Have you ever wondered why the font size is always so inconsistent in Photoshop? Sometimes you type in some text and then you set the font size to 12 pt or points. But it’s not even close to being 12 points and the text so tiny that you can barely read it. Other times, 12 points is gigantic. So why isn’t a 12 point text in Photoshop the same size as a 12 point text would be in other software like Microsoft Word? In this Photoshop tutorial, I’ll explain to you why that’s happening and how you can fix it.
Why Is the Font Size Always Different in Photoshop?
Let’s get straight to the answer. The font size is always different because you didn’t set your document’s size or PPI correctly. This is a very common mistake that pretty much everyone makes. Let me show you how to fix it and then if you’re still interested you can keep reading to find out why this happens.
How to Fix Photoshop’s Font Size Issue
Here we have a document the size of a business card and when we type in some text at the printing company’s recommended font size of 10 points, it looks tiny.
To fix this, just correct your Image Size settings by going to Image > Image Size. Uncheck the “Resample” option so that it doesn’t change the pixel dimensions of your document. With this option off, if you’re your document is 1000 pixels wide, it’ll stay 1000 pixels wide no matter what width or height you enter.
Now enter the correct width and height. For mine, it’s 3.5 inches by 2 inches. Photoshop will calculate the resolution or PPI automatically so you can just click OK to apply the changes.
At first it looks like nothing happened. But select the Text tool then edit your text. You can now change the font size to whatever size you wanted and it’ll be the proper size.
Why Does This Happen?
So that’s how you fix the inconsistent font size issue in Photoshop. But why does this happen?
When you’re using points as a measurement, let’s say a 24 point text… it’ll be the same size regardless of what your document size is. So a 24 point font on this business card is the same size as a 24 point on this letter sized paper.
I’m going to undo the image size we did earlier and go back to the Image Size tool. Here you can see our mistake. Photoshop thinks that this business card is 14 by 8 inches (which is really large). If you were to print this, it wouldn’t even fit in a normal letter size paper.
And I can prove this to you by going to File > Print. Here you can see that Photoshop thinks the document is gigantic eventhough the pixel dimensions is only about 1000 pixels wide.
Now I’m going to go back to the Image Size tool and fix the size. When I use the Print tool, it’ll be the proper size.
So there you go. Next time you encounter this wonky font size effect, just go to the Image Size tool, enter the proper document size, and your font size will start working normally again.
