Adding Text to a Print Layout in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
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Step One:
Select a photo, then choose the Fine Art Mat template in the Template Browser and turn on the Zoom to Fill checkbox. The easiest way to add text is to go to the Page panel and turn on the Identity Plate checkbox, and it appears on your print (see Chapter 4 for how to set it up). Once it’s there, you can click-and-drag it right where you want it (in this case, drag it down and position it in the center of the space below the photo, as shown here). Here’s how I got two lines of text with different fonts (Trajan Pro on top; Minion Pro Italic on the bottom): Once you set the top row of text (I hit the spacebar once between each letter), then press Option-Return twice to move down two lines. (Note: This doesn’t work on a PC, but you can create it in Photoshop as a graphical Identity Plate.) Then, hit the Spacebar 20 times (to center the text) and type the second line. Then highlight everything under the first line, and change the font. It’s a workaround, but it works.
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Figure 1 SCOTT KELBY
Step Two:
Besides adding your Identity Plate, Lightroom can also pull text from your metadata (things like exposure settings, camera make and model, filename, or caption info you added in the Library module’s Metadata panel). You do this in the Page panel by turning on the Photo Info checkbox and choosing which type of info you want displayed at the bottom of your cell from the pop-up menu on the right (as shown here). You can change the size of your text right below it, but the largest size is 16 points, and on a large print, it’s pretty tiny.
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Step Three:
Now, besides just pulling the filename and metadata stuff, you can also create your own custom text (but it’s going to show up at the bottom of the cell and this text is stuck there—you can’t reposition it like you can the Identity Plate text, which is why I usually use that instead). If you choose Custom Text from the Photo Info pop-up menu, a field appears below it, so you can type in your custom text. You can also choose Edit from that same pop-up menu to bring up the Text Template Editor (shown here), where you can create your own custom list of data that Lightroom will pull from each photo’s metadata and print under that photo. In this case, I chose to add text showing the filename, exposure, ISO, and the focal length of the lens by clicking the Insert button beside each of these fields in the Editor or choosing them from the pop-up menus. I can’t imagine why anyone would want that type of information printed beneath the photo. But you know, and I know, there’s somebody out there right now reading this and thinking, “All right! Now I can put the EXIF camera data right on the print!” The world needs these people.
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Step Four:
If you’re printing pages for a photo book, you can have Lightroom automatically number those pages. In the Page panel, turn on the Page Options checkbox, then turn on the checkbox for Page Numbers. Lastly, if you’re doing a series of test prints, you can have your print settings (including your level of sharpening, your color management profile, and your selected printer) appear on the bottom-left side of the print (as seen here) by turning on the Page Info checkbox.
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