Custom preview text in Font Book

The default preview text in Font Book uses the upper- and lower-case alphabet, along with the first 10 numerals. If “ABC” and “123″ aren’t helping you visualize a font decision for a Web project or document, you can use custom preview text in Font Book instead. Here’s how.

Open Font Book and go to Preview → Custom or use the keyboard shortcut Command+3. The default preview text will now be highlighted and you can type in or copy-and-paste the actual text you intend to use in your project.

The Mac OS X Font Book lets you choose from three preview modes: Sample, Repertoire and Custom. I mentioned Sample (the default alphanumeric preview) and Custom (using your own unique text) and that leaves Repertoire.

Select Repertoire when you’d like to reveal the glyphs that many fonts offer. If you’re interested in glyphs and dingbats, be sure to get to know the Character Palette, too.

You’ll also want to select Preview → Show Font Info to see a ton of information about each selected font.