Formatting paragraphs

For point type, each line is a separate paragraph. For paragraph type, each paragraph can have multiple lines, depending on the dimensions of the bounding box.

You can select paragraphs and then use the Paragraph panel to set formatting options for a single paragraph, multiple paragraphs, or all paragraphs in a type layer.

You use the Paragraph panel to change the formatting of columns and paragraphs. To display the panel, choose Window > Paragraph, or click the Paragraph panel tab if the panel is visible but not active. You can also select a type tool and click the Panel button  in the options bar.

To set options with numeric values in the Paragraph panel, you can use the up and down arrows or edit the value directly in the text box. When you edit a value directly, press Enter or Return to apply a value, Shift+Enter or Shift+Return to apply a value and then highlight the value just edited, or Tab to apply a value and move to the next text box in the panel.

You can access additional commands and options in the Paragraph panel menu. To use this menu, click the triangle in the upper right corner of the panel.

You can align type to one edge of a paragraph (left, center, or right for horizontal type; top, center, or bottom for vertical type). Alignment options are available only for paragraph type.

Text is said to be justified when it is aligned with both edges. You can choose to justify all text in a paragraph excluding the last line, or you can justify text in a paragraph including the last line. The settings you choose for justification affect the horizontal spacing of lines and the aesthetic appeal of type on a page.

Justification options are available only for paragraph type and determine word, letter, and glyph spacing. Justification settings apply only to Roman characters; double‑byte characters available in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean fonts are not affected by these settings.

You can precisely control how Photoshop spaces letters and words and scales characters. Adjusting spacing is especially useful with justified type, although you can also adjust spacing for unjustified type.

Indention specifies the amount of space between type and the bounding box or line that contains the type. Indention affects only the selected paragraph or paragraphs, so you can easily set different indentions for paragraphs.

Hanging punctuation controls the alignment of punctuation marks for a specific paragraph. When Roman Hanging Punctuation is turned on, the following characters appear outside the margins: single quotes, double quotes, apostrophes, commas, periods, hyphens, em dashes, en dashes, colons, and semicolons. When a punctuation character is followed a quotation mark, both characters hang.

Keep in mind that the paragraph alignment determines the margin from which the punctuation hangs. For left-aligned and right-aligned paragraphs, punctuation hangs off the left and right margin, respectively. For top-aligned and bottom-aligned paragraphs, punctuation hangs off the top and bottom margin, respectively. For centered and justified paragraphs, punctuation hangs off both margins.

The settings you choose for hyphenation affect the horizontal spacing of lines and the aesthetic appeal of type on a page. Hyphenation options determine whether words can be hyphenated and, if so, what breaks are allowable.

You can prevent words from breaking at the end of lines—for example, proper names or words that could be misread when hyphenated. You can also keep multiple words or groups of words together—for example, clusters of initials and a last name.

The appearance of type on the page depends on a complex interaction of processes called composition. Using the word spacing, letterspacing, glyph spacing, and hyphenation options you’ve selected, Adobe applications evaluate possible line breaks and choose the one that best supports the specified parameters.

You can choose between two composition methods: the Adobe Every‑line Composer and the Adobe Single‑line Composer. Both methods evaluate possible breaks and choose the one that best supports the hyphenation and justification options you’ve specified for a given paragraph. The composition method affects only the selected paragraph or paragraphs, so you can easily set different composition methods for different paragraphs.

Every‑line Composer

The Every‑line Composer considers a network of break points for a range of lines and thus can optimize earlier lines in the paragraph in order to eliminate especially unattractive breaks later on.

The Every‑line Composer approaches composition by identifying possible break points, evaluating them, and assigning a weighted penalty based on the following principles:

• For left-, right-, or center-aligned text, lines that fall closer to the right side are favored and have a lower penalty.

• For justified text, the highest importance is given to evenness of letter and word spacing.

• Hyphenation is avoided when possible.

Single-line Composer

The Single-line composer offers a traditional approach to composing type one line at a time. This option is useful if you want manual control over how lines break. The Single‑line Composer uses the following principles when considering a breakpoint:

• Longer lines are favored over shorter lines.

• In justified text, compressed or expanded word spacing is preferable to hyphenation.

• In nonjustified text, hyphenation is preferable to compressed or expanded letterspacing.

• If spacing must be adjusted, compression is better than expansion.

  To choose one of these methods, select it from the Paragraph panel menu. To apply the method to all paragraphs, first select the type object; to apply the method to the current paragraph only, first insert the cursor in that paragraph.

A paragraph style includes both character and paragraph formatting attributes, and can be applied to a paragraph or range of paragraphs. You can create Paragraph styles and then apply them later.

Choose Window > Paragraph Styles to open the Paragraph Styles panel. By default, each new document contains a Basic Paragraph style that is applied to text you type. You can edit this style, but you can’t rename or delete it. You can rename and delete styles that you create. You can also select a different default style to apply to text.

• To apply a paragraph style, select the text or text layer and click a paragraph style.

Type styles are hierarchical: Manual overrides supersede any applied character styles, which in turn replace applied paragraph styles. This hierarchical approach lets you combine the efficiency of styles with the flexibility to customize your designs.

For a video overview, see Paragraph and Character Styles in Photoshop CS6 by Julieanne Kost.

(Creative Cloud only) You can specify character and paragraph styles as default types styles. For more information see Specifying default type styles | Creative Cloud only.

1. If you want to base a new style on the formatting of existing text, select that text or place the insertion point in it.
2. Choose New Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Styles panel menu.

Note:To create a style without first selecting text, click the Create New Style icon  at the bottom of the Paragraph Styles panel. To edit a style without applying it to text, select an image layer, such as the Background.

Double-click existing styles to edit them and update all associated text in the current document. When you change the formatting of a style, all text to which the style has been applied will be updated with the new format. 

To edit a paragraph style, do the following:

1. Double-click the style in the Paragraph style panel.
2. To specify the formatting attributes, click a category (such as Basic Character Formats) on the left, and specify the attributes to add to the style.

3. When specifying a Character Color in the Style Options dialog box, you can create a new color by double-clicking the fill or stroke box.

4. When you’ve finished specifying the formatting attributes, click OK.