Format characters

You can increase or decrease the spacing between characters in any text. You might want to do this, for example, to experiment with line length in text, or to make a title fit on a single line.

Another way to affect character spacing is to use ligatures, a decorative joining of two characters to form a single typographic character. You can use ligatures in your image if the font you’re using supports them.

You can turn ligatures on or off from the Action pop-up menu in the Tool Options pane.

Format the characters Adjust the space between characters

1. Choose the Type tool by doing one of the following:

   • Choose the Type tool in the Tools sidebar.
   • Choose Tools > Type from the Tools menu at the top of your screen.

   • Press the T key on your keyboard.

2. Select the text you want to change
.

   To change all of the text in a text box, click in front of the first character, then press Command ⌘ + A to highlight the entire text.

3. Click the Action pop-up below the Text Size slider.

4. Do one of the following:

   1. Adjust the space between characters: In the Character Spacing value field, enter the desired character spacing percentage or use the arrow buttons to adjust it. You can enter a value from -0% to 1000%. You can also press Option ⌥ – Right Arrow to increase character spacing or Option ⌥ – Left Arrow to decrease it.

   2. Make text subscript or superscript: Click the Baseline pop-up menu and choose an option. If you want to continue typing regular text right after the superscript or subscript, click directly after the superscript or subscript character and choose the Default baseline option.

   3. Raise and lower text without changing its size: Click the Baseline Shift value field and enter a desired value. You can enter a value from -127 to 127 pixels.

Enter special characters and symbols

You can use the Character Viewer (shown below) to add special characters and symbols to text, such as math symbols, Latin characters, and pictographs.

1. Place the insertion point where you want the character to appear, then do one of the following:

   • Choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols from the Edit menu at the top of the screen.

   • Press Control ⌃ + Command ⌘ + Space on your keyboard.


2. To locate a character, do any of the following:

   • Scroll to see more characters, or click the buttons at the bottom to jump to a category.

   • Scroll up, then type in the search field at the top (for example, type "fractions" to see available fractions, or type the Unicode name or code).

   • Scroll up, then click the button in the top-right corner to open the full Character Viewer.

3. When you find the character, click it to insert it into the text.


   If the full Character Viewer is open on the desktop, you may need to double-click the character. The Character Viewer always opens in the state it was in when it was last closed. If it’s expanded and you want it to be in pop-up view the next time you open it, click the button in the top-right corner to close the expanded view.

For more information about using the Character Viewer, click the desktop to switch to the Finder, choose Help > Mac Help from the Help menu at the top of your screen, then search for "character viewer."

Use the Fonts window for advanced typography

Certain fonts support advanced typographical features such as ligatures, alternate glyphs, old-style figures, and more. You can adjust these options using the Fonts window.

1. Choose Format > Font > Show Fonts from the Format menu at the top of your screen.

2. Click More in the Fonts window and choose Typography.
3. Select the text you want to change
. To change all of the text in a text box, select the text box.

   📘 Note: To change individual glyphs, you must select the specific characters to be changed.

4. Choose from the available options in the Typography window.