Format characters

You can set type attributes before you enter characters or reset them to change the appearance of selected characters in a type layer.

Before you can format individual characters, select them. You can select one character, a range of characters, or all characters in a type layer.

The Character panel provides options for formatting characters. Some formatting options are also available from the options bar.

You can display the Character panel by doing one of the following:

• Choose Window > Character, or click the Character panel tab if the panel is visible but not active.

• With a type tool selected, click the Panel button  in the options bar.

  To set an option in the Character panel, choose a value from the pop‑up menu on the right side of the option. For options with numeric values, you can also use the up and down arrows to set the value, or you can 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 Character panel menu. To use this menu, click the triangle in the upper right corner of the panel.

Dynamic shortcuts are keyboard shortcuts accessible from the Character panel menu only when you are entering point or paragraph type, when type is selected, or when the I‑beam is in text. Dynamic shortcuts are available for type options such as Faux Bold, Faux Italic, All Caps, Small Caps, Superscript, Subscript, Underline, and Strikethrough.

The type size determines how large the type appears in the image.

The default unit of measurement for type is points. One PostScript point is equal to 1/72 of an inch in a 72‑ppi image; however, you can switch between using the PostScript and traditional definitions of point size. You can change the default unit of measurement for type in the Units & Rulers area of the Preferences dialog box.

The type you enter is rendered in the current foreground color; however, you can change the color before or after you enter type. When editing existing type layers, you can change the color of individual, selected characters or of all type in a layer.

You can place a line under horizontal type, or to the left or right of vertical type. You can also place a line through horizontal or vertical type. The line is always the same color as the type color.

You can enter or format type as uppercase characters, either all caps or small caps. When you format text as small caps, Photoshop automatically uses the small‑cap characters designed as part of the font, if available. If the font does not include small caps, Photoshop generates faux small caps.

Superscript and subscript text (also called superior and inferior text) are reduced‑size text that is raised or lowered in relation to a font’s baseline. If the font does not include superscript or subscript characters, Photoshop generates faux superscript or subscript characters.

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

Choose Window > Character Styles to open the Character Styles panel. 

• To apply a character style, select the text or text layer and click a character 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 by Julieanne Kost.

1. If you want to base a new style on the formatting of existing text, select that text.
2. Choose New Character Style from the Character Styles panel menu.

Note:To create a style without first selecting text, click the Create New Style icon  at the bottom of the Character 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. Changing the style formatting updates all text to which the style has been applied with the new format. 

To edit a character style, do the following:

1. Double-click the style in the Character Styles 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 you’ve finished specifying the formatting attributes, click OK.

Current character and paragraph styles can be saved as type defaults. These defaults are automatically applied to new Photoshop documents and can also be applied to existing documents that don't already contain type styles. For more information, see Paragraph styles.

To save the current character and paragraph styles as the type defaults, do any of the following:

• Choose Type > Save Default Type Styles.
• In the Character Styles or the Paragraph Styles panel, choose Save Default Type Styles from the panel menu.

To apply the default Character and Paragraph styles to a document: