Use on-canvas glyph alternatives

Last updated on Oct 27, 2025

View and select alternative character glyphs directly on your canvas without opening the Glyphs panel for faster typography workflows.

When working with typography in Adobe Photoshop, you often need alternative character forms like ligatures, swashes, or stylistic variants. The on-canvas glyph alternatives feature displays these options directly on your canvas for faster access. This works with OpenType fonts that include alternative glyphs.

Select Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Type (macOS).

In the Preferences dialog, check Enable Type layer glyph alternates.

Select a character with alternative glyphs using the Horizontal Type tool or Vertical Type tool. You can view the alternatives grid near the selected character.

Select any alternative glyph in the grid to replace the selected character. To access the full Glyphs panel, select the right arrow icon.

Text with selected character showing alternate glyph grid. Layers panel displays active text layer.
Select any alternate glyph from the on-canvas alternative grid to replace the selected character.