You're here because you know the importance of justifying text in Photoshop. In fact, working on the alignment and overall appearance of the text does a lot to make the end result even better. Don't worry though, the process is simple.
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Using the Text Tool
Step 1. Find the Text Tool
With a Photoshop document already open, go to the Toolbox and click on the “T” shaped icon – it represents the Text Tool. Then, in the layers window, select the layer you want to edit.
- Alternatively, to select the tool, press the “T” key on the keyboard. Note that there are two types of Text Tools on the same icon: Horizontal and Vertical.
- To open the Paragraph panel, click on the “A” icon or go to the Windows menu and choose the Paragraph option. You can do the same by opening the Character panel and clicking on the Paragraph tab.
Step 2. Configure the Paragraph panel options numerically
Photoshop users have the option of entering values manually, as well as using the keyboard arrows and mouse wheel.
- After editing a value directly, press Enter to confirm the changes.
- If you want to apply the value and select it right away, press Shift+Enter simultaneously. If you just want to apply and go to the next field, press Tab.
- Don't forget that you need to have text selected in advance for all of this to make a difference. Selected text is usually highlighted on the screen by a dashed box that appears around it.
Part 2 of 4: Selecting Text
Step 1. Select all the text that needs to be justified
To do this, hold the mouse button and drag, or press Ctrl+A (on Windows) – Cmd+A (on Mac OS). Then go to the Paragraph panel and select, via the icons at the top of the panel, how you want to justify the text.
- First of all, click on the canvas and drag using the Text Tool to create a text box.
- With that, a new text layer will appear in Photoshop's Layers Window. Now, just start typing the text; if you prefer, paste it from another program. To change font characteristics (type, size, spacing, etc.), open the Window menu and choose the Character panel.
Step 2. Select the Horizontal Text Tool (“T”) from the Toolbox
Click on the canvas and drag to create a text box the size of the paragraph you want to write.
- At the top of the window where the Character panel is located, there is another tab: Paragraph. Click and switch to it.
- Select the text and, if necessary, use the tools in the Paragraph panel to format it accordingly. Another way to open the same panel is via the Windows -> Paragraph menu. That way, even if the Character panel isn't open, the Paragraph and its tools will appear on the screen – usually right and center.
Step 3. Understand the difference between the Character and Paragraph panels
There are many ways to edit text in Photoshop. A great way to access both the Character and Paragraph panels is using the Text Tool. Note that, when selecting it, the Properties Bar opens with several options to change: font type, size and color, curve and align the text; besides, of course, giving access to the two panels by an icon.
- The biggest difference between the Paragraph and Character panel is that the former will only work correctly if you are using Paragraph Text. That is, if you just click on the screen and start writing, it won't work; it is necessary to convert the point text or click and drag, creating the text box at paragraph size.
- In the Character panel you can change the font type, size, color, style (italic, uppercase, bold, etc.) as well as vertical and horizontal spacing and some other options not related to the paragraph. If you want to make changes to the paragraph, such as justification and alignment, go to the Paragraph panel.
Part 3 of 4: Justifying and Aligning Text
Step 1. Open the justification options
Open the Window menu and choose the Paragraph item.
- In Photoshop on Mac OS, simultaneously press Cmd+T to open the text window, which opens the Character and Paragraph panels at the same time.
- As it is only possible to justify a Paragraph Text, convert any dot (linear) text into a paragraph. To do this, click on the text and choose the option “Convert to Paragraph Text”.
- If you have the Character panel open, click the Paragraph tab to open the paragraph formatting tools. Select the text you want to justify and choose one of the options at the top of the panel.
Step 2. Fully select the text you want to justify
Click the Text Tool on it to create a selection point, then hold and drag.
- If you want to select everything, instead of holding and dragging, press Cmd+A or Ctrl+A simultaneously. With the text highlighted on the screen, click on the icon corresponding to the type of justification you want.
- Note that there are four types (icons) of justification at the top right of the Paragraph panel.
Step 3. Choose one of the alignment types
Each of them aligns text to one end of the text box and to the center. Therefore, the available horizontal alignments are: left, centered and right. In the case of verticals, the options are: above, centered and below.
- Alignment options work best for Paragraph Text. To change the alignment of all paragraphs of text at once, select the layer in the Layers Window.
- Alignment will only work if you choose the paragraphs you want to align.
Step 4. See how to align horizontal text
Keep in mind that there are three alignment options for horizontal text.
- In the option “Align text to the left”, for example, the first letters of each line will be aligned along the left edge of the text box. The last letters of each line, however, will be misaligned.
- In “Center text”, both the first letter and the last letter of each line will be misaligned and the text will therefore appear to be aligned to the center.
- Unlike the first option, “Align Text Right” will have the last letter of each line aligned along the right edge of the text box. The first letters on the left of the box will be misaligned.
Step 5. Choose one of the vertical alignment options
In case you don't remember, there are also three types of alignment for vertical text.
- Use the “Align text on top” option to join the first letter of each line to the top edge of the text box, leaving the last letters at the bottom of the box out of alignment.
- “Centering text” will uneven the alignment of the first and last letters, making it look like the text has been pushed into the vertical center of the box. The “Align Text Under” option will push all the text towards the bottom edge of the text box, making the first few letters look messy and the last ones aligned.
Step 6. Learn to justify horizontal text
Photoshop provides four options for text justification. Therefore, to make the two ends of a text aligned, it will be necessary to choose one of them.
- Left Justify Last: All lines will be justified except for the last, which will be left-aligned.
- Justify last by center: all lines will be justified. The last one will be center-aligned.
- Right Justify Last: The last line will be right-justified while all others will be justified.
- Justify All: Without exception, all lines will be justified. Once you have finished making changes, click on the check icon (last icon on the Properties Bar at the top of the screen) to confirm. It is now possible to move the text box with the Move Tool.
Step 7. Justify a vertical text
There are also four justification options for vertical texts.
- Top Justify Last: With the exception of the last line, which is top-aligned, all others are justified.
- Justify Last by Center: All lines are justified. The last one is just centralized.
- Justify Last by Bottom: Justifies all lines except the last, which is bottom-aligned.
- Justify All: Forces all lines to justify themselves, including the last one.
Part 4 of 4: Changing the spacing between words and letters
Step 1. Change the spacing between words and letters in justified text
It is very easy to change these characteristics of the text using the Justification section in the Paragraph panel.
- Select the paragraphs you want to work with. Alternatively, select the entire layer to apply changes to all paragraphs at once.
- Open the Paragraph panel menu and choose the Justification option. Enter the desired values for Word Spacing, Letter Spacing and Glyph Scale.
- The Minimum and Maximum values must be established based on what will be accepted by the user during the automatic text justification, and the desired value must be entered in the homonym field and will also be used for non-justified texts.
Step 2. Change the word spacing from 0 to 1000%
The value of 100% defines that no additional spacing will be applied to the text.
- Letter spacing can range from 100% to 500%. The 0% option corresponds to no spacing while 100% represents double the spacing between letters.
- Glyph Scale refers to the width of each character. The options range from 50% to 200%, and at 100% there will be no change in proportion.
Step 3. Create paragraph indents
Indents refer to the margin between the text and the surrounding box.
- Only selected paragraphs will be changed.
- If you want to indent all paragraphs at once, select the layer or layers directly in the Layers Window. Otherwise, click and drag inside each text box.
- The indent options are available in the Paragraph panel, they are: indent left margin, indent right margin and indent first line. With the exception of the last option, the others distance the text completely from the edge of the box. The “indent first line” option only creates a margin between the border and the first line, leaving the others intact.