Everyone's looking for a quick and easy way to create curved text in Paint Shop Pro, a filter, magic wand or something. The truth is, aside from creating the text in another graphics program and importing it into PSP, there is no quick, easy way. The good news is, it can be done in PSP, and it's not really all that difficult!

Start with a new canvas, and immediately add two new layers. You should have in front of you a window with three layers, the background, layer 1 and layer 2. In the control palette select layer 1. Using what ever tool you prefer, draw a shape on this layer. You could draw an odd shape using the paintbrush, or use the Shape Tool for circles and ellipses. I chose the circle, Style: Outlined, although it isn't necessary to use an outline; a solid shape will do as well as this layer will be eliminated later on.

Once your shape is in place, create a new layer, (layer 4). You will need to place each letter in the text on it's own separate layer. Type your first letter, font size in proportion to your shape. If you have a small circle, you wouldn't want to use a huge font. That could result in running out of space before you finish the entire word. :)

The text dialog box may be set to floating or not, again, that is your choice. I chose to have the floating box unchecked, but it works well either way. Do not de-select your text selection. Add cutouts and shadows to the letter, as desired. Make sure to remember your settings if you get too fancy as you'll need to add the same settings to each letter in your word(s).

Once you have the letter "filtered and shadowed" select the Deform Tool. Drag the bounding box and your letter over to your shape. To line it up so that the bottom of the letter is against the edge of your chosen shape, move your cursor over the bounding box until you see it change from the cursor shape to two little arrows going in a circle. Sometimes that can be hard to locate if your letter is so small that the bounding box is minuscule. Keep trying, it should show up. Once you get the cursor to change hold your primary mouse button in, turning the bounding box until the three handles on the bottom line up perfectly with the edge of your shape. Double-click inside the bounding box to apply the deformation. Release the selection and add a new layer for your next letter.

Continue adding one letter at a time, positioning it along the edge of your shape. Remember to add a new layer for each new letter. If while you are working your way through this process, the deformation bounding box suddenly encloses not only your new letter, but the previous letter as well, you've forgotten to add a new layer. Do a CTRL Z until the current letter is gone, add a new layer and continue on.

Let's make it a little interesting and take our circle, (provided you've elected to use the circle), in another direction. In the Layer Control Palette, select layer 1. Using the Mover Tool, slide the circle to the right until the edge of the circle is at the top edge of your last letter. Back in the Layer Control Palette, once again select the top most layer and then add another new layer. (This keeps all of your layers in order in the Control Palette).

Continue adding letters and layers until your text is complete. If you find you're not going to have enough room to add all of the text you can go off in another direction, or drop the final letter inside the circle as I did.

Turn off Layer 1, which should be the circle of shape used as a guideline for the text. Save and you're done!