I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, and occasionally have need for unusual characters. Things like © ¢ ¼ ° all come in handy from time to time!
Not all fonts have these characters, but the good basic fonts that come with your computer will. Figuring out how to print them is another matter! Some of you may be familiar with the ALT+0169 (or ALT+ another number) keystroke shortcut, but in Photoshop that doesn’t work.
This is where the Character Map comes in!
- To see the Character Map on a Windows computer, go to:
Start> All Programs (or just Programs in XP)> Accessories> System Tools> Character Map
You’ll see a table with all the possible characters in it – this doesn’t mean the font you’re using will HAVE those characters, but you can try.
- Click on the character you’d like to add into your text.
- Click on the Select key to put it into the little box at the bottom.
- Click on Copy to save it to your clipboard.
- Now switch to your document, and press CTRL V to paste the character into your text. (In PS/PSE you will need to have the text tool active, and have already clicked to start a line of type)
- If you see a weird rectangle or other unidentifiable symbol, chances are your font does not support that character. That’s ok, just highlight the single character and change to a more basic font like Arial or Times New Roman. Then it should show.
I hope you find this helpful next time you’re scrapping a recipe and need to say “350°F” or “Lemonade 25¢”!
What a cool piece of info! Will have to remember this! Thanks!!
GREAT TIP!
LOVE this tip! Thanks!
I’m pretty sure it works in photoshop if the symbol is available in the font you’ve selected, but you DO have to use the keypad on the right, not the numbers at the top of the keyboard.
I love this, and i’ve memorized some that i use all the time, like ©, lol!
Yes, what LLG Designs said is true. The number pad (with NumLock on) works for me in Photoshop.
Thanks! I’ll have to try that when I’m at a keyboard with a number pad. My laptop doesn’t have one, and that’s what I use as my primary computer
Great tip! Thank you so much!
You could keep your favs in a text file which could be open and you could copy from there.
Great idea, Geri! I use them so infrequently, I’d probably forget where I put the file
I do that with scrap supplies though, so it makes sense. Thanks for the idea!
Found this very helpful – thank you.