10 Useful Typography Tips For Adobe

Illustrator

Typography is not only an all-important aspect of design, it is also an art form in and of
itself. Choosing the right font, the perfect spacing and even the correct shape of text can
be an important factor as to whether a project fails or succeeds. Although
Illustrator is not really used for multiple-paged projects, many would agree that it is one
of the most powerful applications for creating vector graphics, such as logos, and it is
also often used for one-page documents, such as business cards, posters, or postcards.

Since we can easily transfer graphics from Illustrator to Photoshop and

InDesign, designers often use Illustrator to create vector type that they can
then incorporate into projects in another program. For instance, you can create a nice
type design within Illustrator, then add some extra effects in Photoshop. Or you may
need to design a text illustration within Illustrator to place within your brochure project
in InDesign.

If you have never taken the time to explore the type side of Illustrator, you may be surprised at
the powerful tools that Illustrator provides for working with type. Similar text features found in
Photoshop and InDesign are also available in Illustrator — only Illustrator comes with its own
unique set of typographical features as well. So for those of you who use another Adobe Suite
program, you will easily catch on to Illustrator’s type idiosyncrasies.

No matter what your purpose for working with type in Illustrator is, as a designer, you
will not only improve your work, but also save valuable time by knowing the different
typographical tools available. Here, we will focus on some of the most important aspects
of typography that every Illustrator user should know:

1. Metric vs. Optical Kerning

2. Roman Hanging Punctuation
3. The Glyphs Panel
4. Hyphens and Dashes
5. Styles Panels
6. Placing Type on a Path
7. Point Type vs. Area Type
8. Creating Columns of Text
9. Text Flow Between Containers
10. Scaling Area Type Numerically
1. Metric Vs. Optical Kerning

Kerning is an important aspect of design. It has to do with the adjustment of space

between letters in order to improve the visual treatment of typography, and Illustrator
provides the right kerning tools for designers. In more recent versions of Illustrator’s CS
series, three automatic kerning options are available: “Auto” (also known as metric),
“Optical” and “Metrics – Roman Only.” In addition, manual kerning is available. All
have their place in design, but knowing which one to use when can be confusing without
some basic knowledge.

Auto, or metrics, kerning is built into type using kern pairs; for instance, all PostScript
fonts have kern pairs built into them. Illustrator interprets this kerning code to determine
how much space to put between certain letter combinations, such as “WA,” “LA,” “To”
and “Ty.”

Optical kerning is also an automatic kerning option built into type but slightly different
than the Auto option. It uses the shapes of the letters to determine the space to put
between characters. Optical kerning works well when combining letters of more than
one font or when a font has little to no kerning built in. Use manual kerning where
possible, since it provides the highest level of control. Most often, though, one would
use manual kerning only in display copy, headlines, business cards and other short
blocks of text.

The “Metrics – Roman Only” option, which was added into Illustrator in the CS4
version, is for Japanese typography. This option adds kerning only to Roman glyphs or
any character that rotates in vertical text. Basically, it works with Latin characters, such
as Basic Latin or Latin Extended, and the half-width Katakana. To switch to Optical
kerning, first select the text you wish to change. Then, under the Characters palette
(Window → Type → Character), click on the Kerning drop-down menu. Then select
“Optical.”
Or, if you would like to manually kern letters yourself, place the cursor between two
letters, and choose a value in the Character palette:

To turn off kerning between selected characters, set it to “0”:

Keep in mind that to adjust the value between entire groups of letters, you will have to
use the tracking settings in the Character palette. The tracking is adjusted in the drop-
down menu located to the right of the Kerning drop-down menu. Hover your mouse over
the menu to see “Set the tracking for the selected characters,” as in the screenshot below:

Illustrator’s default kerning is “Auto,” so simply select this if you would like to turn it
back on.
Useful Tip: One excellent way to save yourself some time while designing is to use
Illustrator’s keyboard shortcuts to change manual kerning and tracking settings. To
change the kerning between two characters, simply place the cursor between the two
letters. Then use Alt/Option + left/right arrow. The kerning will decrease with
Alt/Option + left arrow and increase with Alt/Option + right arrow.

To change the tracking for an entire group of letters, first select the letters you want to
change. As with kerning, use Alt/Option + left arrow to decrease tracking and
Alt/Option + right arrow to increase tracking.

2. Roman Hanging Punctuation

Roman hanging punctuation will give your blocks of text a clean appearance, taking
your typography from amateur to pro. But what exactly is this tool that is hardly talked
about? Turning on the Roman hanging option in Illustrator will make the text line up
evenly by “hanging” quotation marks in the margin. Otherwise, quotations are set flush
with text, within the margin.

