How to outline text in Photoshop to make your text stand out on a custom image

Emma Witman

Nov 13, 2019, 20:51 IST

How to outline text in Photoshop to make your text stand out on a custom image

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You can outline text in Photoshop so that it stands out when placed over an image.

You can easily outline text in Photoshop by adjusting the "Stroke" of the text, which is one of the many ways you can customize your text on images in Photoshop.
One easy way to make text over images pop is by adding the appearance of an outline to your font in Photoshop, which you can do in four steps.
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It's great that social media platforms give you the ability to add text to pictures when you're making a flyer or publicizing an event to post.

However, there are times when the preferred background to a photo makes the text on top illegible - even if you try writing with every color in the rainbow.

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Fortunately, there's Photoshop. And you don't have to resort to the far more complicated process of modifying the background of a photo in the application.

You can simply add an outline to the text in Adobe Photoshop CC 2020, making it readable, regardless of what picture you've chosen to frame it.

Here's how:

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How to outline text in Adobe Photoshop CC 2020

1. Upload the photo in Photoshop you'd like to add text to by opening Photoshop, clicking "File" in the top menu and "Open" from the drop-down list. You can also do this by pressing "command" + "O" on your Mac or "control" + "O" on your PC.

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Start by clicking "File" in the top menu bar.

2. Select the photo that you'd like to import into Photoshop and click the blue "Open" button.

3. Now, you can add text to your image. Bear in mind that you'll just need the letters to be a large enough font size to accommodate the surrounding outline.

4. Once you add the text, a new layer will be created. Right click the layer in the "Layers" panel on the right side of the screen. Select "Blending Options" at the very top of the pop-up menu.

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After initially being happy with the size of the outline, I went back and tried a slightly more subtle outline effect, which I settled on for the final image.

5. Tap "Stroke." Modify the "Size" by dragging the arrow across the bar to the right of "Size:" or by manually typing in a number in the box to the right of the bar until you're happy with the outline's appearance. You can also adjust the color and opacity in the same window.