Overview

In This Chapter

• Uncovering why Illustrator has so much type stuff

• Understanding type terms

• Mixing fonts effectively

• Measuring type

• Spacing out lines of type

• Changing the space between letters

• Stretching and squishing type

• Aligning type to one side or another

• Creating type on a path

• Making type flow within shapes

• Making type flow around shapes

• Linking text blocks together

• Changing the path, not the type

• Using type as a mask

• Turning type into paths

Type is undoubtedly one of Illustrator’s strongest areas. All the things that Illustrator does best — logos, advertisements, posters, Web-page graphics — depend on text and typography. Many Illustrator features interact with type in some way; and the program’s type capabilities are pretty straightforward after you know where they are and what they can do.

In this chapter, I talk about Illustrator type. (If you’re already familiar with controlling type in Microsoft Word or some other piece of word-processing software, you’re already familiar with many of these terms.) To ease the journey, this chapter covers locating the Illustrator controls — and deciphering the Illustrator way of doing things. Finally, I describe how to get the most out of type and how to turn Illustrator from a glorified word-processor into an astounding type-modifying tool that can do just about anything to type, such as put it on irregularly shaped paths, wrap it around objects, give it an irregular shape, and put objects in it — and that’s just for openers.