How to Add Your Own Handwriting to Your Photos (Part III)

The final way to add your own handwriting to your photos is by using a computer graphics tablet. This way requires more of an investment, but it is probably the quickest and most convenient way.

Using a tablet is as fast and convenient as creating a personalized font, but it also gives you all the creativity you need. It allows you to write or doodle directly onto your photos, which saves a lot of time as opposed to the scanning method, and it allows you to be more creative than just using a simple font. You can use different writing styles and effects and add drawings to your photos. The only downfall is that it requires more of an investment in purchasing a tablet. Prices vary from around $30 to $80 or much more for advanced or professional tablets.

I prefer doing things for free or very cheap, so I don't own a digital tablet yet, but there is a really great tutorial on how to use one to write on your photos on A Beautiful Mess. You can find it here. This tutorial shows how to add handwriting using Photoshop Elements and a digital tablet. They take you through each step of the process and explain it very well. They say it only takes a little bit of practice to get it right, but once you're used to it, it's "just like drawing on paper (but easier to erase!)"

The tablet they recommend is the Wacom Bamboo Connect Pen Tablet (CTL470).
You can find it on Amazon.com for around $70.

Also, take a look at the list of best selling tablets on Amazon here.


If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.
For other ways to add your own handwriting to your photos, take a look at Part 1 and Part 2.


Follow my Quotes board on Pinterest for some inspirational quotes to add to your photos.

How to Add Your Own Handwriting to Your Photos (Part II)

The second way to add handwriting to your photos is to write out your quote and then scan it. This way takes a little more time and planning, but it allows you to have a lot more creativity in the design.

The first step is to scan your quote into your computer.

Then, open your picture into your photo editing software. For this, I used pixlr's advanced photo editor, a free online photo editing website.

Click on an image for a larger view.

Then, open your handwriting image as a new layer (From the menu bar, Layer > Open image as layer). You may need to resize your image to fit (From the menu bar, Edit > Free Transform).

Since my photo has a darker background, I inverted the colors on my handwriting image so text will be white (From the menu bar, Adjustment > Invert).

Use the wand tool to select the background. Click anywhere in the space outside of the letters.


Press the delete button on your keyboard. Repeat for the inside of the letters.




If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.
For other ways to add your own handwriting to your photos, take a look at Part 1 and Part 3.


Follow my Quotes board on Pinterest for some inspirational quotes to add to your photos.

How to Add Your Own Handwriting to Your Photos (Part I)

Using your own handwriting is a great way to add a personal touch to your photos. There are a few ways to do this. The first and most convenient way is to create your own font. This is what I have been using in my layout and recent photos.

There are lots of websites out there for creating your own fonts. The one I chose to use is a free website called MyScriptFont.com because it's pretty straight-forward and easy to use. For this, you will need a printer, scanner, a pencil, and a black felt pen. When you go to the website, you will find a link to the template they provide, and you can download and print it.

The next step is to fill out the form. I would suggest writing lightly in pencil first in case you make a mistake. Make sure your letters stay inside the lines. Anything outside of the gray box will get cut off.

Once you've perfected your letters, go over your pencil lines with a black felt pen or thin marker.


Give the ink a little bit of time to fully dry and then go back and erase your pencil lines.


Scan the page into your computer. The suggested settings are to scan as grayscale at 300dpi.


After your form is scanned, go back to myscriptfont.com to name and upload your form.


Now that you've created your font, you can download and install it onto your computer.




Now, you have a personalized font that you can use in any photo editing software on your computer.




If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.
For other ways to add your own handwriting to your photos, take a look at Part 2 and Part 3.


Follow my Quotes board on Pinterest for some inspirational quotes to add to your photos.