How do you tell what fonts have alternates? Well most likely the fonts you are downloading from free font sites like DAFont.com will not have alternates. You have to pay money for a good font, where the designer of the font put in extra characters into the font family. At the end of this article, I have listed some of the most amazing fonts that have alternates.
Ligatures - This is where two or more characters are linked together. If you look at the example below the T and H characters are linked together. The font used in this example is Aphrodite Slim Pro.
Logotypes - This is where a word is stylized as a logo to be included in your type. You will usually find these in the Show Entire Glyphs and not as an alternate.
Biform characters - These alternate characters can make capital letters have a lowercase look or lowercase letters with capital letter look while keeping the same size and weight. The font used in this example is Press Gothic Pro.
Swash characters - This is where a certain letter can have a fancy look to them. You will see swash characters in lot's of calligraphic fonts. They are very useful at the beggining and end of a word. The font used in this example is Burgues Script.
To gain a better understanding of how you can benefit from using alternate characters, we should first look at how you can access them. Both Adobe Illustrator and InDesign have a great way to access these alternate characters. Unfortunately, Adobe Photoshop does not have a way to access them via a Glyphs panel. In this tutorial we are going to use Illustrator.
The font I am going to be using is Aphrodite Slim Pro. It is an amazing handmade font full of alternate and ligature forms designed by Sabrina Lopez and Maximiliano Sproviero. You have to purchase it, but it is well worth your money. You can buy it from myfonts.com here. Make sure you buy the Pro version as it includes all the different alternate characters.
Using the Type Tool, type out Media on one layer and change the font to Aphrodite Slim Pro. I set the font size to 72 pt.
Using the Type Tool create another type layer and type in Militia. Place it where you feel fit.
Open up the Glyphs panel by going to Window > Type > Glyphs
This Glyphs panel gives you the ability to see all of the characters as well as the alternate characters for any given font. This panel is the heart to this tutorial. It opens by default showing all the characters available for the font.
It is great to see all the different characters available to us, but the real power of the Glyphs panel is being able to show the Alternates for a selected character.
With the Type Tool, select the first "e" in Media. In the drop down box for Show change it to Alternates for Current Selection. This will show all the alternates for the letter e. Find one you like by clicking on each of the different thumbnails.
Continue going through and selecting different characters and seeing which ones look the best. Don't over do it though!
You may have noticed while selecting some of the characters that there are ornaments included with the type. I created two new type layers and found two ornaments that fit in perfectly with the type. The letters I used were X and Y. Using the selection tool I put them up against the other letters.
While Photoshop does not have a Glyphs panel, you can create your typography inside of Illustrator and copy and paste it into Photoshop to manipulate.
Aphrodite Slim Pro
This font as seen in the tutorial above has more than 1000 glyphs. It a beautiful calligraphy based font.
Ministry Script
Ministry Script was designed to be “A time capsule that marks both the American ad art of the 1920s, and the current new-millennium acrobatics of digital type.
Over 1000 characters
Affair
Affair is an extraordinary new calligraphic typeface by Alejandro Paul with a party full of swash characters, ligatures, and ornaments.
Mussica
Mussica is a crisp font created by Corradine Fonts. It feature a few extra glyphs for your characters that add a wow effect.
Blanchard
Blanchard is a revival and elaborate extension of Muriel, a 1950 metal face made by Blanchard Trochut for the Fonderie Typographique Française, that was published simultaneously by the Spanish Gans foundry under the name Juventud. Blanchard is a script that embodies the post-war narrow decorative aesthetic that would become the instantly recognizable feature of that era’s design.
Metroscript
Metroscript is a handwritten script with styles from the 1920s and the 1950s. With a huge vintage sports theme, it has many ligatures, swashes, alternates, foreign accented characters and tails—all of which connect seamlessly.
Liza
Liza Pro, Underware’s latest creation, is a live-script typeface. Thanks to its extremely intelligent OpenType architecture, she approaches human hand lettering as close as technically possible. Liza Pro deeply analyzes the text. Out of a stock of 4000 hand crafted characters, Liza creates the most optimal combination. All of this works automatically. All you need to do is typing your lettres d’amour, and Liza makes the text always look different.
Nelly Script Flourish
Nelly Script Flourish is the jewelry to a beautifully appointed lady, the icing to the wedding cake, the VaVoom! Nelly Script Flourish comes complete with a large variety of alternate upper and lowercase forms in OpenType format.
Mon Amour Script Pro
Mainly for invitations; Mon Amour Script Pro, is an Open-Type font, which will delight you. It has the alternate, swash and ligature functions.
Quijote Sauvage Pro
Quijote Sauvage Pro is a very expressive calligraphic font. It includes all the ligatures, alternates and swashes..
Buffet Script
Buffet Script is based on fantastic calligraphy by Alf Becker, arguably the greatest American sign lettering artist of all time
Paradise Script
Paradise is a script font thought to be used in a wide range of pieces of design. From packaging to invitations, Paradise really looks elegant and sometimes playful at the same time. The possibilities of alternates, ligatures and combinations of them are huge. Calligraphy lovers know that words sometimes start or end with extra flourishes: This is the reason of Paradise Starters and Paradise Finishers, which will always give a sensual touch to the written word.
PF Champion Script Pro
PF Champion Script Pro is the most advanced and powerful script ever made. Four sets of alternate swashed capitals as well as a plethora of ornaments and frames (117) was included.
After you have downloaded the file, unzip it and save it to a location that you prefer.
Inside of Photoshop open your Actions Panel by going to Window > Actions
Click on the Actions panel menu and click on the Load Actions menu item. Locate and select the action set file you downloaded, and then click on Load
After you have loaded the action set file, open up the image that has a white background you want to remove.
