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(9-4) Review: Typography
You've learned a lot about typography in the beginning Photoshop and Graphic Design course from Robin Williams' book, The Non-Designers Design Book. The purpose of this section of the lesson is to have you explore typography in more depth. I want you to spend about an hour in this section with the goal of coming away with some knew knowledge and skills. Do you understand what leading, kerning, and tracking are in typography? You should after going through this section!
Description:  Typography could easily be a course all it's own.  Last semester, you learned that there are families of type, with each family having its own characteristics - such as serif, sans serif, modern, script, decorative, and old style fonts.  You learned that when combining fonts, you should avoid using fonts that are too similar.  Rather, you should use fonts that contrast or pair well with each other.  Although this is optional, I would encourage you to watch the Lynda.com course, Foundations of Typography (2 hr. 23 min.).  It will expand on what you learned last semester.
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You may want to have a look at this link:  86 top-quality typography tutorials

Type shortcuts you'll want to remember.  (Please note, OPTION refers to a Macintosh keyboard.  If you're on a Windows PC, use the ALT key instead.  Command ⌘ key on a Mac is the same as the CTRL on a PC.)

  • Kerning:  Kerning lets you adjust the spacing between letters. Place type cursor between two letters, then use Option-left or right arrow keys to change the kerning.  You can also highlight two or more letters and do the same thing to all of them using Option-left or right arrow keys.
  • Leading:  Leading adjusts the spacing between lines.  Highlight two or more lines of text, then use Option-up or down arrows to change the leading.
  • Size:  Highlight text, then use ⌘-Shift-> to increase size, or ⌘-Shift-< to decrease size.  Add the Option key into this combination for bigger steps in size.
  • Double-click the "T" icon in a text layer to select all of the text on a layer.
  • With text selected, select the font name in the options bar and use the up or down arrows to cycle through each font, enabling you to preview your type in each font choice.
  • ⌘/Ctrl + Alt/Option + Shift + < – Decreases selected text by 10pt
  • ⌘/Ctrl + Alt/Option + Shift + > – Increases selected text by 10pt
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + C centers selected type
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + B Makes selected type bold
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + I Makes selected type italic
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + L Aligns selected text to the left
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + R Aligns selected text to the right
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + U Underlines Selected text
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + H Makes selected text small caps
  • ⌘/Ctr + Shift + K Makes selected text all caps
The videos below are very helpful.  Take notes!
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Video: 18 Powerful Type Tool Tips & Tricks in Photoshop CC! (16:48)
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Video: How to Use the Type Mask Tool in Photoshop CC! (3:32)
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Video: Photoshop Tutorial: Working With Type (Leading, Kerning, Tracking, etc) (2:40)
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Want to have some fun, while learning at the same time? Type connection lets you play the typographic dating game, where you try to match font pairs.
Page last updated March 7, 2018