Apply OpenType features

Last updated on Oct 27, 2025

Learn to apply OpenType features in Adobe Photoshop to access alternate characters and glyphs for customizing decorative fonts without distortion.

With OpenType features, you can use the built-in alternates instead of manually transforming characters. You can also use fractions, ordinals, or case-sensitive forms for clean, accurate typography.

Select the Horizontal Type tool or the Vertical Type tool from the toolbar.

Select Window > Character to open the Character panel, and then select an OpenType font. OpenType fonts typically have Pro in their name.

Select the text you want to modify. If you don't select any text, the setting will apply to the new text you create.

Select the more options  icon from the Character panel, and then select OpenType.

Select a feature from the OpenType submenu, such as Standard Ligatures, Contextual Alternates, Discretionary Ligatures, Swash, Old Style, etc.

Character panel showing OpenType submenu with Standard Ligatures, Contextual Alternates, and other typography features available for text formatting.
Apply OpenType features to your text using the Character panel.

The selected OpenType feature will be applied to the text immediately.