You might also wish to create a custom library of shapes by doing what i did... converting dingbat/wingding fonts.
I have an Action for this to make the process less painful. [honesty]
Anyone remember what thread i posted the link to that action in? Aaah nevermind, here it is again:
Creating Custom Shapes.
This set of 3 Actions will quickly do the following:
1) create a type layer for every key on your keyboard (
uses Arial as the base font)
2) convert those type layers to vector shape layers
3) save the vector shapes into a custom library
If you have a questions about running the Actions let me know.
NOTE:
Obviously this is a PC specific Action Set. Because Mac fonts extensions are named differently than PCs, i can't create a Mac version of the first Action (
creating initial Type layers). But if a kind Mac user here wants to provide that, it can be added into the set easily. The 2nd & 3rd Actions though should work fine for either OS. It's just the 1st one that is OS specific.
QUIERY:
Adobe has 2 specific fonts it uses for the program... ("photoshop.fon" & "photoshop small.fon")... i wonder if they're named the same on both OSes? If that are, then that could be used as the default font for the first Action. That would remove the extra work needed to create 2 versions of the type layer Action.
OOPS!:
Ok strike that last thought guys!... I just did a test run and when i use the Adobe program font for the type layer Action, it uses a whopping 469MB for a swap file!? For some reason, that TINY, Aliased font needs a HUGE amount of 'space' to exist. I find that puzzling! [saywhat]
So i guess the initial idea will have to work -- i.e. a Mac use create a version of the 1st font (
type out every key on the keybaord, including CAPS and Shift+key combos).