Caption Tool

Caption Tool Instructions

Click on the Caption Tool button on the main toolbar to get the Caption Tool controls:

Caption Tool Control Bar

The Caption control bar is the bar with the title "Caption" on the left end of it.

Caption Title Button

Mouse over the "Caption" title button to pop up an overall caption help window. You can also mouse over the other controls to pop up a help window.

Tool Modes

The first three buttons provide a Select Mode, a Locate Caption Mode, and a Text Caret Mode for the Caption Tool.

The default mode is the Locate Caption Mode, using the crosshair to mark the upper left corner of the initial position of the new caption. Most of the controls are disabled until the new caption has been located. Once located the mode switches to the Text Caret Mode and you can begin typing.

The Text Caret Mode of the Caption Tool allows you to position the text insertion caret anywhere in the text. It also allows you to drag across words to select them.

The Select Mode allows you to select another Caption layer for editing.

Font

Select a Font from the drop-down list. The font selection will apply to new characters entered. You can also drag-select a group of characters, change the font and the caption will update. Press Change All to change the entire caption.

Size

Select a Size from the size list. The size will apply to new characters entered. You can drag-select a group of existing characters, change the size and the caption will update. Press Change All to change the entire caption.

Format

Select Left, Center or Right alignment for the caption. You can make this selection at anytime and the entire caption will update.

Letter Spacing

Select from the list. This is an effective way to make a short caption cover a wide space. Try 100 for the main title of a drawing and see how it looks.

Line Spacing

Select from the list.

Color

Select the color using the palette. The character color will be the selected color.

Creating a Caption

With the crosshair mode selected, click to mark the upper left corner of the new caption. Then just begin typing, backspacing to correct any errors as you go. Change the settings to get what you want.

Keep in mind that each caption will become a separate layer with the characters defined by line pixels. So you can apply some of the line editing capabilities to the type. Increase the width to fatten the type a bit. Change color. Brush on color on parts of characters or all of them. However, style and freehand are inappropriate for text.

You can stretch or compress, resize, rotate, and combine the captions, just like any other layers.

Here's a caption. Notice the letter spacing: