First, open Photoshop and get out the picture you want to add a Speech Bubble to. For tutorial purposes, I'm just going to use a really boring blue square.

First, grab your Text tool (T) and type whatever it is you want the character to say.

For the next step you'll need your Eliptical Marquee Tool (M) and your Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). If you don't have the proper tools selected that are shown at right, just click and hold the tool, and you'll be able to cycle through the different options. Now draw a circle around the text. If you miss a part, you can either just redo the entire oval, or you can just add another oval to it. Then holding down SHIFT key and using your polygonal lasso tool, add a little triangle coming from the direction of the speaker.

Now create a new layer that is underneath the text, but above the background, or picture you are using.

Grab your Paint Bucket tool (G) with the colour black selected and fill in the area. Make sure that you have the new layer selected. Then go to Select>Modify>Contract and enter a value of 2. This will make the outline for the bubble. Then change the colour for the fill colour to white, and fill in the contracted area. If you've done everything correctly, your speech bubble should look similar to what I have at the right. And that's it, your all done. If you want to use the same font as the one I have used, head on over to BlamBot and look for a free font called Letter-O-Matic. It's an excellent standard comic book font.

Copyright 2002 Captain Meth