Week 4
Week 4: A bit on type and a bit more on resumes
Download Week 4 Content as PDF (104KB)
Illustrator’s Type Tool
The type tool looks like a “T.” Coincidentally enough this is also it’s shortcut key. Use this tool to place type in Illustrator, or to interact with type already placed.
Setting Type
Click once in the document to set type as an object. Click and drag a shape to place type in a text field. One click text allows you to control the type element in the same manner that you control objects.: grabbing the reference points will resize or distort the text.
Clicking and dragging allows you to set your type in a defined area. Clicking the control points of this defined area will allow you to resize the containing shape. The text will not change (although it’s position will). With this form of type control, in order to make the type larger or smaller you have to select the type and use the Character panel to size the text.
The type controls are better in InDesign. Use InDesign for large areas of type.
Hidden Type Tools
Area Type Tool
Uses an existing shape to hold type information
Type on a Path Tool
Uses a vector (such as a circle) to act as the baseline for the line of type. Create a vector and click on it with this to type along it.
Vertical tools
The three vertical tools do the same things are the other tools but they set the type vertically rather then sequentially. Until you understand why this is an astonishingly bad idea most of the time, it’s probably best not to use these.
Relevent Panels
The Character Panel
This panel is used to set the type characteristics of your line of text. You can control the font family, face, type size, kerning, leading and tracking from this panel. The four tools that are at the bottom of the panel all effect the integrity of the font you’re using and should be avoided.
Changing settings in the character panel will effect your selected type elements. If you used single click placement, that means you just have to click on the type element once with the black arrow to activate it. (This also means that you can just grab the control handles to resize it, which is a lot easier and more intuitive, but you can set exact type characteristics as necessary from the Character Panel). Changing the type characteristics in this fashion applies the change across the entire line of type.
You can click once with the black arrow to select an area of type and apply the type changes consistently to all of the type in the selected text frame.
To apply changes to one section of type only
Use the text tool to select the area you wish to adjust. Clicking once sets your cursor. Clicking twice selects the active word. Three times selects the active Line. Four times selects the active Paragraph, and clicking five times with the type tool selects all of the content in the element
The Paragraph Panel
Use this panel to set alignment (the row of buttons at the top) and to control the basic properties of each paragraph of type in your selection. A paragraph is all of the content between two Paragraph returns (hard line breaks). These settings control the margins and the space before and space after your paragraph.
Again…the controls and style settings are better in InDesign, so for areas of type bigger then a couple of sentences: use InDesign.
Type and Outlines
Illustrator draws a distinction between type and shapes-that-look-like-letterforms (outlines). You can see this quickly by using the outline preview (Cmd+Y).
Type appears as solid filled letterforms with a baseline and one control point. Shapes appear as unfilled outline vectors with all of the control points visible. Some applications require one approach, and some applications require the other.
A Couple of Differences:
Type is Editable.
You can use the Type tool to interact with it, delete existing letter forms with the “Delete” key and add type to the line as if you were using a word processor. The proper font files must be loaded on the computer you are using for the type to render properly.
Outlines Allow the Pathfinder
You can’t use the Pathfinder on type. Type must be converted to outlines before the it will be treated as a shape and allow the use of the pathfinder. The align tool can be flaky with set type also. Outlines behave predictably with the align tool. Outlines are not type so they do not require a separate font file to display. (They are shapes that just look like type)
When to use each
For the most part, hold on to editable type as long as possible. Convert to outlines only when the effect you need is unavailable with type. The reason for this is that you never know when you might have misspelled something (for example) or the client will want to apply the same effect to other instancs of separate type. If you preserve the type, (and therefor the editability) this process becomes very easy.
Converting type to outlines
Select the type that you want to convert and go to Type>Create outlines. This works for single-click-placed type and area-placed-type.
Some vendors require outlines for production of things like T-Shirts (for example) because they don’t have to worry about the font files to properly reproduce your artwork. If you’re asked to provide an vector file with text converted to outlines or converted to curves, this is what they are talking about.
Converted type elements become shapes and are controlled the same way you would control a basic shape element like a square or circle. They can be combined together the same way that basic shapes are by using the pathfinder tool.
Styling Type
You can apply fills and strokes to type by selecting it as an object (with the black arrows) or by selecting it as text (with the type tool). Illustrator draws a distinction between these two types of selection. Selecting the whole line is the “Type.” Selecting the text with the Type Tool is referred to as selecting the “Chracters.” Characters are sub elements of the type.
Use the stroke panel to control the thickness of the applied strokes.
The Appearance Panel
This panel keeps track of all of the effects applied to your type. You can change the character’s properties by double clicking on the word characters (this will select the line of type as if you had done so by clicking with the type tool).
Additionally, the appearance panel will allow you to add and delete multiple fills and strokes for the active element and apply effects to selected sub elements. The top to bottom order of the elements in this panel determines the heirarchy of the styles applied to the active element. Drag these sub elements to reorder them.
Right click and select “Save Linked File As” to download the above illustration as a Vector File
In the example above (which is available on concourse in the week 4 folder), the characters have a green fill and a black stroke applied. The Type has two new fills created with opposing gradients and offset paths applied.
What’s really cool about this is the word “Example” is still editable. You can change it with the type tool to a different word, or change the font, for example, and these created effects will carry over to the new element.
Preserving Styles
In the example image above, next to the word “Type” at the top of the appearance panel is a small rectangle. That rectangle represents all of the effects, fills, strokes, whatever that are represented in the appearance panel in the top to bottom order that they are displayed.
You can preserve this in the same manner that you can create a swatch to save a color by dragging the square next to the word Type into the Graphic Styles panel. (Or by clicking on the options menu in the style panel and selecting “New Graphic Style.” This allows you to apply this style gobally to other instances of the type.
