How to Use the Type Tool in Photoshop

Type Tool Basics: Vector Type vs. Raster Pixels

Zoom deep into a photograph and you will see the individual pixels that make up a raster image – scale that image up and the quality falls apart. Text is different. Type is built from mathematical formulas, so you can transform a text layer to any size and the edges stay perfectly crisp. You never have to worry about pixelated letters.

Type Tool Typefaces, Weights and Size

The Character panel (Window > Character) is where most of the Type Tool’s control lives. Scroll the font list for a live preview of each typeface, then pick a weight – the same family often runs from hairline all the way to black. A simple design trick: set your headline in a heavy weight and the line beneath it in a light or regular weight of the same font. To change size, type a value, use the dropdown, or scrub left and right on the size icon. If you resize by dragging the bounding box, always hold Shift so you never stretch the letterforms.

Color and the Eyedropper

Click the color swatch in the Character panel to open the picker. While the picker is open, move your cursor outside of it and onto the image – it becomes an eyedropper, letting you pull a color straight out of your photo so the text feels like it belongs in the scene.

Leading, Kerning and Tracking

These three controls handle spacing. Leading is the vertical space between lines of text. Kerning is the space between two specific letters – leave it on Optical most of the time, or adjust a single pair manually by placing your cursor between two letters and holding Alt/Option while pressing the left or right arrow. Tracking spaces out an entire word or line at once, which is the one you will reach for most often when you need a line to fill a particular width without changing its font size.

Baseline Shift and Style Options

Baseline shift raises or lowers selected characters – useful for trademark symbols, exponents, or a deliberate design touch. Along the bottom of the Character panel you will find faux bold, faux italic, all caps, small caps, superscript, subscript, underline and strikethrough. Use a real bold or italic weight whenever the font has one; the faux versions simply distort the letterforms. Leave vertical and horizontal scale at 100% – stretching a typeface is the fastest way to make a design look wrong.

Type Tool Anti-Aliasing

If your text edges look jagged or overly soft, the anti-aliasing menu is the fix. None leaves hard, stair-stepped edges; Crisp is the default and works well in nearly every situation; Smooth softens the edges further.

Paragraph Text and Alignment

Clicking once with the Type tool starts a single line. Clicking and dragging creates a paragraph box instead, which is what you want for longer copy – use Type > Paste Lorem Ipsum to fill it with placeholder text while you design. The Paragraph panel handles left, center and right alignment, first-line and block indents, and justification, which forces lines to stretch to both edges of the box. Remember that paragraph alignment controls text inside its own box, while the Move tool alignment controls line up separate layers with each other – you usually need both.

Vertical Type and Type Masks

A single button in the Type Tool options bar toggles any text layer between horizontal and vertical orientation. The type mask tools work differently: instead of creating a text layer they create a selection in the shape of your letters, which you can then fill, paint into, or turn into a layer mask. You can get the same result from a normal text layer by holding Ctrl/Cmd and clicking its thumbnail, which is usually the easier route.

Type Tool Quick Reference

• T – select the Type tool
• Click for a single line of text, click and drag for a paragraph box
• Ctrl/Cmd + T – transform type (hold Shift to keep proportions)
• Alt/Option + Left/Right Arrow – kern between two letters
• Window > Character and Window > Paragraph – the two panels that hold every type setting
• Ctrl/Cmd + click a layer thumbnail – turn type into a selection