Using Text and Overlays with PicMonkey
Hi everyone! I’m Jann Newton of Newton Custom Interiors, where I blog about home decor, DIY and sewing projects. I’m thrilled to be guest posting for Deby again. Today we’re going to be delving deeper into how to use PicMonkey.
A few months ago, I guest posted here at Mom’s Make Money about taking better pictures for your blog. In that post, I talked a little bit about how I love to use PicMonkey to edit my pictures after they’re taken.
PicMonkey is a fabulous photo editing program, that can help make your photos look the best that they can. It’s a free program, or you can upgrade to the Royale edition if you would like. The yearly fee is very reasonable.
I’m going to be sharing tips and tricks for using PicMonkey in this three part series:
PicMonkey Part One – Basic Photo Editing – check out last weeks tutorial.
PicMonkey Part Two – Applying Text and Overlays
PicMonkey Part Three – Collages
Today is part two of the series. If you have ever wondered how people add words or shapes to their photos, then this is the tutorial for you! It’s really very easy.
I’ve made a video of my computer screen to show you step-by-step how to apply text and overlays to your pictures.
There are written instructions after the video.
1. Open up PicMonkey.com.
2. Click on Edit A Photo.
3. Upload a photo from your computer.
4. On the left side of the edits page there are several options for overlays and adding text. Click on the butterfly (overlays), and pick out an overlay for your photo. Simply click and drag the overlay to where you would like it on your photo. You can make the overlay larger or smaller by clicking and dragging on the corners.
5. You can change the color of the overlay by clicking on the eye dropper, and hovering over the colors in the spectrum or from your picture. You can also make the overlay transparent by clicking on Fade and moving the circle along the bar.
6. If you would like to change one of the steps, you can click the undo button at the top of the page. You can also delete an overlay or the text by right clicking on the overlay, and clicking on delete.
7. You can duplicate any of the overlays by right clicking on the overlay, and clicking on duplicate.
8. To add text, click on the Tt button (text). Pick which font you would like to use, click on it and then click on Add Text. A text box will pop up. Simply start typing in the text box. Highlight the text to change the size and color.
9. To start with a blank canvas, instead of a picture, go to the home page. Click on Canvas, and pick which canvas shape you would like.
10. You can add overlays and text to your blank canvas the same way you would for your photos.
Here’s the finished photo with it’s overlay and text:
Play around and experiment with all of PicMonkey’s different features. Have fun with it!
Jann Newton shares home decor, DIY and sewing tips on her blog, Newton Custom Interiors. You can find her at Google+, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.
December 18, 2013 @ 9:33 am
Awesome tutorial! Thank you!!!!
December 18, 2013 @ 3:25 pm
Thanks Lisa!
December 18, 2013 @ 1:59 pm
Great info, Thanks!
December 18, 2013 @ 3:26 pm
Thanks Barb!
December 22, 2013 @ 9:39 pm
i love that you can add your own pictures as overlays also. thanks again for keeping us informed with these picmonkey tutorials thanks for linking up with the all things pretty party.
January 10, 2014 @ 12:39 pm
Great tutorial! I have searched high and low and I cannot find the answer so maybe you might know. How can I get an overlay perfectly centered in the middle of a photo. I can only see that you can do it by dragging but there is so much room for error. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!
January 10, 2014 @ 2:38 pm
There isn’t a quick and easy way built in that I know of Nicole. But when I want to be super accurate for centering, I set myself up some diagonal lines from corner to corner to find the exact center. Using the rectangle overlay, stretch it to make it very long and thin then rotate it so it goes to opposite corners through the center. Duplicate the overlay, rotate and move it to the other corners and you’ll end up with a big X shape marking the center. Now when you add in your overlay, it has those 4 little circles at the corners. Simply use the arrow keys on your keyboard to fine tune the placement of your overlay until the little circles exactly line up over the big X lines and you’ll know your overlay is exactly centered. Remove the lines and you are done. I hope this helps.
January 10, 2014 @ 5:32 pm
That makes sense! Wouldn’t it be nice though to just click something?? Thank you for the quick response!
January 29, 2014 @ 5:33 pm
Thanks for the tutorial! I’ve been trying to figure this out.
March 31, 2014 @ 3:06 pm
Thank you so much for an awesome tutorial. I am just beginning at blogging and I see some beautiful pics out there. One question is how do I get a black background so that the picture in the forefront is featured and stressed
April 1, 2014 @ 8:54 am
You can set the canvas color to black and then add the photo ontop, or you can add a frame in black around the photo. Both of these would work for the effect you are looking for I think.
April 20, 2014 @ 1:20 pm
Is there any way to make and overlay just longer without making the entire thing bigger? I have been trying my best to figure this out and find an answer online to no avail.
April 20, 2014 @ 5:33 pm
Some overlays can certainly be changed in shape, but not all I think. If you click on the corner you can rotate or you can increase and decrease in size. But there are also side-handles. Double lines on the sides or top and bottom on some of them where you can change the side in one dimension only, making it taller or wider, without increasing the other dimension. So, you can make a square overlay into a rectangle shape with this. Hope this helps.
April 20, 2014 @ 5:36 pm
Actually, having just been and tried it, I take back that answer. I wasn’t able to get those lines on the side and everything I did increased the size of the overlay overall but I could not change its shape. Hmm, maybe I’m mis-remembering…Sorry.
September 24, 2014 @ 9:48 am
thanks 4 the detail article about PicMonkey. 🙂
March 31, 2017 @ 6:39 am
So helpful, I am still learning the ins and outs and this brought me right to what I wanted to do! Thank you!