Illustrator 101: Faster Font Selection
Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by BittBox
It’s important to note that this will also work in Photoshop, but I’m using Illustrator as an example. If you’re anything at all like me, you have a ginormous font collection and scrolling through the entire list to find the one your looking for can be cumbersome at times. Here’s a quick tip to spend less time scrolling and more time designing.
It’s really quite easy (hence the “101″), when you are looking for a certain font in your enormous list, simply type first letter of the font name to ‘jump’ to that letter in the list. This eliminates quite a bit of scroll time if you have a lot of fonts. In the example below, I just hit the M key to jump to the M fonts so I could find Myriad Pro faster.
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Hi,
in Photoshop CS2 it’s kind of different: Click in the font-name box and enter as many characters from the beginning of the font you’re searching for as you want. It will always show up the first font that fits to it. If you know what you want, you don’t need to scroll.
You can also use the UP and DOWN keys to select the last / next font. And best of all, you can use your scroll wheel to scroll the (not dropped down) font list to select a font.
Best Regards,
Stefan
you can only press up and down to scroll through the fonts on a PC, but not on a Mac. Its a nice simple feature that I think that they should incorporate in the Mac version, because although I am extremely happy about switching to mac, I really miss that little feature.
Stefan is right, I do this all the time, not only in PS CS3 but in many other apps.
The only problem (reported to Adobe and not fixed for many many years) is that if the font name is written in uppercase letters, typing the name does not work,
Odd i was actually thinking this today - there should be a better method of font organization in design programs.
Like if i could structure my font list with folders like “Serif” or “Grungy” … i think that would streamline a lot of conceptual sketching and stuff.
Anyone agree? Font management in adobe software?
Excuse me, addition:
or assets in general - if i could have sets in photoshop like fonts, and layer styles, etc. Or in Illustrator with custom brushes, swatches, patterns, fonts, etc. - all combined into organized customizable groups i think i would be working a lot faster.
Actually no, although the concept sounds good to me, im sure i would take the same amount of time. but it seems like a good idea to me.
it is a good idea
Actually, the UP/DOWN key is NOT a PC-only thing. I do it on my Mac all the time. I do that a LOT with the text box (in InDesign) or the text layer (in Photoshop) selected with the text tool on.
I just wish Photoshop would display the font appearance in its menu like Illustrator does.
We all have tons of fonts, I’m sure, but having so many fonts really slows you down (at least on a PC). Every time you open Photoshop or Illustrator, every one of your fonts is loaded into memory. This not only takes time, but fills your RAM as well.
I used to have so many fonts installed that I would open Illustrator, then go have a snack while I waited for my more than 4,000 fonts to load. I now use a font manager.
Font managers allow you to browse your font collection and see previews of your fonts without actually having them installed. Once you find the one(s) you like, you simply hit the ‘install’ button. The font is installed automatically and all you have to do is switch back to Illustrator and find it in your drop down.
Personally, I have 200 of my 5,000 fonts installed. This keeps my font list short, my load times fast, and my RAM empty.
The best font manager I’ve found that best works on a PC is called The Font Thing (or TFT). Although it lacks in grace, it gets the job done well. There are several managers for Mac that do a much better job than any PC version I’ve found.
Happy Font Managing!
Thank you for the handy tip again.
coincedently I’m agonizing with the type in Illustrator. Looked through all web and didnt find the answer on quite simple thing:
when i save for the web any .ai with type, with almost any typeface, I get blurry or uneven letters. What settings do I need to get it right?
I tried .gif and .jpg but still dont see much difference.
Please help.
Well there’s a kind of bug when doing so in Illustrator (at least on Windows).
Ones I found the wanted font this way and hit ENTER, nothing happens, it doesn’t work. I really have to scroll and click with the mouse to be able to change font… frustrated.
@ Kelly
“I just wish Photoshop would display the font appearance in its menu like Illustrator does.”
Photoshop CS3 does!
@ K|O|G|I
Ive never heard of a font manager but it sounds really promising, something that should be integral to any program that used text I think.
It is important not only for the performance issue that you mentioned but it would also be nice to get a large preview of the text along with some way of organizing fonts so they can be found. I cant remember the names of the stock fonts i have let alone the few that i have installed since!
Im,
You probably need to turn “anti aliasing” ON. Sounds like it’s not smoothing the fonts when you save for web. When you’re in the Save for Web window, click on “Image Size” (right below the “Preset” info box) and check anti aliasing to ON.
@JoMo
Ideally I believe that “font palettes” or groups would be ideal. These could be set as a package as with a brush set, color swatches or any other package deals.
