Icons are a fun way to customize your graphics, images, and other projects. If you love icons and you love Photoshop, you’ll love this post because I’m going to teach you how to use Font Awesome in Photoshop. Font Awesome is the web’s default vector icon set used by names like TV Guide, NBC News, and T-mobile. Photographers, Photoshoppers, bloggers, developers, and graphic designers all enjoy using Font Awesome, and now you will too!
What Is An Icon?
Icons are little symbols you can use on print or in a web format to add appeal to a website, powerpoint presentation, or any other document you’re working on. In this tutorial, I’ll demonstrate how to use icons in Photoshop. Font Awesome’s scalable icons can be customized in a variety of ways: change the size, color, and rotation or add a drop shadow to your icon to make it uniquely yours.
Visit this link to be taken to this screen on Creativedo’s website. You can get an idea what the icons look like below:
Click the “Download Free” button to begin downloading Font Awesome. As you can see, the plugin is free.
You’ll be asked to enter your email address before clicking “Continue.”
This screen will pop up:
Click “Download.” A zip file will be added to your desktop. Extract the zip and open the unzipped folder. You will see these two files:
Double click on the “Installation” file. This screen will appear:
Click on the “Installation Instructions on Creative Do website.”
Note the four-step installation guide. Download and install the ZXP Installer in step number 1. You’ll be taken to this window:
Click on the “Download for OS X” if you’re on a Mac like I am. Download for Windows if you’re on a PC.
Navigate to your applications folder, find the ZXP Installer, and open it. The next step is to drag the “FontAwesomePS.zsp” file from the original download folder into the ZXP Installer. You can also see this file in step number 3 above.
Once you drag the file to the ZXP folder, it will automatically install the extension:
If you have Photoshop open, close it and relaunch it. In the top tool bar, go to “Window,” “Extensions,” and FontAwesomePS.”
You”ll see that Font Awesome is now installed in Photoshop. Hurray!
See the little flag icon on the far right? Drag that to your sidebar for easy reference. It takes a while to load once you click on it.
Now that Font Awesome is installed, all you have to do is click on the flag icon, and add your favorite icons to your projects by adding a new layer shape. Then edit your icon by changing the size or color or other customizations.
You can star your favorites to find them easily. Just press the “star” icon. See how I’ve starred the YouTube icon? You can tell because the star is filled in. Search for specific icons using the search bar.
Pretty easy, right? Have fun experimenting with the variety of icons Font Awesome offers.
Watch the video below for a visual tutorial on how to install Font Awesome for Photoshop:
Key Points
Font Awesome for Photoshop is a fun way to add interest to any of your graphics, images, or presentations. Simply install the icons directly into Photoshop for ease of use. I hope you enjoy customizing and using the icons within Font Awesome!
Have you used Font Awesome for Photoshop? If you aren’t using it already, would you like to? Let me know in the comments:)