Make sure the layer is named "Background" and that it is selected. The color mode must be set to RGB.
Change your Foreground color to the color you want the output to be
Now choose one of the sets below and click on the play button.
White BG Removal - Alpha: Great if you want to maintain the alpha look of the original file. I usually use this action set the most because you can easily duplicate the final layer a couple of times to make it darker, then merge the layers.
White BG Removal - Maximum Opacity: This is a great way to get a darker final image with a transparent background. After running, you can duplicate the layer a few more times to make it darker.
White BG Removal - with Color: I included this in the Action Set because maintaining color is something you might want, however, use it with a warning that it is not the best way to remove a white background while maintaining color.
For better results change the levels (CTRL + L) of your file before using one of the actions. You want to make the background.as white as possible.
If you have a black background you can inverse the layer (CTRL + I) and then run the appropriate action. After it run you can inverse the image again.
This action set is a great and fast way to remove white backgrounds. If you want to get better results, check out our article An In-Depth Look Into Background Removal Techniques
Error: The object "layer "Background"" is not currently available.
Solution: This is because you did not name the layer Background. These actions rely on a layer named Background
Error: The object "red channel" is currently not available.
Solution: Make sure the color mode is set to RGB before running You can change the mode by going to Image > Mode > RGB Color
Did you like this pack? We have a ton of amazing freebies you should check out. Download all of them and start your collection of awesome resources.
Individual Downloads:
Images - PNG (With Transparent Backgrounds)
Photoshop Brushes - ABR
Vectors - EPS
Textures - JPEG
Individual Downloads:
Images - PNG (With Transparent Backgrounds)
Photoshop Brushes - ABR
Vectors - EPS
Textures - JPEG 
Download the Resources (Includes the final PSD)
To start off this tutorial you will be creating the main glowing object using a program called Apophysis. You can download it for free here
Note:
If you would like to skip the creation process using Apophysis, I have included the rendered output in the resource files. Skip to Step 8 where we open the rendered file in Photoshop.
After you have downloaded and installed Apophysis. Open the application from the Windows Start menu.
In the left hand panel of Apophysis, double click on different flame titles until you find one that you like. Try to find ones that don't have a lot of noise and could look like a great glow effect. These are all random batches. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect as you will be rendering the flame and bringing it into Photoshop later.
Hopefully you found a good flame to use. The flame I choose looks like this:
Tip #1: You can mutate flames.
If you would like to keep the same look yet get a different result go to View > Mutation and click on the different squares.
Tip #2: Try Zooming in and out
If you find a look that you like but it is out of frame or you would like to zoom in. You can go to Flame > Adjust and edit the camera Zoom.
Once you have perfected your flame, go to Flame > Render to Disk.
Width 3000
Height: 2000
Quality: 4000
Filter Radius: 0.4
Oversample: 2
Finally click on Render. Rending takes some time, so just sit back and relax.
Now that the render is finished, open your rendered JPEG into Photoshop. If you would like to use the file I rendered out, open Render.jpg in the resource files for this tutorial that you downloaded.
Duplicate the Background Layer.
With the Duplicated Background layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Change the Radius to 4 pixels.
Set the Blending Mode for this duplicated layer to Linear Dodge (Add)
If you feel like you want some more glow, then duplicate it one more time. You can also play with the Levels to get a crisper look.
We are going to create a brush out of this render. Choose the Rectangle Marquee Selection tool and in the Options Bar change the Style to Fixed Size. Change the Width and the Height to 2500 px
Click in an area that you would like to make a brush with. Since we changed the options to make the selection exactly 2500 x 2500 it will constrain to those exact dimensions.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert
Now that we have a white background we can create a brush. Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset
Create a new Photoshop Document. I created it at 1744 x 1282 with the resolution set at 300 ppi.
Make your background layer is Black and Create a New Layer. Choose the Brush tool and select the new brush that we just created. Click in your document to lay down the pixels. Name this Layer Glow Brush
Double Click on the Glow Brush layer to bring up the Layer Style window. Check Gradient Overlay and edit the gradient to be the Violet, Orange Gradient.
Go back to your original JPG that you rendered out of Apophysis and Copy and Paste it into this new PSD. Name this new layer Original.
Change the Layer Blending Mode of this layer to Linear Dodge (Add). You will have to use the Move tool to properly align this Original layer with your Glowing Brush layer.
Create a New Layer above the Original Layer and name it Colorize.
With the Gradient tool, select the Violet, Orange gradient again and choose Radial Gradient. Make a gradient that resembles something like this:
Now change the layers blending mode of the Colorize layer to Hue. You should end up with this:
Now we are going to add some text into the design. Add the text DESIGN IS BILLIANT. For the font I used Helvetica Neue - Ultra Light Extended. For the color I used - #ffca53
Make sure this text layer is right above the background but below all of the other layers.
Open the Bokeh image from the resource files into Photoshop. Copy and Paste it into your PSD and place the layer above your text. Change the layer blending mode to Screen and the Opacity to 28%
You will want to Scale the Bokeh layer down to fit nicley with your text.
Open the Particles - 9.jpg file and Copy and Paste it into your PSD. Scale it down and place it just below the Original Layer. Change the Layer Blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add). Name this layer Particles Pink
Duplicate the Particles Pink layer and change the layer blending mode to Overlay.
Create a New Layer just below your particles pink layers. Using the Elliptical Marquee Selection Tool, create some solid white circles in your document.
Now change the Layer Blending mode to Soft Light. Name this layer Circles - Soft Light
Finally, I decided to crop the image since the right hand side was not too appealing. You could easily add some elements over on the right side and bring it all together.
So that's it. Have fun with your new tool!
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