I agree. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months now, and am a bit frustrated with the lack of functionality/usability in this area. This could really improve workflow. It would probably also be very applicable for those companies or projects with set limited logotypes or style guides.
Another nifty font speed up solution utilizing the typing of the first letter can also be used by anyone out there working within Quark.
This type-a-letter shortcut can be used in both the “measurements” palette, as well as in the “Usage” utility when finding/replacing fonts used.
Now, what i’d like to know is how to turn OFF the wysiwyg feature in Illustrator’s “Type” menu. ;)
Lastly, having been on a Macintosh since the hammer went through the screen, I’ve seen a number of font managers come, and go. Without a doubt, the font manager that beats all others at the present is not only stable, robust, and friendly, but it’s free.
If you’ve not had a chance, check out Linotype’s Font Explorer
@ Kristy
Absolutely. It could really streamline work done with a repeating client and with large scale projects (print and web).
Font managers are all well and good - But browsing is certainly not as effective as custom organization. It seems obvious that Adobe is moving this way (gradually) and making room for everyone’s different tastes for their workspace - which i love.
Now im just holding out for them fix the damn layer locking that doesnt work in conjunction with quick duplication (option click & move, with autoselect on) in Photoshop. Anyone know what im talking about?
@JoMo
All I can think of is customizing your shortcuts on Photoshop or Illustrator. What I did was make keyboard shortcuts to functions or actions that didn´t have them, this makes my workflow a lot faster and more comfortable… for example, duplicating layers, or rasterizing images can reached without having to option + click on the layer…
Overall, there are a ton of ways of making your flow better, even by creating a custom workspace and saving any changes you make… otherwise, any keyboard shortcut or changes made won´t be saved for your next login to photoshop/ illustrator/ etc…
to Bcat,
oh thank you - i was looking for this anti-aliasing option for ages!
This might sound really anal, but I always hit the letter closer to the font I’m looking for — for example, you said you hit “M” because you were looking for Myriad — I would hit “N,” since, presumably, Myriad is going to be the last of my “M” fonts. “N” will take me to the font next to Myriad.
@ K|O|G|I
The font Thing is a font manager I like, but it doesn’t see all fonts formats, and especially not the .otf, and that remains a problem.
@ Michael
Thanks for pointing Linotype’s Font Explorer… I’m switching soon !
Check this out, http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16263/fontdoc it definitely doesn’t rival simply being able to hit the down key to preview on PC but should save some time in the design process and it’s free!!!
If that doesn’t work, try something else on this list:
http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?arch=all&keywords=font&os=macosx
@ alex
“Photoshop CS3 does!”
Rub it in why don’t ya. :b ;)
Linotype’s font manager is WONDERFUL! It’s really easy to use and it can do smart searches so that if you tag them with keywords it can easily group your fonts.
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
I think that’s common sense…. but it’s still a hassle if you don’t know the name of the font you’re after :oD
I use Suitcase as my font manager. Works well if I want to say look for a specific graphic for a ‘5′ digit or something…much better than trying to scroll through an application’s fonts…with or without preview. I like the suggestion above to be able to put fonts into categories such as ‘grunge’, ‘hand-writing’ etc…
Himmm very nice informations.
We use this format
[…] This is a key. Summarizing: if you need to have your typeface clear, work with the layer style) anti - aliasing in particular) separately. To add about type: good tips in Bittbox about font managing. […]
My instance of photoshop CS3 doesn’t allow to use keys as shortcuts to browse the fonts. Once you open the fonts menu you can just scroll up and down with the mouse.
You can use the keyboard (both for scrolling and shortcuts) only if you click on the font menu without opening the palette.
Plus CS3 have a *huge* issue with font preview, with 2000+ fonts installed i had to disable it because it made my PC completely freeze every time i did anything in photoshop.
It looks like even my quad core, 4 Gb ram PC can’t handle it.
Marcello
@ Boreale
Yeah, TFT has some shortcomings, but at the time I found it, it was the best one out there. I just downloaded the Linotype software… we’ll see how it does! Thanks :)
Looks like the PC version is in limbo right now between beta testing and first release… will try it as soon as it comes out.
This article is so stupid. Who doesn’t know this???
Oh HAIL all the mighty DC
For he has spoken.
Whether be with salted or sarcastic tongue, he has remonstrated us, the wee “us”, the masses, for engaging in worthless banter about something we should have known from birth.
Thank you O.B.-DC-Wan for your gentle reminder.
{{{And sincere apologies to bittBox for my off-topic reply to the omnipotent one}}}
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that function only works when u know the font that you’re looking for. but if you want to browse for a suitable fonts for your work, you should install a font viewer program.eg. Fisher - The Font Thing.