I need some help. I attemting to weld 3 true type font cahracters together so they can grow together as one unified vector graphic. Then I can apply vector effects along the total outline instead of having them disect the unjoined, butted up characters as is now the case. I am wanting to outline the three joined characters on the outer edge. There seems to be no easy way to do this. I hope I'm wrong. The letters are ur resting on a z. I wont the bottom of the u and r to join into the top of the z. I have tried deleting anchor points and rejoining them to the new letters. Not working so far. Can anyone help? Is this easier in Illustrator?

It may be easier in Illus only because that app handles vectors SOOOO much better.

As for doing it PS, you can try and size them up to however big you want THEN rasterize them, link the layers together, merge linked layers and apply a STROKE layer effect.

the downside to this is they are now "raster" and will degrade if you make them larger or need to use them at a higher DPI output... ohhh AND they are now UNeditable (can't change the font...)

but then i'm just thinking out loud and i haven't tried this yet...

BRB,
:)
retrocity

see if this is what your looking for, "effect was"...

or if i'm off base,

:)
retrocity

Thanks..that's exactly it.. One more question. Can a person apply another stroke to have to vector lines wrapping around the font. I apreciate all your help everyone. Thanks a million.

hummmmm... well i know you can't apply another stroke to the same layer (only increase the pixels) but if i'm thinking right, one cheat that would work is,
Duplicate the layer and change the stroke colour to match the background colour (in my example it would be White)
Increase the Stroke pixel width by as many pixels as you'd like the gap to be (say... +4pixels)
Duplicate "this layer" and change the Stroke to the colour you want and increase it (say... +2pixels)

this should give you the effect of a stroke within a stroke surrounding the type...

BUT i've not tried it to see, and once more, i'm just thinking out loud, but it may work.

let us know
:)
retrocity

well this is really quick but, is this close???

:)
retrocity

Hey Lapis, well you got me thinking and here's another way...

Basically do the same as before up to the Stroke step
but this time choose Gradient from the "fill type" setting.

Now choose a gradient colour set, (i used the default Black and White) To call up the gradient settings, click on the colour bar.

Now click on the black colour stop in the bottom left corner of the gradient preview.

Move your cursor to the "Location" textbox and enter 50% and do the same to the white. Click OKAY to get back to the Stroke settings.

Play around with settings to see what different effects you can achieve. Just make sure you select REVERSE to swap the colours.

just another way to get the same results,

:)
retrocity

Thank you . It's nice to have options. Now I can morph letters into shapes and still utilize various stroke abilities. Is there a way to select a path on a true type font then make adjustments to the font and store for later use? I imagine font programs are more designed for this abiliy but it shouldn't be too difficult for photoshop. Thanks for your help.

urm Dunno I have yet to find where I can edit the points of letters/fonts. but when working with a few vector shapes I know you can "combine" them into one shape here is a raster version of a shape I made..