Digitalmash

So most of the time if you’re a good little designer you’ll be using grids to space out things like navigation items. But there are times when it just doesn’t work in the design to have items spaced in terms of their position on a grid. In these cases, you’ll probably want the text items to be spread out evenly.

Step 1.

In Photoshop, choose the type tool and click and drag a box (don’t just click).
Type in the navigation items you want and separate them with a space. If the navigation item is more than one word, leave the spaces between these words out.

Step 2.

Now go to your ‘Paragraph’ palette and choose the ‘Justify All’ button on the very right.

Step 3.

Grab the edge of the text box and stretch it out to as wide or narrow as you need. You’ll notice all the words spread out evenly.

Step 4.

Fix up any multiple-word items by highlighting the letter before where the space should be and bumping up the tracking (on the Character palette) until it looks right. You can use Alt+Left Arrow and Alt+Right Arrow on the keyboard for precision.

Finito

What I like about this is that you have the flexibility to adjust all the items very quickly and accurately while you’re designing a page layout. It also saves having 7 or 8 text layers for one horizontal navigation list.

Keep in mind this is just one way that works for me. There could be better ways, and if you know one, don’t be shy!

—Published 02 February, 2009