To turn on Roman hanging punctuation, open the Paragraph tool panel, and click on the
arrow on the upper right of the box. A drop-down menu will appear in which you can
choose “Roman Hanging Punctuation.”
Keep in mind that you can turn on or off the Roman Hanging Punctuation for entire
blocks of text. Just select the blocks of text and use the same drop-down menu to change
the setting.

3. The Glyphs Panel

Glyphs are any characters found within a font family. The Glyphs panel in Illustrator is
the place to locate font objects, from normal characters to the special symbols. Whatever
font you have selected when you open the glyphs panel is the menu that will be
displayed. Fortunately, you do not have to keep exiting the Glyphs panel every time you
would like to see the glyphs for another font or see glyphs similar to the one you’ve
selected. You can also keep the Glyphs panel open while moving your cursor to different
locations in the document.

To open the Glyphs Panel, go to Window → Type → Glyphs. Click on a glyph to select
it; double-click to insert it in the line of text. Illustrator places the character wherever
your blinking text cursor is located.
Hover your mouse over glyphs to see the Unicode (the name given to each character in
the Glyphs panel); the Unicode is displayed at the top of the panel. Once you have found
the glyph you would like to use, simply double-click on the character to insert it into
your current project.

To see a different font, simply choose a different family and style from the drop-down
boxes at the bottom of the panel.
To see the glyphs in a larger or smaller preview display, click on the zoom in and out
buttons located in the lower-right corner of the panel.
In the “Show” menu at the top of the panel, you can limit the type of characters
displayed in that font; for instance, “Oldstyle Figures.”

You might notice that some characters in a font include an arrow in the lower-right
corner of the character box in the Glyphs panel. This arrow indicates that alternate
glyphs are available for this character. To access these alternates, simply click and hold
the character. Drag your cursor over the alternate glyph you would like to use, and
release the mouse. The glyph should now be inserted in the text.
Illustrator's Type Tool: A Comprehensive
Introduction
A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from
throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Ian Yates was first
published on October 4th 2008.

Type is an essential part of Illustrator; whether you're desktop publishing, designing

logos, or using type for image building, you'll be reaching for the Type Tool. This guide
comprehensively covers the essentials of what is a huge amount of Illustrator
functionality, which is type.

Functions

 Type Tool: Click on the artboard to begin a Point Text object, alternatively click and
drag, or click on a Closed Path to create an Area Type object.

 Area Type Tool: Click on a Closed Path to create an Area Type object, which constrains
text within that path.

 Type on a Path Tool: Click on a path to constrain text along that path.

 Vertical Type Tool: Click on the artboard to begin a Point Text object with vertically
flowing text.
  Vertical Area Type Tool: Click on a Closed Path to create an Area Type object containing
vertically flowing text.

 Vertical Type on a Path Tool: Click on a path to constrain vertically flowing text along
that path.

Keyboard Shortcuts

 Select the Type Tool (T)

 Show/Hide Character Panel (Command + T)
 Show/Hide Open Type Panel (Alt + Shift + Command + T)
 Show/Hide Paragraph Panel (Alt + Command + T)
 Show/Hide Tabs Panel (Shift + Command + T)
 Create Outlines (Shift + Command + O)
 Show/Hide Hidden Characters (Alt + Command + I)

Cursors

 Prepared to place type on artboard

 Prepared to place an Area Type object

 Prepared to place Type on a Path

 Prepared to place vertically flowing type on the artboard

 Prepared to place a vertically flowing Area Type object

  Prepared to place vertically flowing Type on a Path

 Direct Selection cursor prepared to place a linked container for flowing text

 Direct Selection cursor prepared to place a linked Area Type object for flowing
text

 Direct Selection cursor prepared to edit end handles on a Type Path.

 Direct Selection cursor prepared to edit central handle on a Type Path.

 In the process of typing (blinking cursor)

Keyboard Controls

1. Hold Shift whilst Type tool is selected to switch between vertical and horizontal
orientation.
2. Press Esc whilst Typing to release from Type object. Selection tool is chosen and Type
object remains selected.

The Panels

Type is a huge part of what Illustrator does and as a result the list of options for defining
text is immense. The most appropriate panels when working on text-based documents
can be revealed by going to Window > Workspace > [Type]. This default workspace
will give you all the essential type-editing panels. Further panels can be found under
Window > Type, and the most crucial are listed below with brief descriptions.

The Character Panel (Window > Type > Character)

Your text-editing work-horse. Here you can alter the appearance of your type, character
by character. Here are some useful terms found in the Character panel :

 Font family (self-explanatory, in this case Myriad Pro)

 Font style (version of the font such as Regular, Bold, Light, Condensed etc.)
 Leading (line-height)
 Kerning (spacing between two characters)
 Tracking (character spacing across a selection)
 Horizontal scale (character width)
 Vertical scale (character height)
 Baseline shift (height of baseline upon which text sits)
 Character rotation (rotation in degrees of specified characters)
The Paragraph Panel (Window > Type > Paragraph)

All your basic options for defining paragraphs (sections of text separated by line breaks).
Options here include indentation, alignment, and spacing above and below paragraphs.

