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Last Updated on Sunday, 11 April 2010 12:34 Written by Simon Nicol Friday, 8 January 2010 12:25

Every time I use the Photoshop CS4 Type tool it crashes! It might take ages to start working to begin with and I get a (program not responding) warning but then it’s ok. However… generally after I’ve typed in a few letters the whole program crashes – it’s so annoying! I can’t get any work done this way and Adobe – (bless ‘em) are really stressing me out…

It’s Ok, calm down there little camper, this has been a known problem for Adobe since oh, long before you were born – way back in the days of Photoshop 3.0!

The reason this is happening is because not all fonts are equal. Some vector fonts might look ok but can contain values that are incorrect. The font I use for the logo on this website the ‘Caspian IT’ bit looks fine as text but trying to use it in a 3D program such as 3D Studio Max some of the letters go completely wonkey – This is what’s happening with Photoshop CS4.

First let’s get your problem fixed.

Now the year is 2010 and most people are using Photoshop CS4 they still haven’t fixed this problem. The problem is – and has always been the ‘Font Preview’

Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Type and in there you’ll probably see an option that has ‘Font Preview Size’ with the box ticked.

Just un-tick the box and you’re good to go little camper. No more nasty crashing. Here, I’ve taken a screenshot for you.

Now that the panic’s over and you’re able to work with Photoshop again I’ll go in to a little bit more detail. If you really tried to track the cause of the problem down you might find that the crashing is caused by one or more of your fonts. Not all fonts are equal in this case.

Font handling in Windows is not the most fun of experiences, but if you’re a graphic designer having a large selection of font designs is all part of the job.

I would suggest at this point to be just a little bit more selective about which fonts you add to your system. I would definately not recommend just adding ‘batches’ of 100′s fonts at a time and would strongly suggest that you just add your favourites 2 or 3 select fonts at a time. Ideally you should have 200-500 really nice fonts and no more – this will keep your system running smoothly and quickly without the hazard of crashing out every time you try to type something in to Photoshop!

Keep tuning in for more top tips and life saving advice!

Simon

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1 Comment

1.   Lisa   |  Saturday, 30 April 2011 at 11:45 am

   Dude you saved my livelihood! I was working on designs for a new business website (launching in mere days) when photoshop started crashing every time I typed a letter. I searched the web for hours on the problem, before I found your web page. I can’t believe it was that SIMPLE to fix. What a God send!

   I tried to donate, but there seems to be a bug with that paypal button. Keeps telling me to “enter an amount higher than Zero” even though I put in a higher amount.

   Thanks a million!