Easy way to preview text in different fonts? Illustrator / Mac

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Ya know in Illustrator, when you click on text, ya get the character drop-down menu in the tool bar at the top? Well, I've always used a PC and I've always been able to click on text, click a font in that drop down menu, then hit my down-arrow button on my keyboard and my text will change to the different fonts. At my new job, I'm on a Mac and when I click that character drop-down menu, it won't change the font when I press the down-arrow button. Seems like I have to click each font name to see what the text will look like in each font. I want to do it my old way! Is there some setting that will let me do that? Sorry if that's confusing!

 

[John Butto]

Are talking about illustrator, and do you have Suitcase or other, or the Mac Font Book.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Yes, Illustrator. And the Mac has Font Book.

 

[John Butto]

doyouseethisnow

do you see it like this

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Yep. And on my PC, I can use the up and down arrows and my text will change to the font but on this computer, I have to click on each one to change the font. It takes alot more time to do it that way. I don't know if it's a PC / Mac thing or if it's some kind of Preferences setting thing.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

It's gotta be a Mac thing, go back to using a PC

 

[John Butto]

I just switch over to Illustrator CS6 on my laptop at home, and it is suppose to have that feature. But no it does not do that in CS5.5 on a Mac here at my studio. Maybe there is a plug in that has that.

 

[omgsideburns]

You can't scroll on the Mac, but you do get the nice preview on the drop down tab that windows only does on the right click menu.. So it's 6 in one, half a dozen in the other..

 

[xxaxx]

My up and down arrows still work on the pc ... but I prefer to browse over to http://wordmark.it/ you can type your text and see previews of all the fonts on your computer. Really nice tool that I use constantly.

 

[CES020]

You can't scroll on the Mac, but you do get the nice preview on the drop down tab that windows only does on the right click menu.. So it's 6 in one, half a dozen in the other..

It's fixed in CS6. CS4 and 5 wouldn't let you do it like the PC. It was the only thing I hated about moving to the Mac with Adobe products. However, with CS6, it's fixed and you can scroll through them all you want, just like on the PC.

 

[rjssigns]

When necessary I just preview the fonts in PS. (easy to scroll through on a Mac)

 

[SightLine]

Another option is to use the actual "character" panel which is under the "type" panel. By default it will dock on the right in Windows. No idea on Mac. The dropdown list of font on that one shows the font names in their actual font. Not the text you want on screen but it is still another option.

 

[MichaelAlmand]

how do you guys manage your fonts? I have thousands of them and when i load them up in the PC it makes it sluggish.

 

[SightLine]

Extensis Suitcase....

Although I can have 5000+ fonts loaded with no problem I generally only keep 1500 or so loaded at any given time.

 

[Ragin Cajun]

Ya know in Illustrator, when you click on text, ya get the character drop-down menu in the tool bar at the top? Well, I've always used a PC and I've always been able to click on text, click a font in that drop down menu, then hit my down-arrow button on my keyboard and my text will change to the different fonts. At my new job, I'm on a Mac and when I click that character drop-down menu, it won't change the font when I press the down-arrow button. Seems like I have to click each font name to see what the text will look like in each font. I want to do it my old way! Is there some setting that will let me do that? Sorry if that's confusing!

On a Mac...you see the font name in that drop down menu.

If you go in that menu and highlight the font...once it is highlighted...your arrow keys will work.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Darn. It didn't work for me. Thanks anyway!

 

[Dennis422]

It works in CS6, but it was not working in previous versions.

Also, if you open a Text pane (Command/T) and open up a drop-down for the fonts, you have a small preview there of the specific font in case you do not have CS6.

 

[ashleighfiddler]

My up and down arrows still work on the pc ... but I prefer to browse over to http://wordmark.it/ you can type your text and see previews of all the fonts on your computer. Really nice tool that I use constantly.

wow thank you! this is awesome.