Write your bio

Now that our avatar is complete, we'll use text layers to build our greeting and bio.

Text is a crucial component in design, and can be used to communicate information for encourage action. The way we style text within our designs can also help support visual hierarchy, convey the appropriate tone, and even make or break the accessibility of a design.

We'll use the Text tool to add text layers to the canvas.

Add text layers

1. Select the Text tool in the toolbar or press T.
2. Click on the canvas below the avatar and type your name. If you take a look at the left sidebar, you'll notice that the layer name reflects the string of text on the canvas. It will continue to do this until we rename the layer. 
3. With the Text tool still selected, click and drag your cursor to create a text box below the other layers. Make sure the text box is large enough to fit your content. Don't worry about its exact size; we'll refine that in a future lesson.

As you type, you'll see that the text content stays contained within the text box, automatically wrapping to the next line instead of flowing off to the side. Why is this different from the other text layer?

Align your layers

If your layers are looking a little wonky, you can align them using Alignment section in the right sidebar.

1. Click on a blank area of the canvas to deselect all layers.
2. Click and drag your cursor to select your avatar and the two text layers.
3. Click Align left to align the layer's left-most edge.

Style the text layers

The default text styling is a bit small, and hard to read. We can use the text properties to create some visual hierarchy and help draw attention to a few key areas. 

1. Select the text layer with your name, and take a look at the Typography section in the right sidebar.
2. To add more weight to this text layer, change the font weight to a bolder choice, like Black.
3. Change the font size to to 40.

We'll update the bio text layer next:

1. Select the text layer that contains your bio.
2. Update the font weight to Medium and the size to 28.
3. Change the text resizing to Auto height to prevent content from bleeding over the bottom edge of the bounding box.
4. To give the content some room to breath, set the line height to 38 and the paragraph spacing to 16.
5. You can also use text formatting like bold or italics to draw attention to your career highlights or other achievements.

Check your knowledge