Of all the things you can do with online photo studios, adding custom text is not often easy. The majority of self-service print platforms need you to have your image ready to print.
If you need to finalise your picture before ordering a print to frame, the information below explains the processes to use.
How Text is Added to Digital Prints
There are two ways to add text to your display; more if you include writing or painting on the mount board. To add custom text that you want to be printed on the photo, such as to add name badges to headshots, insert a bio signature, or add a title to your art, there a couple of ways to make that happen. A PC/laptop will be easier than a smartphone because you will see the full size, and the image previews better.
The two types of programs suitable for adding text to a photo are:
Image editing software
Artists selling custom artwork generally go with premium image editing software. If you only plan to create one or two for personal use, free programs tend to do a decent enough job. They just do not come with the bells and whistles that make life easier for the professionals using software every day.
The vast majority of editing software, whether it is a free app, an online editor, or a software download, have options to add text. It is usually a button with a capital “T” for text. Press that and a box opens with a blinking cursor to start typing your message.
Choose your font, change the text size, and change the colour. There are more decorative aspects in image editing programs, such as graphic borders, and symbols, like adding a love heart shape in place of the O in the word Love.
Image editing software does WordArt images better. For basic plain text additions, word processors can be easier.
A word processor
If you would just like to add a footnote, name your piece, or include a custom message across the top of the photo, or the bottom, a word processor could be all you need. If you have a Gmail account, you will have access to Google Docs. For Microsoft accounts, MS Word can handle adding text boxes, and both have an image import feature.
Using a word processor will not let you put images over your print. What you can do instead is import a photo, then select “add caption” to give your image a description. For more control and better sizing options, use the “insert” menu that is in most word processors then and select “text box”. That text box can be dragged into position. Place it above or below the image, remembering to leave some spacing between the photo and the text box.
Depending on how you want your text to look, text boxes can be made transparent, or you can increase and decrease the border thickness around your text. You can also change the colour of the border and text.
Preparing Text and Image Documents for Print
Word processors can be simpler at getting your text onto the screen, but they are not as easy to get them into print; it is two separate parts. One is text, the other is the image. Hit print and you will be printing at least one full page.
A workaround is to take a screen capture, then use the crop function to capture the image and the text box together in one image. Once you have the cropped image, you can then resize that to the size of print you want, then print it with text.