Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Formatting Text

Now that you’ve learned all about the different kinds of Photoshop text and how to create it, it’s time to dig in to how to format it. Photoshop lets you control text to within an inch of its life. Beyond the basics of font, size, and color, you can adjust the softness of the letters’ edges, the space between each letter, the space between lines of text, and so on.

The most commonly used settings live in the Options bar, while the more advanced typographic goodies are nestled inside the Type menu, as well as the Character and Paragraph panels. No matter where the settings live, if they control text, you’ll learn about them in the following pages. Read on!

WORD TO THE WISE: Thou Shalt Spell Check

Few mistakes are as embarrassing (or avoidable) for a graphic artist as a misspelled word. Most software comes with a built-in spellchecker, and Photoshop is no exception, so there’s little excuse for typos (on the other hand, wordos—real words in the wrong place—are another story). And let’s face it: The people who create copy can rarely spot their own mistakes, either because they’ve been staring at it for too long or because they’re rushing to meet a deadline. In those situations, using a spellchecker is essential.

To check spelling in Photoshop, choose Edit→Check Spelling or right-click within a document while a type layer is active and choose Check Spelling from the shortcut menu that appears. Either way, Photoshop scours the document’s type layers and, in the resulting ...