Making Wire Words

by Barbara Snyder

Creating wire words is a simple process of 1) finding the right font, and 2) using a simple one-step effect.

Finding the correct font for creating words is simple. The font should be thin and the letters should connect with each other. I used Font Thing to view my fonts and find the fonts I have installed that meet these criteria. (Font Thing is a free program. You can download it here: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html)

Some of the fonts I currently have installed in my computer that I could use are Andrea Cursive, French Script, and Little Days.

Let’s make some wire words. Open a file (File—New); say 5” x 2” at 300ppi, and with a white background. Create a new layer for your text by clicking on Layer—New Layer, then click on ok in the pop-up box.

Now you are ready to create the wire word. Choose the Text tool from the tool bar, and make sure you have Horizontal Text chosen, by clicking on the little arrow at the bottom right of the Text icon.

Now choose your font, and a size of 72, and type away! You may resize the name to fit the file by dragging on the little dotted lines with your mouse. Click the arrow in the top tool bar to “set” the resized element.

My capital letter was not attached to the rest of the word, so I chose a round hard brush from default brushes and with an appropriately sized brush (this might take some trial and error), I joined the cap to the rest of the word.

Now apply the metallic finish by choosing Layer Styles from the palette box (the tabbed choices on the far right of the upper tool bar), and from the drop down box, choose Wow Chrome. Choose a chrome style you like. You may try various chrome styles, but to avoid piling one style on top of another, click on the “stop” circle on the layer styles area, and then apply your next choice.

Now you are finished! If you want to save it, discard the bottom white layer by right clicking on the background layer in the layers palette and choosing delete layer. Now save as a png. Choose File—Save As, and choose the location where you want to save your file to and the correct format and then choose “Save”.