Photoshop® CS4 Bible

13.8. Vector versus Rasterized Type

Earlier in this chapter, I mention that type remains editable in Photoshop as long as it's kept as a vector type layer — in other words, as long as it's not rasterized. There are good reasons for keeping text in vector format — for instance, so you can transform it any number of times without losing its crisp edge, and so you can change type and paragraph options, such as type styles and paragraph spacing at any time.

However, there are also occasions when you'll want to rasterize your type — in other words, convert it to pixels on a layer that you can edit. If you want to apply filters to your text, or smudge, blur, or combine it with the pixels on another layer, or partially distort type, as in Figure 13.34, you first need to rasterize the type layer.

To rasterize type, choose LayersTypeRasterize, or right-click (Ctrl+click if you're on a Mac with a single-button mouse) on a type layer and choose Rasterize from the context menu.

If you think you might want to go back and make changes to a type layer, you may want to keep a copy of your type layer before rasterizing it. Simply choose LayerDuplicate, or drag your type layer to the New Layer icon ...