Text all of a sudden doesn't look right..

[dotwreck]

I have an issue that is frustrating me to no end because I can't figure out how to fix it.

Basically, I use the text tool a lot and have NEVER experienced any issues.

I made 4 photos back to back, each containing tons of text - no issue.

Then I start work on the 5th, and out of nowhere, the text is all messed up. It's all awkwardly spaced out now.

I've been searching online for a solution, and I've seen a lot of people talk about tracking and kerning and asian text.......but following all of the procedures people have mentioned in other forums - nothing works at all.

And again, the font use to never look like this. I have no idea what i did, or what may have happened - but it sure would be awesome to get it fixed.

Anyone have any ideas?

The picture below is just 4 random fonts that I have used on past projects - which never use to be so spaced out. ALL of my fonts are super spaced out now

Thanks for any replies that might hint towards a solution.

[hatstead · Accepted solution]

Suggest that you reset the  type tool to default. In older versions of the software, on the type tool's option bar, look for a little triangle, top left. Click on this to reset. In newer versions, on the option bar, look for a box with lines in it, bottom right, then click on this.

If that does not fix it, reset preferences. To do that, go to Edit>Preferences>General and look for this:

[dotwreck]

Resetting the preferences as you mentioned seemed to do the trick..... Do you have any idea what I may have done to make the fonts go crazy? I have no idea because when I select the Text tool, the options that appear at the bottom of my screen - nothing out of the ordinary...for what I can see - everything is the same - but obviously there is a setting somewhere, or I accidentally hit a shortcut key to do something, i just dont know what

[Mark_Sand]

Unexplained problems with PSE tools (besides the text tool) can pop up for no reason, and resetting the preferences fixes these.

That's how it's been since day 1 of PSE.

The "Reset Preferences on next launch" was introduced in PSE 11.

For earlier versions, there was an undocumented trick to reset the preferences file using a particular keystroke combination upon launching PSE.