Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 - how to condense text? (kerning, less space between letters)

Question

I was looking in the docs: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/edit-text.html

I want text to appear more condensed.

Where is the button?

It was there in a non-elements Photoshop version...

Answer 1

At the risk of making the wrong assumption, I'm guessing what you're wanting to do is change the tracking of the letters. Doing so will have the effect of condensing your text. Kerning, on the other hand, is actually an adjustment of the space between pairs of letters because in some cases the space between certain combinations of letters creates an unfortunate appearance.

In Adobe Photoshop you get access to a lot more functionality and changing things like tracking, kerning, etc are extremely easy. Unfortunately, in Adobe Photoshop Elements there is no obvious way to do this.

However, you do have two options open to you. One is an effective workaround within Photoshop Elements, and the other involves purchasing an add-on.

1. Workaround

I do have a workaround for you that will achieve the same effect, and that is to enable Asian Text Options (which I can see from your screenshot is not enabled). Here's what you need to do:

1. Launch Photoshop Elements
2. Go to Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor > Preferences > Type...
3. In the list of Text Options you'll see a checkbox for Show Asian Text Options - select it and click OK
4. Now within your document, select your text again to view your Type tool options
5. Now you should see the Asian Text Options below the justification options (see image below)

6. Now if you click on the drop-down arrow on the right of the Asian Text Options you'll see you can select a range of percentages - doing this will basically change the tracking of the characters/words you selected at Step 4

NOTE: Whatever % you select will also apply to any new text you add to your document, so remember to change it back to 0 if you want any new text to start from scratch.

2. Add-on

This requires purchasing the Elements+ add-on. This add-on actually activates a lot of the functions you'd normally find in the full version of Photoshop (many are actually still in Photoshop Elements - they're just hidden)!

Obviously it'd take up too much space here to describe all of the hidden functions this add-on will enable, but this page shows the Tracking function it enables.

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with Elements+.