I've been having a lot of fun with paths in Photoshop lately, learning, at long last, how to do some of the cooler effects with odd shapes and curled edges. I also have learned something cool you can do with fonts, if you need something quirky and original on your page, and you don't have access to a good font (the word 'peculiar' to the right, has been done in Bodoni Highlight, both times). A lot of the times I find myself wanting something with a similar weight to a font I have, but.....funkier. And here's a cool trick to help you get that. This method uses the paths palette to get the effects demonstrated below. Here was the steps: Type your text in using the text tool. Save the selection (Select > Save Selection), then delete it, then load it again (so you have the shape of your text selected, but nothing in the selection.) Go to your Paths window, shown to the left. (Window > Palettes > Show Paths). Click on the Marquee tool (the one circled in the image.) You will see the text appear in the Paths window, in a path called 'Work Path'. Click on the Marquee tool again, to convert it back to a selection. Fill it with your colour of choice. Move back to the 'Layers' window to view the result. Here are some more examples of things I did using this trick. torino outline times top: thickhead, bottom: bodoni poster

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