Also worth noting is the Hyphenation option. When selected this allows words to be
hyphenated (-) should they be too long for the text area and need wrapping to the
following line. Where exactly the words become hyphenated is defined by the current
selected language (see Character Panel). Make sure therefore that if you choose
Hyphenation that the selected language corresponds with the language of the text.

The Open Type Panel (Window > Type > Open Type)

This Panel is used to define how you wish to display alternate Open Type characters
within your document. Alternative characters available for the selected font family can
be seen in the Glyphs Panel (see below).
The Glyph Panel (Window > Type > Glyphs)

The Glyphs Panel displays alternative characters available for any given font. With the
type cursor prepared for typing on your artboard, click on a glyph to insert it into your
document. This panel allows different sized thumbnails for ease of viewing, selection
menu to display only certain glyphs, and drop-down menus for alternatives.

The Character Styles Panel (Window > Type > Character Styles)

Invaluable when building a document with recurring styles. In the same way that
InDesign uses defined styles and CSS defines element styles, here you can predefine
styles to apply to multiple instances of type. For example, you have a header which you
set to 18pt, Bold, and underlined.

Use the New Character Style from the panel submenu and set these attributes as a style.
Future instances of text to which you apply this style will adopt this appearance. Should
you edit the style with Redefine Character Style, then all text instances with the style
will be automatically updated.
The Paragraph Styles Panel (Window > Type > Paragraph Styles)

This acts in the same way as the Character Styles Panel but (obviously) applies styles to
paragraphs.

The Tabs Panel (Window > Type > Tabs)

Whilst text is selected, open this panel to have it appear directly above your text. Add
and edit tabs applying immediate results on the selected text.

The Type Toolbar

Simple, yet effective. All your fundamental type options are on the toolbar above your
artboard. (Paragraph alignment options shown here apply to vertically orientated text as
the vertical type tool is currently selected.)
Preferences

Go to Illustrator > Preferences > Type. Listed here are some of the more important
options under the Type Preferences dialogue:

 Size / Leading (line-height)

 Tracking (character spacing across a selection)
 Baseline shift (height of baseline upon which text sits)
 Type object selection by path only (allows selection of type only by clicking on the
object's path, not the text)
 Number of Recent Fonts (determines how many recently used fonts are shown under
Type > Recent Fonts for quick selection
 Font Preview (determines whether or not font previews are displayed under Type >
Font and at what size)

Go to Illustrator > Preferences > Hyphenation. Just as explained under The Paragraph
Panel this determines the base language of your text for hyphenation purposes.
Exceptions are also allowed, which won't be hyphenated when text wrapping is needed.
In this example, Vectortuts and Tutorial are made exempt from hyphenation.
Other Hints and Tips
Text Flow Between Containers

With the Direct Selection Tool, click on the small red cross icon on an Area Type Object
(this appears when text is too large for the container). Clicking again on the artboard will
create a container of equal dimensions, clicking and dragging will create a container of
whatever dimensions you determine. Your text will automatically flow between the
newly linked containers.
Deleting Empty Type Objects

Go to Object > Path > Clean Up and select Empty Text Paths to remove unwanted
empty type objects which may have slipped your attention.

Handling Type on a Path

Use the Direct Selection tool to edit handle positions along a Type Path. Handles affect
start points, end points, position, and the baseline (whether above or below a path). Use
the central handle to flip the baseline or go to Type > Type On A Path > Type On A Path
Options, select Flip, and click OK.

Conclusion

The Type functionality which Illustrator offers is a massive topic. This guide gives a
comprehensive introduction to the type tools. Play around with the many options on
offer and watch out for further type tutorials on Tuts+!
30 Free Handwriting Fonts Every
Designer Should Own
 Freebies
 06 August 2012
 28 Comments

Out of the array of decorative fonts available on the web handwritten fonts are
absolutely the most useful. For me finding that exact style of handwriting I was looking
for has always been time consuming, so I put together this roundup of the best hand
drawn fonts I could find. In this collection you’re sure to find a style to match your
project, download them all for free or bookmark this page for future reference.

Amatic
Architects Daughter

Halo Handletter
Daniel

Skinny
GoodDog

Lauren C. Brown
Jenna Sue

Aenigma Scrawl
Rabiohead

Gunny Handwriting
VincHand

Whatever it takes
Gapstown

KG Seven Sixteen
Blokletters

Angelina
Throw my hands up in the air

Jinky
Hand of Sean

Journal
Another

Windsor Hand
Talking to the Moon

Worstveld Sling
Mixtape Mike

Idolwild
Ampersand

Note This
Faraco Hand (As used on Blog.SpoonGraphics!)