Text on Second Layer?

[Unlikely]

I'm a total newbee in terms of graphics programs (but very familiar with Excel/Word and other programs.)

Exectutive Summary:
The text tool is not showing my text when used on a new layer.

I understand the layer itself is transparent, but thought I could put text on it (allowing me to delete the layer and rebuild that text if I decided the placement didn't work as expected.)

I can put text on the canvas itself and that works as expected.

All input welcomed. I'm guessing I'm missing something simple.

DETAILS for those who care:
I'm building an e-book cover.

I sized the canvas to the size of my cover.

After creating a new layer, I assumed I could put my text in that layer (My book title, author, etc.), and then on another layer put my graphics/photos and later merge them all together once the placement/sizing was right.

Once I add a new layer, the text tool appears to be writting, but it's writing in a transpent font from what I can tell. if I go back to the original canvas, the text tool is working and I can change the color/font size/style, etc as expected.

In other words, I know how to use the text tool on the canvas layer, but once adding another layer, then I'm doing something wrong but I'm ignorant.

All suggestions or pointers to documentation welcomed. I couldn't figure it out from the help files.

Thanks in advance.




 

[BoltBait]

The most common reasons you can't see newly typed text is:

-There is an active selection and you're trying to type text outside of that selection. Try pressing Ctrl-D before selecting the text tool.

-The text layer is obscured by a layer on top of it. Try moving the text layer to the top of the layer window list.

-The new text is the same color as the background. Try selecting the desired text color before (or while) using the text tool.

-You're typing text on a different layer than you thought. Be sure your desired text layer is selected in the layers window before using the text tool.

-You're typing text onto a layer that is not selected as visible. Make sure the check mark is shown in the layer window for your current layer.

[Unlikely]

Thanks!

I got it to work, but I didn't see what I was doing wrong before.

I suspect something was selected that I didn't see, but since it's working now, I can't find why it wasn't working before. I'm sure it was operator error. Your message assured me it should work so that was helpful!

I suspect I'll have 20 other questions...

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Hi Unlikely! Welcome

I'm an ebook author too. I bet your cover will have several different font sizes and colors for the text. right?

I recommend you put each bit of text on its own layer. Title, subtitle, author etc..., each change in text style gets its own layer. This makes positioning the separate elements easy becasue they can be moved independently of each other.

Don't be frightened of size. Amazon now recommend a cover 1600x1000 pixels. I would work on a canvas twice this size. Once finished, save a working copy as a PDN, flatten the image, resize it to half size and use Save As... to save it as a PNG or JPG.