Type Tool & Working with Fonts

Introduction to Type Tool

• The Type Tool allows you to add text (shortcut: 'T'). Before typing, you can set font, font style, and size in the Properties Panel;
• Point Type: clicking once creates text that keeps expanding to the right as you type;
• Area Type: clicking and dragging creates a text box, where text is confined to the area. Overflow text shows a plus icon, indicating more text outside the box;
• Linking Text Boxes: double-click the plus icon to automatically create a new linked text box for the overflow text, allowing the text to flow between boxes;
• Area Type Tool: enables typing within a shape, filling it with text;
• Type On A Path Tool: allows text to follow along a path (such as a curve). You can adjust the path using anchor points or handles, and the text will follow the adjusted path;
• Vertical Type Tool: writes text vertically (from top to bottom) instead of horizontally;
• Vertical Area Type Tool: works similarly to the Area Type Tool, but the text is oriented vertically inside the shape;
• Vertical Type On A Path Tool: combines vertical type with type on a path, where the text follows the path in a vertical orientation;
• Touch Type Tool: allows you to manipulate individual characters within a word or sentence (rotate, resize, reposition) without affecting other characters;
• For vertically oriented text, if the letters appear sideways, go to Paragraph Options in the Properties Panel and switch to "Adobe Single-line Composer" or "Adobe Every-line Composer" to correct the orientation.

Character Settings

• The Character Settings Panel can be accessed from the Properties Panel or as a separate panel via Window > Type > Character;
• Choose the font and its style (e.g., bold, medium, light). You can preview changes by hovering over the options. Other settings include:
  • Leading: controls the space between lines of text. You can manually increase or decrease the space or select "Auto";
  • Kerning: adjusts the space between specific letters. It only affects the spacing between two selected characters;
  • Tracking: controls the overall spacing between letters in the entire text block, affecting both letters and words;
• Additional Options (accessible via the three dots in the character settings) include:
  • Vertical & Horizontal Scale: stretches the text vertically or horizontally, distorting its appearance;
  • Baseline Shift: adjusts the position of the text relative to the baseline;
  • Character Rotation: rotates individual characters;
  • All Caps: converts text to uppercase letters;
  • Small Caps: converts text to small uppercase letters;
  • Superscript/Subscript: raises or lowers text relative to the baseline (e.g., for scientific notation);
  • Underline/Strikethrough: adds an underline or a line through the text.

Paragraph Settings

• Paragraph settings work best with area type, so convert the text to area type before making adjustments;
• Text alignment options:
  • Align left, center, or right;
  • Justify left, center, right, or justify all lines;
• Additional settings (via the three dots) include:
  • Bullet points & numbering: add bullet points or numbering and adjust their style (e.g., dot, dash, small circle);
  • Indentation: adjust indentation for specific lines or the whole paragraph (e.g., indent from the left, right, or first line);
  • Spacing: control spacing before and after paragraphs;
  • Hyphenation: toggle hyphenation on or off for breaking words at the end of lines;
• Area type alignment options:
  • Align text to the top, center, or bottom of the text area;
  • Stretch text to distribute it evenly across the text area;
• Advanced area type options (via the three dots or Type > Area Type Options) allow you to adjust more advanced settings for text alignment, spacing, and distribution within the text area.
  • Make sure the preview box is checked to see changes in real-time.

Glyphs

• Glyphs are special characters or variations of letters in different fonts and languages. They can include symbols, icons, or alternate letter forms;
• Glyphs have invisible boundaries (x-height, baseline, and glyph bounds) that act like guides (Snap to Glyphs);
• You can snap objects or lines to these glyph bounds for precise alignment in your designs;
• There are several snapping points:
  • Baseline (bottom of the letters);
  • X-height (top of lowercase letters);
  • Glyph bounds (absolute top, bottom, left, and right bounds of letters);
• Angular snapping allows you to snap objects at angles relative to the glyphs;
• You can access the Glyphs Panel from Window > Type > Glyphs to browse and use special characters;
• You can choose glyphs from a font, change font styles, or view alternates for specific selected letters. The Wingdings font is a good example that contains symbols and icons instead of letters;
• In the Properties Panel under Snap to Glyphs, you can enable or disable snapping to specific boundaries such as the baseline, x-height, glyph bounds, and angular glyphs;
• You can also toggle anchor points for more accurate snapping to specific parts of letters.

Tabs and Styles

• Tabs allow you to adjust the space when you press the Tab key. Instead of default spaces, you can customize the amount of space each tab creates;
• To do this, go to Window > Type > Tabs, align the tab ruler to the text using the magnet icon, and click on the ruler to create tab stops;
• You can create multiple tab stops at different points, allowing the tab key to jump to specific positions;
• To clear all tabs, use the "Clear All Tabs" option in the menu;
• Character Styles capture and store text formatting such as font, style, color, size, and more, allowing you to easily apply the same formatting to other text;
• To create a character style, select the text, go to Window > Type > Character Styles, click the plus icon to create a new style, and the formatting will be saved;
• You can access Character Style Options for more advanced formatting like kerning, leading, tracking, underline, and even open-type features. The preview option shows changes in real-time;
• Paragraph Styles allow you to save and apply formatting to entire paragraphs, including character styles, justification, bullet points, indentation, and spacing;
• To create a paragraph style, go to Window > Type > Paragraph Styles, select the paragraph, and click the plus icon to save the formatting. In Paragraph Style Options, you can adjust tabs, hyphenation, justification, bullets, numbering, and more;
• Both Character and Paragraph Styles can be imported from external sources for collaboration or complex projects.

Practice

Here are the new techniques that we mentioned in the video:

• Text Wrapping: to wrap text around a subject, create a shape, then apply "Text Wrap" from the Object menu. adjust the text wrap settings to control spacing and positioning;
• Text on Path: use the ellipse tool to create circular text. Then adjust the text's position and flip it using the "Type on Path" options;
• Clipping Mask with Text: to clip an image inside text, convert the text to outlines (turning it into shapes), ungroup, and make a compound path. Then apply a clipping mask to integrate the image within the text;

By the way, you can download lots of free fonts from both Google and Adobe (if you have a license) using these links if you want to use them in your projects: Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts.