Comic strips and comic books are increasing in popularity theses days, in part because of the large numbers of live action and CGI (computer generated) movies that have been produced in recent years based on comics. Many people are now using their personal computer to create their own comic strips and comic books and to post them online. One important aspect of creating your own comic is to know create the word or speech "balloons" that are used in comics to convey the words, sounds or thoughts of the characters. If you want to create your own comic word balloons, it is easy to do so in Photoshop.
Instructions
1. Decide what you want your characters to say and type it into a word processing program like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer. The reason you should do it this way rather than directly typing it into Photoshop is that Photoshop does not have spell check. While writing, keep in mind the limited amount of space you will have for you word balloon, so keep it short.
2. Open Photoshop. Select "File" and click "Open." In the dialog that opens browse to the file containing the comic panels that you want to add word balloons to and open it. Click on the "lock" next to the layers where you have your panels, to protect them. Then click on the text tool. In the options at the top select the font you want to use (it should be easy to read) and set the size. Go back to your word processing document and copy the words you want to place in the balloon. Back in Photoshop, select "Edit" and then "Paste" to place the words where you want them. Make the text conform to a roughly elliptical flat shape.
3. Select the "Custom Shape" tool from the toolbar. In the options at the top click on the little drop down menu to get to the presets. Select one of the preset word or thought balloons. Make sure that the "Fill" option is turned off. Now draw the shape of the balloon onto the canvas so as to surround the words you pasted in.
4. Click on the "Path" tab above the layers. Then right-click on the path you see listed and from the options select "Stroke Path." You now have a word balloon for your character.
