How to insert special symbols (glyphs) in PS CS5 Mac OSX

[Gustavo S.]

Hello,

I have a font type that contains a special symbol.  Does anyone know how to insert special symbols (called "glyphs" in Adobe Illustrator) in Photoshop CS5?  On Windows I read about running charmap.exe, which I tried and worked.  I'd like to learn how to do it on the Mac platform.

Thanks,

Gustavo

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Owl Design Studios

Santa Fe, NM

owldesignstudios.com

[_scott_ · Accepted solution]

You can set the type in Illustrator and copy to Photoshop.

You can also use freeware/shareware like PopChar on the Mac.

[Gustavo S.]

Scott,

Yes, I used the Illustrator method 'cause it was the only workaround I could think of doing .  I did not know about PopChar.  I'll check into it and update the post accordingly.

Thanks,

Gustavo

[Gustavo S.]

Scott,

PopChar worked like a charm -though not entirely "free" of charge I find out.  Thanks for the great tip.

Gustavo

[Conrad_C]

Mac OS X has a built-in solution you can try. These directions are for Snow Leopard. Go to System Preferences, click the Keyboard preferences, and in the Keyboard tab, turn on Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in Menu Bar. Now click the new icon in the menu bar and choose Show Character Viewer.

In Photoshop, if you've got an active text insertion point or selected text, you just bring up the Character Viewer, find the glyph you want to insert, and double-click it. Of course, not all glyphs are available in all fonts, so if it doesn't show up right in Photoshop you can use the Font Variation section at the bottom of the Character Viewer to find out which fonts have the glyph you want. Then you can set the font properly in Photoshop.

[Gustavo S.]

Hi Conrad,

I don't have Snow Leopard installed.  Do you know if/how it can be done in plain ol' Leopard?  Just tried and did not see the options you describe.

Thanks,

Gustavo

[Conrad_C]

I don't have Leopard on my Macs anymore, but I found Apple's directions for Leopard:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8164.html

The third paragraph tells you how to get to it. Note that Photoshop doesn't have the Edit > Special Characters command mentioned in step 2, and that's why you need to keep the Character Palette handy in the menu bar.

So you still have a free, built-in solution.

[Gustavo S.]

Hi Conrad,

thanks again.  I did not see how one can get to the 'Font' section.  But it is very helpful to know this trick as well.  I jthink that Photoshop should have an insert 'Glyphs' like Illustrator does.

Best,

Gustavo

[Tai_Lao]

You might find this of some interest:

http://www.apple.com/pro/techniques/glyphspalette/index3.html

The (Hidden) Glyphs Palette

The Character Palette has two great features that Quark’s and Adobe’s glyph palettes do not. It can tell you which fonts actually include a particular glyph, and it can compare the same character in multiple fonts at the same time. Fortunately, you can use the Character Palette alongside QuarkXPress 7 and all the Adobe Creative Suite applications, too.

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Wo Tai Lao Le

我太老了