Photoshop Typography and Text 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is anti-aliasing in the context of Photoshop text?
- A technique to bold text outlines
- A method that smooths the jagged edges of text by partially filling edge pixels (Correct answer)
- A font-embedding feature for export
- A feature that automatically corrects spelling
Correct answer: A method that smooths the jagged edges of text by partially filling edge pixels
Anti-aliasing smooths the edges of rendered text by blending the edge pixels with the background color, reducing the 'staircase' pixel appearance on curved letterforms.
Question 2: What does the leading control in the Character panel adjust?
- The space between individual letters
- The vertical space between lines of text (Correct answer)
- The horizontal scaling of characters
- The baseline position of the text
Correct answer: The vertical space between lines of text
Leading controls the vertical spacing between lines of text, measured from baseline to baseline — increasing leading adds more space between lines.
Question 3: What is kerning in typography and how is it adjusted in Photoshop?
- Kerning adjusts space between all characters globally; it is set in the Paragraph panel
- Kerning adjusts the space between two specific adjacent characters; it is set in the Character panel with the cursor placed between them (Correct answer)
- Kerning is the same as tracking
- Kerning adjusts the font weight of selected characters
Correct answer: Kerning adjusts the space between two specific adjacent characters; it is set in the Character panel with the cursor placed between them
Kerning controls the space between two specific character pairs and is adjusted in the Character panel — click between two characters with the Type Tool, then set the Kerning value.
Question 4: What is the Paragraph panel in Photoshop used for?
- Controls leading and kerning for individual characters
- Controls text alignment, justification, indentation, and spacing before/after paragraphs (Correct answer)
- Sets the font color for paragraph text
- Manages paragraph text layer effects
Correct answer: Controls text alignment, justification, indentation, and spacing before/after paragraphs
The Paragraph panel manages paragraph-level formatting including alignment (left, center, right, justified), indentation, and space before/after paragraph blocks.
Question 5: How do you create a clipping mask to fill text with an image or texture in Photoshop?
- Place the image inside the text using Edit > Paste Into
- Place the image layer directly above the text layer and create a clipping mask (Correct answer)
- Merge the image and text layer together
- Use Layer > Type > Fill With Image
Correct answer: Place the image layer directly above the text layer and create a clipping mask
Place the texture or image layer directly above the text layer in the Layers panel, then apply a clipping mask (Ctrl+Alt+G) to confine the image's visibility to the text shape.
Question 6: What does tracking (letter-spacing) control in Photoshop's Character panel?
- The space between two specific adjacent letters
- The uniform spacing applied across a range of selected characters (Correct answer)
- The vertical space between lines of a paragraph
- The horizontal scale of each character
Correct answer: The uniform spacing applied across a range of selected characters
Tracking (Character panel, the double-arrow A icon) adjusts spacing uniformly across all selected characters, tightening or loosening the overall text block.
Photoshop Typography and Text 2
What is anti-aliasing in the context of Photoshop text?