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In photoshop 7, how do I change the font layer background color without rasterizing the layer?

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I'm thinking this is probably off-topic for photo.se? – seanmc Nov 19 '10 at 0:53
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Hello Wiskin, and welcome to Photo.SE. I do apologize having to do this on your first question, however general Photoshop questions are off topic here. We are a photography related forum, and while we do answer questions involving Photoshop, they must be primarily related to photographic editing. I am closing this question as off-topic, however I hope that you will stick around, and ask any photography related questions you may have in the future. – jrista♦ Nov 19 '10 at 5:30
I think this question was on the fringe, I answered it because I found it relevant in the context of creating watermarks on a photo. – sebastien.b Nov 19 '10 at 13:42

closed as off topic by jrista♦ Nov 19 '10 at 5:30

Questions on Photography Stack Exchange are expected to relate to photography within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

2 Answers

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Tough one, Photoshop 7 is almost 8 years old. I've to be honest, I'm not sure what you mean by font layer background color (UPDATE: now I know). A font layer is transparent by default, and the only color you can change is the color of the text/font itself (but I assume you know how to do that).

Layer effects were introduced in PS6 if I recall, but that's not going to help either because they are only affecting the pixels in the layer (here, the text).

In later PS versions you can transform a layer into a smart object, and apply the Invert filter to that smart layer; e.g. a black text on white would become a white text on a black background. Unfortunately, I tried and while you can transform a text layer into as mart object, you can't apply an Invert filter on it. An Invert Adjustment Layer with a layer mask is not working either. The whole issue here is that I don't think PS gives you access to the bounding box of a text layer. If you Control+Click on the layer, it will select the outline of the text, not its bounding box.

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I think he means he wants a solid colour behind the text, which you can do in Illustrator and InDesign but not any version of Photoshop as far as I know... – Matt Grum Nov 18 '10 at 19:58
Oh I see now, I was confused because I didn't get what would be the physical extent of that "background". I assume that is the bounding box of the text. – sebastien.b Nov 18 '10 at 20:47
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The text tool is not something I use that often in Photoshop so I may be wrong, but I always thought that the background of a text layer in Photoshop is always transparent - thus it's impossible to change it without rasterizing.

I know that in Adobe InDesign you can set the text background to a specific colour, as I use that quite often for effect:

Assuming the above is the type of effect you're going for then I'm afraid I don't think it's possible.

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