3 powerful and time saving Adobe illustrator text tools every DIY designer should know about1/17/2017 *My posts often contain affiliate links so that I am able to share my favorite products with my favorite people! There's no other program that gives you more flexibility with letters and text than Adobe Illustrator. (Grab your FREE trial of Illustrator) Illustrator is a vector based software so you never have to worry about sizing and resolution because when you create a vector piece of artwork you can enlarge it as much as you want and it will never lose it's clarity. I wanted to take a moment and talk thru 3 very powerful and very useful text tools within Illustrator that will help you be more creative, less frustrated and save loads of time with your designs! *this post contains affiliate links Adding fonts from Typekit This feature is a fairly new addition with in the Creative Cloud Suite. I've used it a lot though so I'm adding it to this list! I do have a very extensive font library but there have been certain instances that I have to look beyond my library and the first place I check is Typekit. You can find Typekit under the TYPE menu in Illustrator. Your web browser will open and you will be directed to the Typekit font library. As you can see below it's very neatly organized by different types of fonts. They have plans that range from $0-$100 and the higher the plan the more fonts you get access to. I have only used the free plan but I've been pleasantly surprised by the selection. Find Font This little gem of a tool has multiple benefits and has saved me loads of time over the course of my design career. Too bad I didn't realize it's full potential until about a year ago (don't judge!) Have you ever created a large, text heavy design, and then near the end you decide you dislike your font choice but leave it because you don't want to go back and change every single line of text? I have! Or maybe you had to work on a design created by someone else so you are missing fonts and needed to replace them with your own fonts? You're going to want to head back up to the TYPE menu and click on FIND FONT. This magical menu will appear... The first list of fonts is showing you the name(s) of every font that is currently used in your document. If you are missing any font files that are currently being used they will have a little warning triangle next to them so you know you are missing the font. Do you see in the menu where it says "Replace With Font From:"? Make sure you have that set to "System". Then it's just a matter of selecting a font from the top menu that you want to replace with a font from the bottom menu. Once you have both fonts selected just hit the "Change All" button and VIOLA! Illustrator will find and replace which ever font(s) you need in the matter of seconds. Your welcome!!! :) Outlining Fonts This feature is again, exactly like it sounds. Go ahead and type something out on a blank page, go up to your TYPE menu and choose "Create Outlines" (make sure your type is selected). Your font will suddenly become a graphic with adjustable points and curves. The great part about this tool is that after you outline text, the actual font file is not longer needed on your system, or anyone else's for that matter. So you can share art files without sending font files and worrying about licenses and all that jazz. The downfall is that, once it's outlined, it's no longer editable as text. Meaning, you will no longer be able to highlight your letters and re-type them. Just make sure you won't need to change anything before you outline it or save an non-outlined version off to the side of your artboard. That's what I do! Next time your inside Illustrator make sure and give these work horses a try. Once you start using them you'll wonder how you ever got by without them! You might also enjoy...
1 Comment
Nushani
3/31/2021 11:48:03 pm
Thank you so much mam.
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Erin GipfordI am destined to help people save time and work smarter by using the best design software on the market, Adobe Creative Cloud. I have over 21 years as a professional graphic designer. I'm excited to share my wealth of knowledge! Categories
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