how to add a text to a photo in iphoto?

Thanks for the info. Have used Picassa on my PC. Just got an Apple and couln't believe there was not a simple way to add text! I need a lot of convincing to give up my PC completely. 25 years pf using a PC is making an Apple not seem so easy.

thanks Old Toad!

I don't want to think about how many times I've already exported / imported to add texts in Preview ...

though I still don't understand why this little feature can't be added to iPhoto (also for iOS) so that noobs like me can add text fields to photos there and to documents in Preview, this certainly hels a long way on the Mac.

one interesting thing though, is that after I've added a text field in the external editor and saved it (to iPhoto) it seems I can't edit there anymore without first duplicating the photo ...

also, if I want to _change_ an already added text field, and choose "edit in external editor" again, those texts from before can't be edited, as far as I can tell.

maybe this too could be solved with some more searching here, but for my purposes this halfway help will have to do for now 😕

When you add text in Preview, it adds the pixel information directly into the bit pattern of the picture. So, when you save it, your original picture is modified to have the text actually 'IN" the picture. When you save it, it is a newly modified JPEG file (Hopefully you saved your original first and worked on a copy).

In order to keep an editable version of text that was added, you would have to save that information separately. The way Adobe Photoshop and others do it is with 'Layers'. The analogy for that would be to place a clear plastic sheet over the photo and write the text on it. In that case it is easy to get rid of the text by just deleting that layer. You can also edit the text by working just on that layer.

But that requires a much more complex program and unfortunately iPhoto and Preview are not yet able to work on layers that way.

I hope that helped.

You can do what you want with Photoshot or PHotoshop Elements as dennislogue has pointed out. However, the file must be first converted to a .psd file and imported into iPhoto as a .psd file. Now, when you use PSE as the external editor from within iPhoto it will retain any edits that end up as layers and can be re-edited. The caveats in the following will generally apply to any 3rd party editor using layers.

Using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.

1 - select Photoshop or Photoshop Elememts as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.

2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.

3 - however, if you get the navigation window

that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.

This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..

With Photoshop Elements the Saving File preferences should be configured as shown:

I also suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always. In PSE’s General preference pane set the Color Picker to Apple as shown:

Screenshots are from PSE 10

Note 1: to switch between iPhoto and PS or PSE as the editor of choice Control (right)-click on the thumbnail and select either Edit in iPhoto or Edit in External Editor from the contextual menu. If you use iPhoto to edit more than PSE re-select iPhoto in the iPhoto General preference pane. Then iPhoto will be the default editor and you can use the contextual menu to select PSE for your editor when desired.

Note 2: editing a RAW file with either PSE or PS creates a new file which must be saved outside of iPhoto, i.e. the Desktop, and imported as a new photo into the iPhoto Library.

OT

If you only want to add the titles or dates as text onto the photo when you send it to others, use the export plug-in BorderFX.This can add borders, keywords, watermarks, and your captions to the photos, when you export your photo from iPhoto, beautifully laid out, with all kinds of fonts. It is donation ware. Use it for free, or pay whatever it is worth for you.

Download at: http://www.iborderfx.com/iborderfx

thanks for your explanation dennislogue and excellent instructions again Old Toad!

the thing is that I'm not a "real photographer" and therefore don't need something like PS or the like. I also don't need this text-feature for _photo-editing_ per se. it's for my class blog, when I want to eg add something to a shot of the whiteboard, to make it more comprehensible for students that weren't present.

like this:

anyway, thank you so much for your help, and I'm sure your comments will be usefull to other more advanced users 😀

One way to do that is with Pages if you have it. You can add a photo to a layout and then add text, arrows, etc. to the page. The Pages file can be converted to a jpg file to get it back into your iPhoto Library.

In your circumstance I think 'Old Toad's' suggestion of using Pages is an excellent option. Not only can you add text in layers with the; 'Arrange > Bring Forward .. Bring to Front .. Send Backward .. Send to Back' commands But you can also enter additional speaker notes below and around the image if you like.

The other nice thing about Pages (Or just about anything on a Mac) is that you can 'Print' the final document as a PDF for distribution to your Students / Audience. It works very well for multi-page documents and just about anyone can open PDF documents.

You can do the same thing with Keynote if you want more of a presentation format. I use both for training and presentation documents.

If you do have Pages and go that route here's a way to easily get a page or pages from any document (Pages or otherwise) into iPhoto as a jpg file:

Here's how to get any file into iPhoto as a jpeg file:

1 - open the file in any application that will open it.

2 - type Command+P to start the print process.

3 - click on the PDF button and select "Save PDF to iPhoto".

NOTE: If you don't have any of those options go to Toad's Cellar and download these two files:

Save PDF to iPhoto 200 DPI.workflow.zip

Save PDF to iPhoto 300 DPI.workflow.zip

Unzip the files and place in the HD/Library/PDF Services folder and reboot.

4 - select either of the files above (300 dip is used for photos to be included in a book that will be ordered).

5 - in the window that comes up enter an album name or select an existing album and hit the Continue button.

That will create a 200 or 300 dpi jpeg file of the item being printed and import it into iPhoto.

thanks again dennislogue and Old Toad

I tried the Pages way!

just a few notes from/for people as novice as myself; I obviously can't set Pages to be my external editor - as described OT described on the first page of this thread. I have to open a blank doc in Pages and pull the photo onto it ...

... that converts it into a tif ... for a good reason I suppose 8)

also when you say "speaker notes" dennislogue, you mean as in notes of what I'd be saying if I was using the image as a slide in a presentation, right? I saw that there's a field for "description" when the image is marked in the pages document, but either way, I guess I'd use Keynote for that purpose.

for only using these illustration on my class blog, I think the way this turned out was quite neat.

however, I obviously still have to save a Pages version of the edited shot, if I want to be able to go back and correct or complete it later ... once saved to iPhoto (thanks to OT'ss cellar file) it if course is saved as a "one layer" jpeg again ...

for someone who's doesn't need all this going back and forth, I guess the edit in preview-option might be enough:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/10/05/add-speech-bubbles-pictures-preview-mac/

I curiously can't seem to find the speech-bubble feature in Preview but I'm sure there's an answer to that too somewhere ... 8)

anyway, all these options - including the one suggested by léonie - seems to me to settle the thread question for most users =)

I curiously can't seem to find the speech-bubble feature in Preview but I'm sure there's an answer to that too somewhere ... 8)

To be able to use the speech bubble in Preview, enable the Edit Toolbar. View > Show Edit Toolbar ⇧⌘A

Then add a Speech bubble to the menu. Tools menu > Annotate > Speech Bubble

yes, léonie I found it there under tools 8)

funny that it didn't apper along with the toolbar as in your previous screen shot and in the link, but hey ... there's obviously many mysteries yet left for me to explore in the apple spere ...

cheers!

Janicke73: It is a 'Quantum Level' command, so merely observing it changes it's state. You actually have to know it is there before you can see it. 😉

funny that it didn't apper along with the toolbar as in your previous screen shot and in the link, but hey ..

You have to use it once, to make it appear in the editing toolbar.