.
• Using the gridlines as a guide to achieve the same amount of warping on both the left and right, grab the adjustment handles shown below—where the red arrows are pointing—and drag them vertically toward the center to curve the middle letters.

• Double-click on the Smart Object thumbnail in the layers panel. This opens the smart object itself, which is a separate file (with a PSB extension) embedded within your main PSD file.
• When that file opens, you will see your original text layer, but without the Warping.
• With that text layer active, go back to the Text tool and type the name of Player #2.
• Save and close the PSB file. Your PSD file will now be updated with the name of Player#2 and the new text will automatically have the same curved warping that you created earlier.
• If a given player's name is substantially longer or shorter than the text you used for the original warping, you may need to resize or re-center the new text when you're in the smart object PSB file.

 

[kabak]

Hi!
Another procedure that is also possible for you..
Write the text,
adjust it to the guides
and transform the text with Bulge

 

[IamSam]

Same as Rich's technique, just a different perspective.....text on a sphere. (Maybe tweaked a little better, I worked fast for the demo!)




New name via smart object

 

[SW1977]

Wow!! I honestly can’t thank all of you enough for the help. Not only did you all respond with help, you provided very thorough, detailed information that is extremely helpful to me. I honestly can’t wait to start working on the shirts now, especially after receiving such great information from everyone here who replied. I am beyond grateful to everyone who left me with such great options to try!! Thanks again to everyone, I’m going to start working on the design when I get home from work today! You guys are the absolute best!

 

[Rich54]

and transform the text with Bulge

I thought I knew all the text transformations, but I guess in 15 years I never investigated "Bulge". Definitely easier than the warp tool.