Using fonts and accessing font glyphs in Adobe Photoshop

Modified on Fri, 18 Aug, 2023 at 1:22 PM

Fonts play a big part in design customisation as well as creative projects. A font can boost the visibility of your product or design to your audience. There are preloaded fonts available in Photoshop but you can also download and install fonts. These include fun and unique fonts, with some containing glyphs.

How to use installed fonts in Adobe Photoshop:

Step 1 - Add text and select your font
First, you need to make sure that the font has been unzipped and installed on your computer. If you need some directions on how to do this, feel free to follow our tutorial on how to install fonts.

Open Photoshop and create a new document. Select the Horizontal Type tool (T) and click inside the canvas.
Next, type out your text. Click on the font drop-down menu from the top bar and select the font you want to use.

Step 2 - Adjust your text

Once you have typed out the text, you can make some adjustments directly from the top menu. You can adjust the font, size, style, orientation, anti-aliasing, and colour.

You can also head to the Character panel (Windows > Character) or click on the small icon on the top menu.
One of the things you can adjust from the Character panel is the Leading, which controls the amount of space between lines of type. The Tracking option controls the amount of space between a range of letters or characters.

How to Access Extra Glyphs and Swashes in Photoshop

Accessing Glyphs and Swashes is easy in Photoshop on PC or Mac, as the software is specifically designed to be fully compatible with Glyphs.

1. Install the .OTF version of the font as normal.

2. Launch Adobe Photoshop.

3. Select your chosen font from the font menu and create your text design.

4. Go to Window at the top and select 'Glyphs'.

5. The glyphs panel should appear with all of the font's glyphs visible. Move this somewhere nice in your interface so you can see the font design as well.

6. Select the character you want to replace with an advanced glyph.

7. Double click the glyph you would like to use in the glyphs panel.

8. The Glyph will now have been replaced.

You can now add styles to additional characters and complete your design in Photoshop CC on Mac or PC.