Today I will be showing you how to add text to your images using Pixlr.

Read on to see a few tips and tricks…

For this tutorial I have downloaded a photo from istock photo for this tutuorial, you can grab a copy here

Launching Pixlr and Opening your image

Pixlr is fantastic because it doesn’t require you to have any additional programs installed on your computer to launch Pixlr you just visit their website : http://www.pixlr.com/editor and it begins – No more waiting for Photoshop to load!

You are then greeted by an option box; Create A New Image, Open Image From Computer or Open Image From URL. For today’s tutorial I will be opening an image from my computer.

With your image now open, we can add text to the picture to make a statement! And Pixlr already knows all of the fonts installed on our computer!!

On the toolbar on the left hand side of the screen find the Text Tool button (it’s the T) and click where you would like to add your text to the photo – Don’t worry too much we can move this later! Type what you would like to appear on the photo, to match this photo I have added “Relaxation…”

You will notice that while you have the Text Tool in use Pixlr adds another tool box across the top of the screen. Here you can select your font, size, setting and colour. (This can also be seen in the photo below)

See.. Not so pretty at the moment.

Now we will edit the text to make it look good with our photo. Make sure you still have the Text Tool selected and now we can play with the features in the top toolbar. I have changed my text to “Papyrus” 30px and light brown. (See pic below)

Crop The Image

I’m not happy with the layout of the photo with my text so I am now going to crop the image to remove the unwanted parts of the photo.

Select the Crop Tool – The third from the top – it looks like a square with a diagonal line through it.

As the area you would like to reduce the photo to is selected a dotted line box will show you the final area (Don’t worry too much it is not final at this stage so try it a few times to make sure the area is right)

Once your mouse is released, a box will show up divided by 3 x 3 rows – this is a fabulous guide for making the most impact in your designs (The Golden Rule of Thirds – you can view more about this here)

Once you have the layout as you would like it double click within the area to crop the photo.

Pixlr has a huge number of features that you can explore, the options are limitless!

Hopefully I will get a chance to update some more tutorials soon!

All The Best,

Emma