Photoshop Type Time Savers

Peyton Crump, ON THE TOPIC OF Tips and Tricks

Dec03 17

The following two Photoshop type tips are small, basic, and quick, but may save you a few minutes here and there if you're not using them already:

quickly convert between point type and paragraph type
change fonts on multiple layers at the same time

Do you have other time-saving type tips? Share them in the comments.
* Note: Photoshop CS3 is the version being used in this demo.

Doug Avery said on 12/03 at 09:57 AM

WTF AWESOME. Thanks for sharing these tips, I had no idea. How did you record this presentation?

Peyton Crump said on 12/03 at 10:38 AM

I recorded the screencast with SnapzProX (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/) ... that’s right, Snap with a Z, Pro with a X. Despite the name, it’s supposedly one of the better Mac screencast tools. It’s ok so far. Not the most intuitive at the start, but seemingly feature-rich.

Erik Bernskiold said on 12/03 at 10:47 AM

Check out iShowU for a cheaper and more intuitive app. Also for the Mac. (http://www.shinywhitebox.com/)

Aaron Kuzemchak said on 12/03 at 11:46 AM

I second checking out iShowU… it’s a great app!

Those are great tips! I didn’t know about being able to convert between point and paragraph type on the fly.

Another thing that I’ve found a lot of designers don’t know about is creating a complex vector shape with the pen tool and putting type inside it. This saves tons of time when doing mockups that have areas where text needs to wrap around images or other elements on the page.

Rob Hawkes said on 12/03 at 11:47 AM

ScreenFlow is my favourite screencasting app on OS X, it’s pretty too! (http://www.flip4mac.com/screenflow.htm)

Wolf said on 12/03 at 12:02 PM

I didn’t know about the multiple font change.

This kerning trick might come in handy: http://www.wolfslittlestore.be/easier-kerning-in-photoshop
(this also works in Illustrator)

Samantha said on 12/03 at 01:04 PM

These are great, Peyton! One of my biggest frustrations in Photoshop is the lack (that I know of, please tell me if there is a way to do this) of a “find/replace font” function. Do you have any suggestions for what to do when there are multiple layers in between the font layers you need to change? Many times ( usually when I need to do this the most) my font layers are in separate folders.

kaske said on 12/03 at 02:10 PM

@Peyton

Issue:
I’ve noticed that when you were creating a new (type) layer you clicked on the layer itself to “reset” (de-focus from the layer) the cursor and enable typing in a new layer.

Solution:
*CTRL + SHIFT + T* while in typing enables you to immediately “reset” cursor from the current and start typing in a new layer.

Lesson finished.

kaske said on 12/03 at 02:12 PM

Sorry,

NOT

CTRL + SHIFT + T

but

CTRL + SHIFT + Click

;)

Peyton Crump said on 12/03 at 04:06 PM

@Samantha, I’m not aware of a “find/replace font” function. That essentially would be exactly what we need, which is a type styles feature/palette. It’s indeed unfortunate, and is one good reason why some designers comp in InDesign.

@kaske, great shortcut. On the Mac, CMD+SHIFT+CLICK immediately creates a new type layer, as you suggest. Also, CMD+RETURN commits the type layer changes (while staying on the type layer), which is nice if I don’t want to immediately create a new type layer. Thanks.

Tony Bowman said on 12/04 at 12:38 PM

http://jingproject.com/

for screencasting and notation.

Peyton Crump said on 12/04 at 01:18 PM

@Tony, I tried Jing (and it’s free), and it went well until I wanted to resize the screencast. The screencast video/swf will not resize to fit the width that you specify for your Flash object. The resize option is supposedly something that Jing is working on according to their site. There are some interesting things going on with Jing, it just doesn’t seem quite there yet for me.

Dan said on 12/04 at 07:20 PM

You can set up type styles, well sort of, by making tool presets.

1. Select type tool and type the text you want.
2. Hit enter(the one by the number pad) that will allow you to leave the text editing without clicking.
3. Format that text how you want with kerning, leading etc.
4. With that layer selected and the Type tool still selected click the little black arrow next to the big T at the top left of PS’s chrome, just under the apple in the status bar, and a menu will pop out. In that menu on the right is a ‘create new tool preset’ icon/option click that, name your style (example: arial 24px h1), hit ok and your text style is saved.

5. Next time you want that same style, click on the black arrow next to the big T select your saved tool preset and then click on your canvas and type away.

One thing to note, that is a real pain in the you know what, is that you cannot add those styles to type that you have already created, much like what was shown in this screencast.
I also haven’t been able to find a way to update the tool preset and have that update be applied to the type layers that use it. If anyone know how to do this please share I’m sure everyone would love ya.

Tony Bowman said on 12/05 at 11:58 AM

@Peyton: I never really got deep into using Jing. Mostly, I’ved used it for the occasional explanation on how to do something for a family member or friend who is not local to me. And it’s been a long time since I’ve even done that. Hah.

Hopefully they’ll keep working on it!

tenmonkey said on 12/09 at 12:30 AM

Thank you very much, I haven’t know these two tips before, nice ^^

John Pash said on 12/27 at 06:14 PM

What’s the idea behind “point text”? Wouldn’t it be easier if everything was paragraph text? I mean...I’ve never had the need to convert from paragraph to point. But always the other way around. Am I missing something obvious?

Wolf said on 12/28 at 06:29 AM

@John Pash: making selections is easier if, for example, your headings and other text that spans a single line (e.g. dates) is point text. Also, you don’t have to resize the bounding box if you want to adjust the font size.