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Type on a Path and Curled Ribbons

Photoshop CS did add one of the most long-time requested features—type on a path; and we attach type to a circular path while building this logo, but I think the star of this technique is later on in the process, when you create a curved ribbon banner (like you'd normally do with the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator) from right within Photoshop. It's so easy you may never go back to the old Illustrator way again.

Step ONE. Open a new document in RGB mode. Create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press “d” to set your Foreground color to black. Get the Custom Shape tool from the Toolbox. In the Options Bar click on the third icon from the left (to create pixel-based shapes), and then click on the Shape thumbnail to bring up the Shape Picker. From the Picker's pop-down menu, choose Symbols and click Append to load that set. Choose the Yin Yang symbol, hold the Shift key, and drag out the shape.
Step TWO. Hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer under your Yin Yang layer. Get the Elliptical Marquee tool from the Toolbox, hold the Shift key, and drag out a circular selection that's larger than your Yin Yang symbol. Press “x” to set your Foreground color to white, then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill your selection with white. Press “d” to set your Foreground back to black. Go under the Edit menu and choose Stroke. When the Stroke dialog appears, choose 1 pixel for Width, Center for Location, and click OK. Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.
Step THREE. Command-click (PC: Control-click) the New Layer icon again to create another new blank layer. Click on the Foreground Color Swatch and choose red, then use the Elliptical Marquee tool to create a significantly larger circular selection. Fill this selection with red by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).
Step FOUR. Press “d” to set your Foreground color back to black. With your selection still in place around the red circle, choose Stroke from the Edit menu. Choose 4 pixels for Width, Center for Location, and click OK to put a black stroke around your red circle (as shown).
Step FIVE. While your selection is still in place, go under the Select menu and choose Transform Selection. Then, go up in the Options Bar and increase both the W (width) and H (height) to 110%, and press Return (PC: Enter) to expand the selection outward by 10% (as shown).
Step SIX. Hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and click the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer under your red circle layer. Then, choose Stroke from the Edit menu. This time, set the Width to 1 pixel, leave Location at Center, and click OK to add a thin stroke to your selection (as shown). Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to deselect.
Step SEVEN. Now you're going to create a ribbon to add to the logo. Create a new document in RGB mode. Press Shift-L until you get the Polygonal Lasso tool, and draw a selection of straight lines like the ones shown here. Hold the Shift key the whole time, and just click once, move to the next spot, and click again; the Polygonal Lasso will connect the straight lines for you.
Step EIGHT. Create a new blank layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Fill your selection with black (as shown here) by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). Deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D).
Step NINE. You're going to apply a filter that will make this ribbon bend, but before you do that, you'll have to rotate it vertically (like the one you see here). So press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform. Then go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and choose Rotate 90° CCW. Press Return (PC: Enter), then switch to the Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a rectangular selection that's a bit larger than your ribbon (as shown here).
Step TEN. Go under the Filter menu, under Distort, and choose Shear. When the Shear dialog appears, click in the center of the grid line to add a point. Click on this point and drag it to the left to bend the ribbon. You can see a preview of your bend at the bottom of the filter dialog. When it looks right, click OK to apply the bend. Deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D).
Step ELEVEN. Press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up Free Transform so you can rotate the ribbon back to its original orientation. Go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and choose Rotate 90° CW, then press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your Transformation.
Step TWELVE. Press the letter “v” to get the Move tool, click on your ribbon, and drag it over to your red circle document. Position it on the left (as shown here). This makes the left side of the ribbon. To make the right side, press Option-Command-T (PC: Alt-Control-T) to bring up a version of Free Transform that duplicates when it transforms. Control-click (PC: Right-click) within the bounding box, and when the menu appears, choose Flip Horizontal.
Step THIRTEEN. Press Return (PC: Enter) to lock in your transformation, and use the Move tool to drag this flipped duplicate ribbon to the right side. Position it like the one shown here. The ends of the ribbon should be behind the white circle in the middle. If they're not, go to the Layers palette and click-and-drag these ribbon layers beneath the white circle layer.
Step FOURTEEN. Press Shift-U until you get the Ellipse Shape tool from the Toolbox. Go up in the Options Bar and click on the center of the three small icons on the far left of the bar (as shown here). By choosing this, when you create a shape, it will appear as a path (as if you drew it with the Pen tool). Hold the Shift key and click-and-drag out a circular shape like the one shown here.
Step FIFTEEN. Press the letter “x” to switch your Foreground color to white, and then get the Type tool. Up in the Options Bar, make sure the justification is set to Center Text (as shown here). Then place your cursor at the top of the circular path (as shown), and the cursor will change slightly to indicate that you're about to attach type to the circular path.
Step SIXTEEN. Click on the path and enter your type. (Note: the type shown here is Mata Bold from T-26.) As you type, because you chose Center Text in the Type Options Bar in the previous step, the type will be centered on the top of the circle (as shown here).
Step SEVENTEEN. Duplicate this “type-on-a-path” layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J). Press the letter “a” to switch to the Path Selection tool (it's the black solid arrow to the left of the Type tool), click directly on the first letter of your type on a path, and drag it downward along the path. It will appear upside-down. Just click-and-drag upward, and it will flip in the right direction. To enter new text, go to the Layers palette, and double-click directly on the “T” thumbnail to highlight your type, then type in the word “taekwondo.”
Step EIGHTEEN. If your type seems too high, or to low, along the path (in other words, it's not centered within the red circle area), you can highlight the text (double-click on the “T” thumbnail in the Layers palette), then use the Baseline Shift amount in the Character palette (shown here) to raise or lower the text until it looks right.
Step NINETEEN. It's time to add type on a slight arc to the ribbons. Press “p” to get the Pen tool, then click on the bottom-left corner of the left ribbon. Then, move your cursor to the bottom-right corner of the left ribbon where it meets the white circle, click-and-hold to add a point, and drag to bend the path segment to match the curve of the ribbon (as shown).
Step TWENTY. Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer. Switch to the Type tool, then go up to the Options Bar, and click the Left Align Text button. Click your Type cursor on the left side of the path and begin typing, and your type will follow the path. The font used here is Papyrus. Once your type is in place, switch to the Move tool and drag it up into the center of the ribbon (as shown). Do the same for the right side.
Step TWENTY-ONE. Here's the text “1993” added to the right side of the ribbon. The reason you align the path to the bottom of the ribbon, is so the amount of bend in your curve is perfectly aligned to the bend in your ribbon. At this point, the logo is basically done, but we just can't help tweaking things a bit. So…
Step TWENTY-TWO. Go to the Layers palette and click on the original Yin Yang layer. Then, choose Bevel and Emboss from the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the dialog box appears, just click OK to apply the standard beveled effect to your Yin Yang symbol.
Step TWENTY-THREE. In the Layers palette, click on the thin black outer ring layer. Press the letter “w” to get the Magic Wand tool, and click in the white area inside the ring to select it. Press “d” then “x” to set white as your Foreground color, and then fill this circle with white by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). Choose Outer Glow from the Add a Layer Style pop-up menu. When the dialog appears, change the Blend Mode from Screen to Normal, increase the Spread to 8% and the Size to 27, and click on the beige Color Swatch and change the Glow color to black. Click OK.
Step TWENTY-FOUR. Here's the final logo, with a black outer glow, and beveled Yin Yang symbol. Again, it didn't need those extra effects, but I just couldn't help myself. It's a sickness.

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