I was an big fan of Strider’s TypeStyler in the OS 9 days. I used it on so many projects and showed it to many other Mac users. Unfortunately, TypeStyler has never made it to OS X, although the developer, David Stillman has promised an OS X version for years now, with no movement. I actually emailed him twice without even an answer. So with one of my favorite old creative apps now “vaporware” I have been looking for a replacement. Well I recently found Art Text.

BeLight’s new Art Text $29.95 US (OS X only) is the closest thing I have seen to a TypeStyler replacement that has “ease of use” and affordability. Sure you can use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to do a lot of cool things stylin’ text, but they are expensive and lack the simplicity to create styled text that has that “wow’ factor. Art Text, like the old TypeStyler is worth its price even if you use and own the entire Adobe suite.

Using Art Text, you can create attractive logos, banners, and headlines in lightning speed. Just enter your text and apply Art Text’s effects. BeLight has a free try before you buy version. If you like Art Text, pay for a license and unlock the app so it exports your creations without the “nag-background.”

Art Text allows you to place backgrounds behind the text while styling your text. This is good tom see what your creation will look like on the background it will appear on. Art Text has the following effects:

Fill and Stroke: (default panel) Choose the color, gradient, or texture to be used to “fill in” your text. Art Text allows you to import your own images to be used as well as the ones it includes. Above I imported the standard Mac desktop picture to fill the “ReelSmart” text. You can choose the “stroke” used including the color and width.

Materials: (by clicking one of the small arrows at the bottom of the Fill and Stroke panel). The Materials panel will appear including these categories: artistic, glass, metal, plastic, or simple allowing your text to look “3D.” Art Text allows you customize the depth/thickness, the shape (rounded or bezeled), light effect, and, for certain materials, the color. You can also create your own materials.

Shadow and Glow: Allows for color, blur, and amount of the shadow, shadow angle or glow.

Transform: Choose Edit -> Transform (or clicking one of the small arrows at the bottom of the Shadow and Glow panel). Here you can change the geometry of your text.

Art Text can export in GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, or TIFF format.

Art Text does not have all the features that TypeStyler had, but at under $30 it is a bargain. Within minutes of paying for a license I used it on a few projects I was working on and saved a lot of time creating some cool styled text over how long it would have taken in Photoshop. Art Text is for Mac OS X v10.4 or later and a G4, G5, or Intel processor. It is a Universal binary.

BeLight’s Art Text is awarded 4 out of 5 Paws

    | Tags: Macintosh, Software