Tutorial: How to Digitally Add Your Baby's Name to Photos

This tutorial will demonstrate an easy way to digitally embed your baby's name onto photographs.

Nowadays, you can just download an app if you have an iphone or ipad. But the drawback is that you will be limited to what fonts you can use, and many apps will shrink your photos. Personally, I prefer to use my computer to add names to photos because I feel like it's faster and I have more options available than when I use my iphone. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1. A photograph or graphic. You can use any photo as long as there is enough space to add text. (You can download the sunset photo HERE.)
2. A computer with photo editing software such as Photoshop or GIMP. I use Adobe Photoshop but because most of you don't have this software, I'm going to do the tutorial using GIMP which is free and safe to download HERE, as long as you have Windows XP or later. If that link doesn't work for you, try THIS ONE.
3. The font that you want to use. You can download some awesome free fonts HERE and HERE. 

ESTIMATED TIME:
From start to finish this took me less than 5 minutes, not including the time it took to install GIMP. If you're not as familiar with GIMP, it may take a little longer.

I've made a video tutorial that's been added at the end of this post, and I've also written out step by step instructions with photos. 

STEPS:
1. Open GIMP. Then open (FILE >> OPEN...) your photo. Make sure your toolbox window is open on the left hand side.

2. Click on the letter "A" found in the toolbox panel. A text settings box should open up on the bottom half of your toolbox panel. 

3. Click on the square box next to "Font" to change the font. I'm using Jellyka Delicious Cake, but feel free to use any font that you like. 

~Then use the up arrow to increase the size of your font or just type it in. Start with 200 px and later you can adjust it. 

~Then change the color by clicking on the black rectangle box. A "Text Color" window will open. Change the font to white. 

4. After you finish adjusting your text settings, click anywhere on your photo. A small window will open. Type your baby's name inside this window. Then click "CLOSE".

5. Your baby's name should now be visible. Now is the time to adjust the size using the up/down arrows in your text settings (circled below in red). 

~Also, if your Layers, Channels, Paths toolbar is not already open, you'll need to open it now. You can find it under the "Windows" menu. 

~Change the Opacity to 70% by dragging the slider (outlined below in red.)

6. Now you'll need to rotate your text. To do so click on the rotate tool (it's located beneath the magnifying glass), circled below in red. 

~The Rotate Window will pop up. Change the angle by pulling up on the bottom right corner, or by using the up/down arrows. Click ROTATE when you're finished. 

7. To move the text, click on the Move Button on your Toolbox (circled below in red). Make sure that your text layer is selected (it should be light grey) on the Layers, Channels, Paths panel (outlined below in red). Also, make sure to select the "Move the active layer" option in your Toolbox (circled below in blue).

~Now you can drag your text and move it to the correct location. 

8. That's it... You're done! Now you just need to save your finished photo. 

FILE >> SAVE AS (Make sure you re-name your photo, otherwise it will overwrite the original photo.

~You'll need to flatten your image before saving it as a JPEG. You can do so by clicking "Export."

9. Make sure when you save your photo that the quality scale is set to 100, if you're saving it in JPEG format. As a general rule, you never want to use a program like GIMP to compress your photos because you will notice a loss in quality. 

If you did everything correctly, this is what your finished photo should look like: 

If the above instructions were confusing, try watching this video tutorial:




If you have any questions, or need help, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email!