Resizing text in Photoshop seems like a simple task, and there are many different ways to do it. The only problem is that some methods create new issues that you may not know how to deal with. The easiest method to resize text isn’t always the most appropriate for your project. That’s why learning the following methods will help prevent any frustrations over resizing your Photoshop text.
Ultimately, the best way is whatever works for you. For that reason, I’m sharing three different techniques to resize your text in Photoshop so you can figure out which technique works best for your designs.
The Easiest Way To Resize Text In Photoshop
The easiest way to resize text in Photoshop is with the Move Tool. With your text layer selected in the Layers Panel, press V to access the Move Tool. A transform box will appear around your text. Click any anchor point on the transform box and drag in or out to change the size of your text.
Let me show you an example of this in action.
When you’re ready to add text to your canvas, select the Type Tool (T).
With the Type Tool selected, click anywhere on your canvas to create a piece of text. This will immediately insert some placeholder text (if enabled) to show you the initial style that the Type Tool is set in. However, in this case, I just typed in my own text.
Now to resize your text, select the Move Tool (V).Â
In the Options Bar, ensure the Auto-select box is checked and set to Layer in the dropdown menu. Also, check the Show Transform Controls box.
Then select the text in the Layers Panel to show the transform box around the text.
To resize the text, hover your cursor near an anchor point on the transform box. Click and drag one of the anchor points inwards to shrink the text, or outwards to expand.
Dragging the anchor point scales the text equally and won’t stretch or warp it. If it does warp your text, hold the Shift key while scaling to lock the aspect ratio.
If you want to stretch your text, hold down Alt (Win) or Option (Mac) while clicking and dragging an anchor point. This will stretch from the center even if you’re dragging from a corner anchor.
The nice part about this is that no matter how you’ve formatted your text, it will remain the same even after scaling.
Additional Ways Of Resizing Text In Photoshop
Whether you’re working with point text (as in the previous example) or paragraph text, there are other ways to resize the text too. The options include using the Options Bar or the Character panel.
Option 1: Highlight And Rescale In The Options Bar
Another easy way to resize text is by using the text settings in the Options Bar that appears when the Type Tool is selected.
To resize your text with the Options Bar, first, select the Type Tool (T) and make sure your text layer is selected in the Layers Panel.
If you’ve designed your text in different sizes or placed different words on multiple lines, it’s best to resize first and then reformat afterward.
To start, highlight the text you wish to resize just as you would in a word document. Then in the Options Bar, go to the font size option. You can adjust the size here in a couple of different ways.
One way is to type a new size directly into the box. This is great if you already know what size is best for your work or if you want a size that isn’t available in the drop-down list.
Another method is by hovering your cursor over the text size option until two opposite-facing arrows appear. Then click and drag left or right, like an invisible slider, to change the font size.
And another method is by clicking the arrow next to the size box. This opens a menu of common text sizes. Select any of these to set your text to that size.
Using the Options Bar to resize your text is simple and easy since the text size menu offers a variety of common font sizes.
Option 2: The Character Panel
Similar to the previous method, you can also use the Character panel to resize your text. The biggest difference with this option is that you don’t have to select the Type Tool to resize text, nor do you have to highlight your text specifically.
Using the Type Tool (T), click and type or drag out a text box and write your text.
Next, you’ll need to open the Character panel by going to Window > Character.
You can hide or show the Character panel at any point by pressing the Character button on the right side of the workspace.
To change your text size using the Character panel, you must first select the text layer in the Layers panel that you want to resize. This means you can have multiple text layers and resize one text layer without affecting others.
With your text layer selected in the Layers Panel, find the font size option within the Character Panel.
Change and set the font size and watch as your text changes size as you enter a new point value.
How To Resize A Text Box In Photoshop
If you want to resize a text box with paragraph text, this is a little different than simply resizing the text. Resizing a text box will only change the size or shape of the box as you drag it, but the size of the text will remain the same inside, which may hide parts of the text.
You should use options 1 or 2 to resize your paragraph text before (or after) resizing the text box. If you want to resize the text box to be narrower than the width of your text, you may need to add a hyphenation option for longer words.
Otherwise, you can resize your text even smaller to ensure it fits. Let me show you a quick example of this.
If I drag the paragraph text box inward using an anchor point, some words will begin to disappear because there is not enough room for the large text to fit within the parameters.
And the bottom right-hand corner anchor point will show a plus icon which tells you there are hidden words.
To avoid losing words, you can highlight everything (or individual words), then change the font size as needed. Here’s an example of both situations at play.
If you have changed your text size but some words are still broken up, you can add hyphenation to your text. Hyphenation allows you to fit more words in a space without longer words jumping to new lines of text.
To add hyphenation, go to Window > Paragraph.
In the Paragraph panel, check the hyphenation box.
If you prefer not to hyphenate longer words, ensure the box is unchecked.
For long and unhyphenated words, you can use your resizing skills to ensure they fit nicely into your text areas.
Now that you know the different ways to change text size, you’ve just reached the tip of the iceberg with what’s possible with this tool. To learn more about working with text in Photoshop, check out my ultimate guide to working with Photoshop text here.
